New Gaming Rig...

hello! i am looking for some advice on buying a new gaming rig. i have looked at a few options, starting with dell, and quite frankly im confused. so i'll keep what i want simple and hopefully someone who knows their stuff will reply with some advice for me

ok.. so i have about £1200 available to spend. this is semi-flexible but only by a hundred pounds or so. I could do with a monitor but i do have one so that could wait til i have some more cash. So what im basically looking for is a gaming box that can play BF2 on full settings, and play the new games. I want to buy asap so im hoping that for this price there is an easy solution. The box will mainly be used for games but also for general stuff. I looked at MESH computers and they seem pretty good.. but again im not sure which one to go for, what processor, what gfx card etc. i really dont much know what i need for the new games.

someone please give me an easy solution so i can buy and start playing in the next week!

im giving serious thought to getting this from MESH:

Intel® Pentium® D Processor 950 Dual Core
HT Tech.(3.4GHz ,2x 2MB Cache, 800MHz)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center
ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe Mainboard
2048MB DDR2 Memory 533MHz
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
256MB nVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT Graphics
Dual DVI,HDTV & TV Out PCI Express
20" Viewsonic VA-2012 Widescreen with
DVI & 8ms response time + built in Speakers
Sony 16x Dual Layer DVD Writer
Creative Labs Sounblaster Audigy 4 ZS
T6060 or T3330 Speakers + Subwoofer

i could upgrade the gfx to 512mb 7900GTX, but i would then have to lose the monitor and just use what i have now until next month

please let me know your thoughts :)

I take it that your after a ready built and configured system? My advice would be to wait until some of the Core 2 Duo based gaming rigs come to market as the Core 2 Duo shows exceptionally well in games, whereas the Pentium D is officially old tech now (I have to say I wasnt a fan when it was current tech!) and they are outperformed by AMD's Athlon 64 X2 chips, which are cheaper too, though concurrently, they are outperformed by Intel's Core 2 Duo chips, though with Core 2 you pay a premium for the lastest tehcnology the performance justifys it.

I wouldnt buy a computer from Dell, the only Dell product that i've used and liked is thier Axim X51v PDA which I use, it's not perfect but neither are the competition in the PDA space! Check out some of the specialist PC suppliers and builders, such as Scan's 3XS range.

also look at goign down the athlon route. they are deemed alot better for gaming. also u thought bout building it urself instead of buying it pre built? good choice of monitor also they are rated quite highly. have u looked at the scan website? www.scan.co.uk. the system u recomended is good but i would personaly chnage to athlon. but other ppl may say differently.

Most people don't post this kind of thing in here so maybe it should be moved to hexus.hardstuff but i'll leave that to a mod.

Anyway here's my 2 cents. I would suggest that you take a look at scan's website for their systems, i have one from them and it is superb plus their technical and customer support is second to none.

As for the above system its ok but could be a lot better. The current high end processor is the intel core2 duo, most people seem to recommend the E6600, but stock is hard to find so you would have to wait. If you want a system now then i would recommend getting a system based around either an AMD socket 939 or socket AM2 processor. AMD processors are currently good value for money since they have just reduced prices by a significant amount an AM2 5000+ is currently around £220 for that you get a dual core processor - 2.6Ghz per core, i paid more than that 4 months since for a dual core 2.2Ghz processor.

If games are what the system is for get the best graphics card you can as the graphics card is currently what limits game performance the most, the current top end cards are the 7950GTX from nvidia or the 1900XTX from ATI, personally i would opt for the 1900XTX.

I'll try to come up with a decent spec in a few mins that you could build yourself or find a similar system from scan or wherever.

If i was building a machine currently this is roughly what i would get, this is just the base unit so no monitor, keyboard etc. I would probably get some rounded cables too if i was building myself.

LN14253 AMD AM2 Athlon 64 5000+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.6GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail £189.89 £223.12

LN12976 512MB Sapphire Radeon X1900 XTX PCI-E (x16) Mem 1550 MHz , GPU 650 MHz ,48 Pipes VIVO £294.00 £345.45

LN12201 2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5 £102.54 £120.48

LN14259 ASUS M2N-SLI-DLX NF570 SLI, Socket AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £82.19 £96.57

LN8248 SilverStone "TEMJIN" J05B (BLACK) Aluminum front & SECC Body (w/o PSU) £63.49 £74.60

LN11320 530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU £55.89 £65.67

LN8448 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition Software *OEM single* £62.89 £73.90

LN13122 200 Gb Seagate ST3200827AS Barracuda 7200.9, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.0 ms £45.35 £53.29

LN7120 Mitsumi FA404M 1.44 Black FDD+Int USB2 7 in 1 Card Reader (SM/MMC/SD/CF/MD/MS) Fits in 3.5" FDD Bay £11.59 £13.62

LN13362 Samsung SH-S162A/BEBN Black 16x16 & -RAM ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK £18.88 £22.18

Anyway hope this helps

Andy

Edit: all the above is from www.scan.co.uk and comes to a total of £1,106.51 inc VAT and delivery

thanks for the quick responses!

im not sure that a core 2 duo and a top end gpu is realistic in my price range, ive been looking at the scan boxes and things are getting quite expensive when you start to add stuff

i really cant go above £1400, but i have a monitor/keyboard/mouse etc that can keep me going til next month so i dont neccesarily need those included in that price.

ive thought about building my own but it kinda scares me and i dont really have the time/patience for it at the moment. The height of my hardware experience is installing a pci card or some ram or somethin :p

so what im really looking for is something to buy now for about 1400. theres always the potential for upgrades when i get some more money, but i really want something now so i can go shoot stuff. bearing in mind my current setup is a 2.6ghz p4 (i think) with a radeon 9500 pro and 512mb of RDRAM, anything will beat that!

thats a pretty nice looking setup there andy... im almost persuaded .. how easy is it to build your own?
i'd certainly end up with a better box at the end of it for the price

What monitor do you have mate?

You will be drowned with 1900XTs and 7900GTs but if you only have a 17/19/15 TFT/CRT then they wont be used to their full potiential. Maybe a 20inch Widescreen is good for you? It will certainly fit in your budget.

Scan 3XS systems or MESH are the way to go in terms of building by yourself, but I will give you a spec from OCuk (because its the easiest) to give you something to aim for, or what you should be getting for your money.

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£214.95 £214.95
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£94.95 £94.95
MY-012-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA) (MY-012-GS)
£99.95 £99.95
GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£199.95 £199.95
HD-032-SA Samsung SpinPoint T HD300LJ 300GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-032-SA)
£59.95 £59.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
£26.95 £26.95
SC-043-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM (SC-043-CL)
£48.50 £48.50
CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL)
£47.95 £47.95
CA-001-SS Seasonic S12 500W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-001-SS)
£64.95 £64.95
MO-052-VS Viewsonic VX2025wm 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-052-VS)
£249.95 £249.95
Subtotal £1,108.05
VAT £193.91
Total £1,301.96

That leaves £100 for your DVD rom drives and such and also some fans + a keyboard if you want one.

again a nice setup.. i dont think i will find that for that price unless i build it myself though

perhaps to build myself is the answer, but how easy is it? how commonly do things go wrong? im pretty good at following instructions but if something went wrong i wouldnt have a clue what it might be

20" widescreen sounds nice :)

Its pretty much like lego :D, if you follow the instructions to the letter, not much can go wrong. But when i bought my system i was spending too much money to risk building it myself, so i got scan to build it. I think it cost an extra £150 over what the components cost, but for that i got a very well put together system, 1 year onsight warranty, and their customer service and after sales support really is superb, i can't recommend them highly enough. So in my opinion it was worth the extra money.

yeh its pretty siemple. kasaviens spec is a good one.

well 150 seems very good if they put it all together and test it for you.

i am seriously considering cutting and pasting kasaviens reccomendations and emailing it to scan and have them build it for me. is there anything else i should consider? the duo 2 processor doesnt seem to be that much more expensive, is it worth paying extra? or would it be a long wait? i really want to get going with this in the next week. also is it worth upgrading the ram to twinx? the case looks pretty sexy i might have gone for one with a window but i dont supppose it matters that much. could u reccomend a slightly larger hdd, maybe 300 or 400 gb. also at this price i can afford to include a monitor now, so could someone reccomend a 20" widescreen or something similar. i think thats everything. to be honest i dont want to sit and faff around with the details would rather get it ordered if everyone agrees im getting the right package!

not to forget a soundcard too!

basically my max price limit is 1200 excl VAT so about 1400 all inc.

it would be nice if i could include a monitor in for that price, although if the gain in other areas is great enough i guess that could wait

also i'd probaly go for xp pro.. i dont know whats special about media centre and i tend to watch dvds and stuff on my tv. though with a 20" widescreen that might change

iv been using on board sound for the past 3 years, and its never been a problem for me. i'd say its worth it as you're saving anything more than 20 quid.

kasaviens specced up a really nice machine, but i'd just go with XP home if ur just using it for gaming and stuff, and change the silverstone case for a cheaper one, you can pick up a decent case for about 40-50 quid. that should save you another 50 or so:)

i have spoken to scan and they said that they do not provide the option of building a system from scratch and that i would need to select one of their 3xs systems.

however i cant find one with the spec provided by kasavien :(

all seem to be socket 939

is athlon fx better ?

the scan systems are arranged so that only the really high-end ones have the option of the best gpu's

the entry level panther has a 7950 GX2 but the ram is 400mhz which is a bit slow right?

im confused again lol

i'd rather not build my own if i can avoid it purely because ive got a feeling i'll mess it up and end up with a pile of transistors :p

The 7950 GX2 is basically the best Graphics Card you can get at the moment.

Reading this thread I'd really advise you building your own rig; it's not hard, and you can much better components for the price. The sum of money you wish to spend is just right for self builds, as at that price range companies tend to have a big service charge and not so good components. If you don't feel confident building yourself you could get a mate to help? Or buy all the bits and see how much a local computer shop would charge to put it together.

Of course, this depends on if you reaaaaaly reaaaaaaaaly don't want to build it yourself, or not. Personally, my first build was a cheap office computer, followed closely by an expensive gaming machine, and taking my time, following instructions and having a bit of background knowledge saw me through fine. If it doesn't work, chances are it's a faulty part, as opposed to something you've done wrong.

check this out :

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ConfigureSystem.asp?SystemID=469

seems a decent price? only thing that concerns is the ram:

2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 3 (£114.32)
2GB (2X1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR, PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 2-3-3-6 (£124.32) add £10.00

and the processor (any of these any good? ):

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Socket 939 ,Manchester ,2x 2.0 GHz ,1MB Cache, Retail (£89.99)
AMD Athlon 64 4400+ Socket 939 ,Toledo ,2x 2.2 GHz ,2MB Cache, Retail (£139.95) add £49.96
AMD Athlon 64 4600+ Socket 939 ,Manchester ,2x 2.4 GHz ,1MB Cache, Retail (£139.89) add £49.90


maybe the answer is to build it myself. i would be better doing it myself than with a mate, none of my mates know much about building computers

so say i buy all the components, whats next after that ? is there a decent guide somewhere or how do u go about doing somethin like this..

When i bought my pc from scan, i emailed them with the what i required the system to do which was to play games :P and a list of the components that i had to havem, they took this and drew up a spec based around one of their 3XS systems, anything i wanted changing i emailed them about and they changed the spec and the price accordingly, i think it took about 5 emails to get it right :P

They do do AM2 machines but the one they have listed is very high end, they also have intel core duo systems which would be better than any current AMD system, the wait would be longer though. If you could get one i would suggest getting one based around the E6600 processor.

The FX processors that AMD do are the top of the range processors, and there is often a hefty pricetag on them.

Your best bet now would be to email scan with the spec you would like or maybe post on their forums saying that you would like to look into gettig a 3XS system, and i'm sure one of their people would be more than glad to follow that up. Originally i submitted an OLQ at this link here -> http://web6.scan.co.uk/Support/Query.ASP?QueryType=S which is their sales support online query thing.

Hope all this helps

Andy

The only benefit of getting the Twinx ram is when it comes to overclocking, if i was in your situation i would get the value select.

Edit 1:You don't have to get a system that is strictly configured according to the website, that is just a guide, they will be more than happy to swap in components you ask for, at least they were with me.

Edit2: If you are going to build yourself the motherboard comes with a manual basically telling you how to put it all together. If you have any questions there are people on these forums that are more than happy to help. corsair did a very good guide which can be found here -> http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=2 although the compnents are a bit outdated.

Edit 3: Out of the processors you listed above get the 4600+ if its within budget.

Edit 4: The max speed of DDR ram is 400mhz some is rated at 500mhz but that is only needed for overclocking. DDR2 is faster and the different types are rated up to 1066Mhz i think. DDR2 is only compatable with either the AM2 processor or the intel core duo, DDR is only compatable with the socket 939 system. But note that the performance difference between an AM2 system using DDR2 and a socket 939 system using DDR is negligable, and intel core duo is just a faster processor as its a completely new architecture.

jeez thats a lot of edits :P

yep its all very helpful thanks!

i phoned them and they said they wouldnt do it i'll try emailing them

also, overclockers uk have this rig for £950 incl VAT, what do u think :

- AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego (Socket 939) Dual DDR400 CPU running at 2.8GHz (FX57 Speeds)
- AMD Freezer 64 Pro Approved cooler
- Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire Dual Channel PCI-Express Motherboard
- G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR PC4000 Dual Channel Kit
- 250GB Western Digital 16mb cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
- Plextor PX-755 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
- Black Floppy Drive
- Onboard Sound
- Tagan TG600-U25 600W Dual Engine ATX2.01 SLi Compliant Silent PSU

stay very clear of overclockers, they have a bad rep on this forum for the customer service, they're ok so long as nothing goes wrong

ah ok

i noticed people kept quiet when someone mentioned them earlier :p

do u have any guides on building ur own pc so i can get an idea of the process, and whether i think im up to it

i put a link in one of my edits above but here it is again -> http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=2

hexus had an article on it so it must be ok :D

Edit: i'm off to read a book now :P hope all the above is helpful

man just buy it all from scan and then either do it yourself or get a mate to do it.

scan are so cheap in some cases they are cheaper than our suppliers for where i work :)

yeah scan seems a good place

building urself seems a bit tricky tho
i dunno how u know where the plugs go and which way the screw the motherboard into the case n stuff

Dont get AM2, wait for conroe.

Basically, use my spec :)

problem with waiting is im on holiday pretty soon and i wanted to take the opportunity to become a god of BF2 :p

if im still waiting for parts then i cant do that

suppose i could just go on holiday get ****faced like a normal person :cool:

BF2 is an awesome game! im playing it loads at the mo!!

try playing it on this beast :

p4 2.66, 512mb ram, radeon 7500 pro

not a pretty sight

ok, having given this a bit of thought i have decided i cant be bothered to wait for conroe, and i dont want the hassle right now of building my own. So i will buy a panther from Scan and that should do me fine for the time being. Then when conroe is released and the price has dropped a bit, i will buy a conroe and a new mobo and ram, and install that in my panther. I will also transfer the amd board (from the panther) into my current pc along with the ram and cpu. This will give me a bit of experience in messing around inside pc's, for when i decide to build my own (maybe round vista time? or a bit sooner if funds allow)

im interested to know what u guys think to this idea, but bear in mind im really impatient and my hols are coming soon so i really want a new box to play with! The only other alternative i can think of is to buy a 360 to keep me going until the conroe comes out. But the problem with that is ive never been mad into consoles due to the controls. i can realistically see myself playing with a new pc for a week of my holiday tho!

So heres the panther spec:

Default Products
1 Abit AN8 32X NF4 SLi, S939, PCI-E (x16), DDR 400, SATA I / II, SATA RAID, ATX
1 AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Socket 939 ,Manchester ,2x 2.0 GHz ,1MB Cache, Retail
nVIDIA Graphics
1 1GB XFX GeForce 7950GX2 - IF SELECTING TWO CARDS YOU MUST SELECT 900W PSU!
System Drives
1 250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ


upgrades:

there are a few things that need upgrading, just need to choose to what:

AMD Athlon 64 4400+ Socket 939 ,Toledo ,2x 2.2 GHz ,2MB Cache, Retail (£139.95) add £49.96
AMD Athlon 64 4600+ Socket 939 ,Manchester ,2x 2.4 GHz ,1MB Cache, Retail (£139.89) add £49.90

monitor

20" Dell 2005FPW TFT ,1680x1050 ,12 ms ,600:1 ,300 cd/m2 ,Grey (£318.89) add £318.89
20" Viewsonic VX2025wm TFT ,1680x1050 ,8 ms ,800:1 ,300 cd/m2 ,Speakers, Silver/Black (£240.99) add £240.99

thinking of adding a mouse too:

Logitech MX518 Silver Gaming-Grade™ Optical Mouse (£27.79) add £27.79
Razer Copperhead Laser Gaming Mouse Tempest Blue LED - USB - 800/2000 dpi, 32KB Memory, Onboard Bios (£39.93) add £39.93
Razer Diamondback Optical Gaming Mouse Plasma Blue LED - USB, 800-1600dpi on the fly (£27.95) add £27.95

or one of these packs:

ZBoard MERC Gaming Keyboard Black (£21.99) add £21.99
Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Curve Design Keyboard Mouse V3 (£27.32) add £27.32
Logitech Ultra-X Cordless Media Desktop Midnight Black (Keyboard+ Optical Mouse) PS2/USB (£26.49) add £26.49
Logitech Cordless Desktop S 510 (£26.49) add £26.49


the MERC looks pretty cool ?

ive held a logitech mouse before and it didnt feel very natural to me, probaly due to years of microsofts, so maybe i should avoid these

i think ive included most of the important upgrades but there are others incl. fan and psu and OS (upgr to xp pro..)

the page is here if anyone wants to look:

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ConfigureSystem.asp?SystemID=469

i await your advice again!

edit: i forgot to mention that the ram seems a bit slow (ddr 400mhz) ... how much of an issue is this? the box will mainly be used for gaming

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ben_

yeah scan seems a good place

building urself seems a bit tricky tho
i dunno how u know where the plugs go and which way the screw the motherboard into the case n stuff

---

mate an idiot could build a pc these days it so easy, and as for screwing in and plugs and stuff, imo i bought a haynes manual ( the ones that do cars) that was building a pc, i mean if you payed me the postage i could send it too you as i dont need it anymore :P

its like an idiots guide to building a pc. is good though i was 15 and built my first with it and worked fine :)

dont u think the panther is good enough for that price tho?

if i was gonna build my own i'd just use this guide:

http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/re...spx?id=2&sid=1

and the motherboard manual

but the panther seems cheap to me? and it would be here with me playing on it by mid next week

its always ALWAYS cheaper to build it yourself. scan dont pay gu7ys to build the macines if there is no mark up on the system, you vcould be playing on a built system by you on weds too, takes about an hour and a half to build a pc, and then you have learnt how to do it, so when u need to change the ram, gfx card ect, u know exactly how and just wack it out. plus its more satifsfying doing it yourself. why [ay some1 money to do a job you can do?

just saw the other thread and they said dispatch is the 14th of august lol so that isnt weds, if you buy all the parts monday u have them tuesday build it weds and then play it thurs and beyond, why are you scared about building one for yourself?

im scared of having no warranty and messing it up somehow. ur right that it would take longer to arrive if i order a box from scan. u think i could build the pc using just this guide here:

http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/re...spx?id=2&sid=1


i dont wanna start buying books and waiting for them to arrive etc, wanna get goin with this straight away

if i build my own i guess i would order the stuff today so could u reccomend a spec for me (of stuff thats available now)

for example the x2 5000+ is out of stock

erm that link doesnt work, man you cant mess things up thess days it really si so easy, and i would just say buy whats in the panther with a differnt case and see how much less it is??

i fixed the link it should work now

that will be fine :D

ok, i looked at the individual prices and its £281.56 cheaper to build myself.. quite a saving, especially when that represents a substantial amount of the total price of all the components.. .

so u think that guide alone would be enough for me to build the box?

only things im unsure about is how you know which way the mobo slots in, and also how u know what to configure in the bios.. seems they had to change latencys and stuff (without overclocking), i dont even know what latency means :p

there would be a big saving tho and it would probaly be quite interesting

if you think i could do it with that guide alone then what components should i go for ? it seems it would make sense to upgrade to AM2, the 5000+ looks good. and what gfx card, mobo, ram etc.. i know bugger all about this stuff so im not aware of what anything means and any compatability issues, so if im gonna build it myself i really need someone to say right, u have 1100 heres what to get

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Monitors.html look at those and diside what you want

thanks i need more than just a monitor tho ;)

hay ben make sure you get a x 1900 xt from oc uk for like £240 under offer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2gb of ram like G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5400 at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ll_Memory.html

looky here dont buy a seprate unit. ok, ask your self are you are scared retard. No so plz buy your computer in bits, you will fell bad after spending sooo much and not doing a thing, and that you could have got better making it the custom way. Do it you will thank your self. I did

ok

so what do i buy

edit:
also, once i have bought and set up, how do i know what stuff to change in the BIOS, because that bit of the guide i read confused me. the rest seems just to be plugging and screwing

mate u dont need to change anything in the bios, pm your msn and ill tlk you thrugh it some more if ya want

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ben_

ok

so what do i buy

edit:
also, once i have bought and set up, how do i know what stuff to change in the BIOS, because that bit of the guide i read confused me. the rest seems just to be plugging and screwing

---

Edit:

Did not see your new post:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...977#post826977

you are being overly carfull, take it easy it will be ok , go on make it yourself

its made :D

very happy with it

all i need now is a big plasma, a sofa, surround sound, dvds and a 360 and a house and im one happy guy

oh and a nice car

dont forget a ultra fit girl . well done tell me the specs on ya pc then

ignore, im too late to enlighten anyone :p