Bang-for-the-Buck Gaming PC

[Isy]

I need a perfect budget gaming PC. I haven't got a clue what components are best at this point in time. I need to try and get a pc that can run most games (7600gt graphics). Please can you guys help me by listing your bang for the buck components (budget is £600 or lower).

cheers.

[johnny02004976]

mate do you have any components already - monitor/keyboard etc etc

[greektony]

if you already have a monitor, you should be able to put a conroe system together for £600. Thats exactly what i intend to do. When i get home from work i'll try and price it up for you.

As johnny asked......do you need a monitor, keyboard/mouse, speakers or case?? Also, do you have another computer you can salvage for parts? i.e. hard drive, dvd/cd drive, soundcard etc

[noveltylamp]

Hello, for a 7600gt you need not buy anything more than an Athlon64 3000+ and overclock it a bit. Talking £55 CPU, £60 Motherboard and £75-135 for the ram, depending if you want DDR or DDRII, 7900GT £180, £40 odd for a PSU, a case of your choice and a 320gb Seagate 7200.10 for £66. Then add optical drives, monitor, k/b and mouse of your choice.

If you're a little more specific about what you already have, and what your requirements are we could tailor a specification to your needs.

You could get an Intel E6300 £130ish, P965 Motherboard £100ish, 2gb DDR II £135ish, ATI X1800XT £185 for £550, and keep your existing Chassis, Monitor, Storage and peripherals if you have any.

[MSIC]

Here's a suggestion to get you thinking:

Case: ASUS T-210 £37.59
Motherboard: Asrock CONROEXFIRE-ESATA2 £56.39
Graphics: Leadtek 256MB 7600GT £110.44
Memory: 2 x 512MB Corsair VS DDR2 £65.24
Optical Drive: Pioneer Dual Layer 111DBK £23.18
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, E6400 (2.13Ghz) £160.96
CPU Heatsink/Fan: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £15.08
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda '10' series 320GB £67.90
Total = £536.78 inc VAT.

Over 50 (useful) posts at Hexus gets you free delivery.
You may then need keyboard, mouse etc etc.
For VERY cheap keyboard/mouse/speakers combo, check out this for £15. (PS I am buying it!)

PS It may be worth considering yesterday's price cuts across the ATi X1900 range. The X1900 GT looks good and has dropped in places to approx £130. My problem with them is how noisy, large and power hungry they are, but they will win benchmarks!

Edit: Upon further reflection, if it were me, i'd consider a better power supply than the one in the above case. You dont need much in terms of Watts (both the Core 2 Duo and the 7600 graphics are low power sippers) but you cant put a real value on reliability. The above PSU might be, for example, 95% chance of being great, but i'd get one that is for example 99% chance. If that makes any sense.

[Isy]

I don’t have any components. This will also be my very first build.
I have read lots of reviews on 7600gt cards and I think they fit my gaming needs. So I’m trying to build a system that fits around this card (need a system that shows the potential of this card). I know its an odd place to start. The graphics card is the only component I have chosen so far. The budget is £600ish. It would be a bonus if the system wasn’t loud so I’m trying to aim for quite components. Any budget keyboard, mouse, speakers will do (not fussy about good quality sound). I would prefer a good gaming monitor to complement the graphics card capabilities (preferably 19inch lcd if possible).

To summarise (in order): -

Want to keep a budget card like 7600gt
£600ish or lower system (bang for bucks)
Need all components
Silent components
Good monitor

[Jahoker]

Give up now then, you will NOT find anything more than a gaming base unit for £600 im afraid. A monitor/keyboard/mouse/drives/cabling/fans will see another£200+ on that.

Basically i'd say you're looking at £800 for a 'decent' budget rig that will last for a year or two.

[Steve B]

Thanks for the incredible vote of confidence Jahoker

I'd consider MSIC's suggestion as being one of the best setups, although if you change the cpu to an oem 6300, you save £30, if you change the hard disk drive to a Samsung Spinpoint 250 then you save about another £20. Knock 50 squids off of MSIC's spec and thats you down at £486.78 leaving you with approx. £113.22 to fritter on a monitor (if you stay on budget). I'd suggest staying with a 17" LCD, to keep things on budget, and rememer that a 17" LCD is almost the same as a 19" CRT. For 150 you could pick up a 17" LCD:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=413001

Overall, id say try to go Conroe, as not only will this give you alot better performance over an athlon for the same price, the DDR2 memory and mid-range nature of this build will definitely give you alot of upgrading potential in the future, for at least a year

[Isy]

Give up now then, you will NOT find anything more than a gaming base unit for £600 im afraid. A monitor/keyboard/mouse/drives/cabling/fans will see another£200+ on that.

Basically i'd say you're looking at £800 for a 'decent' budget rig that will last for a year or two.

What setup would you recommend for £800

[Isy]

I can raise my budget as long as its worth it.

[Steve B]

have you decided on a specification yet Isy?

edit: argh that was weird!

[MSIC]

Steve B is right, you CAN get a good gaming (budget) PC for £600.
Go with his ammendments, get the £15 speakers/keyboard/mouse, and try this monitor:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=168940

Sure, lots of other monitors will be brighter/larger etc etc, but that will be fine for a budget gaming PC, and as long as you dont compare monitors side by side, you will be happy with it.

As for noise in the above suggested setup, the CPU fan is known to be very quiet indeed, the Samsung Spinpoints (and Seagates) are very quiet, and the motherboard has no fans on it.
The two points of noise (of any concern) will be a) power supply, which should be fine i'm sure and b) graphics card. My ammendment to my 7600GT was to get a Zalman VF900-CU, and is now not heard. Perfect.

[Steve B]

Yep, that monitor will save u another 30 quid off the Illama, so thats enough to afford MSIC's keyboard and mouse set, and brings it to pretty much dead on 600

[Isy]

Thanks a lot. You guys have been a great help.

I just need to think twice about the mobo. Not heard of this mobo before. Would you say it is stable and easy to put together for my first build. The picture also shows sli compatibility; is that 2X16 (32 lanes) or 2X8 lanes? I’m probably not that bothered about sli and if I was then I’d go with an nvidia setup for future upgrades. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[MSIC]

Want to keep a budget card like 7600gt
£600ish or lower system (bang for bucks)
Need all components
Silent components
Good monitor

It's probably worth mentioning a few caveats at this point, if you are really thinking about buying now.
1) Performance is relative. 4 years ago you could spend £2000 on a screaming machine that blew everything else away. The owner of said machine would have been very happy with it. The same machine now however is not worth £2000, even though the performance of it has not changed or degraded in any real sense (unlike, say, a car that wears out - and for the purpose of my argument I am ignoring the hard drive). What changes is that everything else gets faster, and newer techological requirements are placed on the same components (ie newer games with more complex calculations). So whatever you buy, it may be good enough for you, not good enough for someone else, and far better than a third person needs. But one day it will get old.
2) 'Silent' components. Most people dont need silent, they just want quiet. Or at least quiet enough for it not to bother them. You can get very quiet indeed, and whilst it is good to bear it in mind at the point of selecting components, you can become hooked on the art of quietening and there is a law of (very expensive) diminishing returns. So remember that something can be just 'quiet enough' and that's fine.
3) Good monitors can be expensive. For me, a "good monitor" is a 24" widescreen job that will cost over £600 at best. But then I have a 20" widescreen now, so it's all relative. This will depend on expectations (ie what your mates might have) and on what you currently own. See the above on 'performance'.

Here endeth the sermon.

Regarding your above post on the motherboard, no it's not the best, but you requested budget. If it were me i would spend another £50 or so on a better motherboard, as well and a different case & PSU (say £35 on each of those), but that would blow your original budget. It would also not give you any new features or performance per se, just less risk of something going wrong.

[Steve B]

Even thought the picture shows 2 x PCI=E x16 lanes, the drivers that allow SLI (along with the BIOS) have not actually been released yet (officially). You can get hacked drivers from somewhere, but im really not sure where someone else will be able to tell you.

However, with regards to your future upgrade path, i would suggest that the money that you save for your first upgrade should be put towards replacing key components, somewhere down the line, instead of investing in additional ones, like a better graphics card over a second graphics card for example. This way, the value of the obsolete component can help recover the cost of the new component, and hence the cycle continues.

I genuinely think that the system outlined above, is currently one of the best systems purchaseable for around the £600 mark. Anyone can build a PC, its just like a jigsaw with bigger pieces. Just remember to wear your shoes, dont build on carpets or other static materials, a wooden table generally tends to be the best. Touch your hand to the case of the power supply each time you start work, that way you'll discharge urself as the PSU is earthed. If you need any help, just give us a shout.

Best of luck!
Steve B