gaming PC for my son. please review.

[Mehta23]

Feeling happy I got my backup hard drive from OCUK now :-P

[george1979]

I haven't heard great things bout Scan so would be looking at overclockersuk and dabs, you pay the price for going cheap and not getting the service expected

Seriously? I've heard almost nothing but good things. I've always had great service from them. Dabs, Aria and Ebuyer I've used to a lesser extent but they've all been good. I would also consider using an ATX board and case. Using mATX boards and cases is just making life more difficult for yourself, especially as a 1st time builder. Should also be cheaper.

I would get trade off getting a more powerful processor now at the expense of the graphics card. I say this purely because the gfx card is a lot less hassle to upgrade later when you have the cash. Plus you'll be able to flog the old one on gumtree or ebay.
A mid range GFX card will still allow him to play his games at reduced settings but even on medium settings most games still look really good.
Spend the money to get a half decent quad core chip now and update the gfx later (unless you'd be happy to pull it apart to upgrade the CPU later).

[Biscuit]

Had several 2.5 inch drives (SSD and spinny) off ebuyer - all superbly packaged.

Was that recently? Perhaps they have improved but when I got them they were just in a plastic case, loose in a large box (with other items) and no additional bubble wrap or packing material to stop them moving around. IIRC I ordered a few and had to return one as DOA. could have been a coincidence mind.

[supermum]

[QUOTE=CAT-THE-FIFTH;2889509]Is that without an OS??

The build in the OP comes to around £375 to £400 when you include Windows 7.

This is without the OS and I'm prepared to pay 400 if I need to for a good computer with OS.

So what could you recommend as a build for this kind of money???

[Willzzz]

What you started with in your first post looks just fine, although I'd swap the graphics card out with this one:

http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphir...86380000&src=2

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its quite a tight budget TBH,but CCL Computers do sell some OEM FSP PSUs:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...-oem-psus.html

The PSU is an FSP460-60HCN. The 400W version runs my mates server/Steambox with an Athlon II X3 455 and pre-overclocked HD7700 fine.

They are actually not too bad and are probably better than a number of PSUs used in a number of prebuilt PCs. A number seem to use the new Corsair VS series which look rather uninspiring TBH.





You can get cashback too:

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ebuyer/

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/novatech/

The motherboard has 4 RAM slots and the case can take longer graphics cards.

Edit!!

I would probably extend the budget and get the following if possible:

http://www.ebuyer.com/245671-antec-5...761345-06205-3

http://www.ebuyer.com/409191-amd-fx-...-fd6300wmhkbox

It does add another £50 to the budget but gives you a better base specification IMHO,and give you more leeway if your son gets a faster graphics card.

[Willzzz]

The 7770 from dabs comes with Sleeping Dogs and Hitman in addition to FC3.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ah,didn't see that!!

Dabs has cashback too:

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dabs/

[supermum]

Thanks for the recommendation.
I'll take a look
He's VERY excited!

[Mehta23]

He should be. I didn't realise how good / cheap the 7770 actually was