Urgent budget gaming rig advice needed, please!

[Sacharissa]

And I do mean budget - hell, if I had the available dosh, I'd be buying a Mac Pro and not posting here!

Games are all it'll be used for really - I have a PPC Mac for doing everything else (well, apart from my basic DTP needs; unfortunately, there's nothing I have found that will beat Publisher and/or Serif Page Plus).

The games I play are mainly adventures (as in 'pure' adventures, not the action kind) sims and the occasional RTS, so nothing that's going to throw the framerate around, but is big on the eye candy.

I do not require a mouse, keyboard, speakers or monitor.

The other problem is the case. Most IBM clone cases that I've seen have been beaten to death with the ugly stick; the only one I have seen that is remotely aesthetically pleasing (to my eyes at least) is the Antec P182 SE Advanced Super Mid Tower Case, it's not too big, either, so it should fit nicely where I need to put it.

The budget is a microscopic £650 (all in) so if any deals can be done then, please, do them!

So, could someone from YT please put me together a rig based on the above criteria? It would need to be built because I have a long history of fried CPUs and cracked motherboards, so I know that it won't be cheaper to do it myself.

I've games piling up here and an urgent need to play 'em, so let's get this thing built!

Cheers!

Sarah

[Spaceritual]

Have you seen the yoyotech Intel Viper ? it won the pcformat best budget pc and is £698.90 , it comes with the latest 8800 320mb nvidia graphics card plus the cpu is good for games as well.

Actually I can`t see it being beaten on price if you look at the components , a bargain it seems

[Sacharissa]

Have you seen the yoyotech Intel Viper ? it won the pcformat best budget pc and is £698.90 , it comes with the latest 8800 320mb nvidia graphics card plus the cpu is good for games as well.

Actually I can`t see it being beaten on price if you look at the components , a bargain it seems

I don't mean to be rude, but you didn't really read my post, did you...? First off, I said my budget was £650 and, secondly I said I wanted the Antec Mid Tower case. That spec is for a very nasty, very cheap looking blue plastic thing. Why Apple are the only PC company that know how to make their machines aesthetically pleasing as well as a decent spec, I have absolutely no idea.

That's just for the machine, it doesn't include building (£35) OS set-up (£10) or delivery (£17.50). That comes to an extra £62.50. It also includes that nasty, evil, bashed-to-death-with-the ugly-stick, blue plastic case and a Samsung HDD and I know, from personal experience, and from the experience of friends (as well as things I've read) that Samsung HDDs have an extremely poor MTBF rate. I certainly wouldn't want to entrust my data to one. The only manufacturer whose products I have any faith in (when it comes to HDDs, that is) is Seagate. I know of no-one who's had a problem with them (and I've certainly not myself - I've two in this 'ere PPC Mac).

So, if I add my choice of case to that spec (an extra £68) and the build and delivery charges (another £62.50) then I'm looking at a total cost of £829.40. which is £179.40 over my total budget. Whoops I forgot the Seagate HDD, which is an extra £16 I believe, so that's £845.40 (£195.40 over budget).

I'm sorry if this post sounds as though I'm having a go at you, I'm not, I'm just frustrated that you made a suggestion which was completely contrary to what I said I could afford. So, I thank you for the suggestion, but read the original post properly in future, eh...?

Sarah

[_RicH_]

i came up with this:

gpu
XFX PVT84GUDD3 GeForce 8600GTS £136.71

cpu
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 £138.75

motherbaord
Abit IP35 £78.96

ram
Corsair 2Gb (2X1Gb) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 £37.09

hard drive
Seagate 250GB 8MB 7200RPM SATA 2 Hard Disk Drive £41.13

case
Antec P182 SE Advanced Super Mid Tower Case £149.64

psu
OCZ 600W StealthXStream £53.58

optical
LG GSAH54LBL £19.85

total £655.71

Not easy with a small budget and a £150 case... also you didnt mention if you need OS or not.

Change the drive for a smaller one if you dont need 250gb, should bring it into budget, still got delivery on top tho.

[Spaceritual]

I don't mean to be rude, but you didn't really read my post, did you...? First off, I said my budget was £650 and, secondly I said I wanted the Antec Mid Tower case. That spec is for a very nasty, very cheap looking blue plastic thing. Why Apple are the only PC company that know how to make their machines aesthetically pleasing as well as a decent spec, I have absolutely no idea.

That's just for the machine, it doesn't include building (£35) OS set-up (£10) or delivery (£17.50). That comes to an extra £62.50. It also includes that nasty, evil, bashed-to-death-with-the ugly-stick, blue plastic case and a Samsung HDD and I know, from personal experience, and from the experience of friends (as well as things I've read) that Samsung HDDs have an extremely poor MTBF rate. I certainly wouldn't want to entrust my data to one. The only manufacturer whose products I have any faith in (when it comes to HDDs, that is) is Seagate. I know of no-one who's had a problem with them (and I've certainly not myself - I've two in this 'ere PPC Mac).

So, if I add my choice of case to that spec (an extra £68) and the build and delivery charges (another £62.50) then I'm looking at a total cost of £829.40. which is £179.40 over my total budget. Whoops I forgot the Seagate HDD, which is an extra £16 I believe, so that's £845.40 (£195.40 over budget).

I'm sorry if this post sounds as though I'm having a go at you, I'm not, I'm just frustrated that you made a suggestion which was completely contrary to what I said I could afford. So, I thank you for the suggestion, but read the original post properly in future, eh...?

Sarah

As you have set out in your post the rig you want comes to £829.40 which again ,according to you, is way over budget . the system I mentioned although still over budget is nearer what you where looking for and with a little haggling should be achievable where as the specs you want are not .

So i guess the answer would be that Yoyo tech would be unable to supply a £850 rig for £200 less, unless of course than say differently .....

[ackrite26]

cpu
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 £138.75

Swap that straight away for -

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66Ghz Socket 775 CPU £115.52 a saving of £23.23 for a faster CPU!!

[Mithrandir]

That's just for the machine, it doesn't include building (£35) OS set-up (£10) or delivery (£17.50). That comes to an extra £62.50. It also includes that nasty, evil, bashed-to-death-with-the ugly-stick, blue plastic case and a Samsung HDD and I know, from personal experience, and from the experience of friends (as well as things I've read) that Samsung HDDs have an extremely poor MTBF rate. I certainly wouldn't want to entrust my data to one. The only manufacturer whose products I have any faith in (when it comes to HDDs, that is) is Seagate. I know of no-one who's had a problem with them (and I've certainly not myself - I've two in this 'ere PPC Mac).

I've had a seagate - it failed!
Currently got another Seagate which is working well.
I've got 3 Samsung drives (& Maxtors) all been working superbly (touchwood!) I think Samsung are one of the most reliable HDD brands.

Anything mechanical is not 100%, hell even things with non moving parts can die (USB pendrives, etc)

Just a thought.


Anyhow, if that case is not to your liking you can customise and add the Antec 182 for £11 instead and change the CPU to the E4400 for a £25 reduction.

EDIT: nvrmind - it'll still be out of budget.

[_RicH_]

Swap that straight away for -

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66Ghz Socket 775 CPU £115.52 a saving of £23.23 for a faster CPU!!

cheaper for a reason the 1333 FSB of the e6750 makes it a little trickier to overclock, but yea if your not planning on OC'ing then the 6750 will be fine.

Also i have to agree with seagates being the best drives, I have had 2 IBM drives die on me, and 1 that started making funny noises but stopped. I currently have 3 seagate drives all in daily use (2 for around 3 years) and none have failed (so far).

[ackrite26]

This is his first build, not sure if he is going to be overclocking too much.

Also he might need a little more than 250Gb

these are the best all round hard drives available atm.

http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/product_in...1780298f582eaf

[Sprite]

the Antec P812 is definitely not a small case, it is pretty huge, just to let you know

[Sacharissa]

This is his first build, not sure if he is going to be overclocking too much.

Also he might need a little more than 250Gb

these are the best all round hard drives available atm.

URL snipped 'cos I'm not permitted to post 'em yet...


Methinks you've posted to the wrong thread! There was a bloke who was building his own rig and was asking about overclocking, but as I'm not considering building my own rig, or considering overclocking, and, as a quick glance at my user-name and real name will tell you, I am most certainly not male, I'm pretty sure this post was destined for somewhere else!

Sarah

[Sacharissa]

the Antec P812 is definitely not a small case, it is pretty huge, just to let you know

I know that now - methinks that's a misdescription on the behalf of YOYOTECH, it is described as a 'mid tower case' - I didn't think to look at the dimensions before making my choice and, now I have, I definitely require something a lot smaller.

Any suggestions, folks...? Something that really is 'mid tower', please!

Sarah

P.S. I've just measured the dimensions of my Mac case - it's 19" x 8" x 19" (or 48cm x 20cm x 48cm, if you prefer it in new money) so it's about 2.5in (6cm) shorter than the Antec, but 2cm (0.8in) deeper. The width seems to be pretty standard (all the cases I've looked at are about 20cm (8in) wide.) The one thing I do love about Power Mac/Mac Pro cases is the integral handles - such a simple, yet ingenious idea, yet one I've yet to see implemented on any IBM clone box. The handles account for 4ins (10cm) of the total height, as they are top and bottom. So 15" x 8" x 15" (38 x 20 x 38) wouldn't be a bad height, but the other problem is what to do with the ruddy sub-woofer, which is a 13" (33cm) cube. Obviously I can't go plonking a PC next to it (well, not if I want the HDD to last any time at all!)

[Sacharissa]

cheaper for a reason the 1333 FSB of the e6750 makes it a little trickier to overclock, but yeah if you're not planning on OC'ing then the 6750 will be fine.

Also I have to agree with seagates being the best drives, I have had 2 IBM drives die on me, and 1 that started making funny noises but stopped. I currently have 3 seagate drives all in daily use (2 for around 3 years) and none have failed (so far).

Well the IBM drives must be pretty old because, IIRC, IBM sold their storage arm to Hitachi some years ago.

I have a very old machine (386 or thereabouts) with a Seagate drive and, the last time I powered it up (only a few months ago, it was fine).

I've tried: - WD, Samsung, Maxtor (known as Crapstor in some quarters - mine included) and Hitachi and I've found them all wanting. Seagate is the only brand I want near any PC that I own.

Sarah

P.S. I'm not planning on over-clocking, let's make that absolutely crystal.

[ackrite26]

as a quick glance at my user-name and real name will tell you, I am most certainly not male,

I am sorry for percieving that you are a guy, I didnt really look at your user name &/or real name.

Methinks you've posted to the wrong thread!

As for posting in the wrong thread then I think your half right, half wrong. I must have read somewhere else that this was a first time build but the bit about overclocking was in refrence to this comment.

cheaper for a reason the 1333 FSB of the e6750 makes it a little trickier to overclock, but yea if your not planning on OC'ing then the 6750 will be fine.

As you are not overclocking then I advise you to go with the E6750 as it is faster than the E6600 and £20 cheaper.

[usxhe190]

£650 should be get you a mid grade pc

[mycarsavw]

It's been covered above but your budget - £650. Your chosen case - £150.

The "normal" P182 is £82 and would give you more cash to spend on "better" hardware. Add a bit of tin foil to the case and you're almost there