Plz recommend a gaming PC

[FreeloaderUK]

My current PC is steampowered & useless for any modern games- so I want to get a new one.

I would like a good CPU- preferably a Intel Core2 duo

The more RAM the merrier- so atleast 2GB maybe even 4GB.

Id also really like a Nividia geforce 8800GTX ive found out in the past the downfalls of having a budget grafix card.

Im afraid i dont know anything about cooling or powersupplys.

Ive had a look at yoyotech & basically im a bit confused- so id be appreciated if you guys could recommend me a system- ive got £1000 to play with & i guess i could squeeze an extra £100 if needs be.

I dont need a big HDD & I dont need a keyboard or mouse.

a 17" or 19" monitor will do fine tho- if it pushes me over the budget too much i can easily just use my old one.

[YOYOtech - Mark]

hi there, thanks for the enquiry....
i have put together a custom built machine, based on your budget...

PC hardware Specs

case - antec nine hundred
psu - antec tp650
motherboard - abit ip35 pro
cpu - intel q6600
heatsink - zalman 9700
memory - 2gb corsair ddr2 800 c4
hdd - 500gb samsung sataII
dvdrw - pioneer dvdrw
graphics - geforce 8800gts 768mb

cost of parts - £935

optinal / additional costs

windows vista home prem 32bit - £69
build cost - £50
19" tft asus - £118

this spec machine would do you fine for gaming...if you did want something with a bit of upgradablity then you could swap the board for the asus p5n32e-sli (extra £10) this would enable you to upgrade to an sli set using 2 graphics cards - but to do this you would also need to upgrade your psu to a 850w (approx + £80)

hope this all makes sense !!!
if not please let us know, and we will try to help you out...

thanks
mark
www.yoyotech.co.uk

[Pob255]

Ummm Mark you forgot to include a PSU (or the details at least) on your list. (sorry my boob, antec ture power 650w)

Freeloader, what monitor do you currently have? the reason I ask is that on a 17"-19" monitor a 8800GTX is going to be overkill a 8800GTS 320mb will be fine and run stuff at max settings on a 17"-19" without any problems.

The resolution on the vast majority of 17"-19" monitors is the same, 1280x1024 standard or 1440x900 for wide screen.

[Dreaming]

hi there, thanks for the enquiry....
i have put together a custom built machine, based on your budget...

PC hardware Specs

case - antec nine hundred
psu - antec tp650
motherboard - abit ip35 pro
cpu - intel q6600
heatsink - zalman 9700
memory - 2gb corsair ddr2 800 c4
hdd - 500gb samsung sataII
dvdrw - pioneer dvdrw
graphics - geforce 8800gts 768mb

cost of parts - £935

optinal / additional costs

windows vista home prem 32bit - £69
build cost - £50
19" tft asus - £118

this spec machine would do you fine for gaming...if you did want something with a bit of upgradablity then you could swap the board for the asus p5n32e-sli (extra £10) this would enable you to upgrade to an sli set using 2 graphics cards - but to do this you would also need to upgrade your psu to a 850w (approx + £80)

hope this all makes sense !!!
if not please let us know, and we will try to help you out...

thanks
mark
www.yoyotech.co.uk

Hey mark, I'd consider that on a 19" tft saving money and getting a 320mb 8800gts instead of a 768mb as there isnt a massive performance difference in every benchmark I've seen.

Also for gaming is there much benefit of a q6600 over an e6600 etc.? As most games aren't hyperthreaded so the 4 cores wont be much if any better than 2.

To the OP - put aside £60 for a good mouse and keyboard too. If you can afford it, get some nice headphones too as it really does make a difference. If you look at my current rig it runs everything I throw at it very nicely (though maxing out everything on company of heroes 1.71 [dx10 patch]) does start to mess it u a bit. Thats more down to nvidia drivers though because it improved dramatically after installing their latest betas.

Again edit - as the op doesnt need a massive hdd is 500gb overkill? I have 4 hard drives, my data raid has 103gb of data on it (and thats a fair few films and the usual etc.) and my operating array has 53gb used (of 320gb).

I'd spend the money on a 22" monitor and the peripherals as they are what you interact with the game, and a c2d processor @ decent clock + 8800gts 320mb + 2gb pc6400 (any timings) will happily run any of todays games 'behind the scenes'. But if you want to future proof it completely then you'll want the latest and greatest, but that's always going to cost you a hefty 'exclusivity' premium.

[Pob255]

I think Mark ment the 8800GTX 768mb as they don't make a 768mb gts
Thinking about it and haveing a quick look at prices I think I can say these are the saveings
320mb gts -£75
250mb samsung -£28 (if more space is needed later then a 2nd drive is not that expensive or hard to fit)
e6600 -£34 (although the quad core might be worth it for the small price increase )

If the memory on that lsit is the:
Corsair 2Gb (2X1Gb) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800) YOYO Code : 4776
Then I cannot fault it

that's £140 of the price that can go toward the monitor + Vista + yoyo build

Nice as a 22" would be no real way to squeeze in the extra aprox £100 it would cost over a 19"

I'd say depending on current mouse & keyboard depends on keeping them or getting replacements, a decent keyboard will last 5 years or more without really needing replacement. The mouse too should be ok, although a 5 year old mouse (assumeing optical) will probably have a rather low scan rate and once you use a faster scanning mouse it's hard to go back. (I still have my old 400dpi mouse, most of the silver coating has worn off but it still works great, it just feels so slugglishly now)

Also even with the changes I've mentioned the running total is around £1035