£200 - 3 Parts, what would you buy?

mrbios

mrbios

mrbios

Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
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Gloucestershire
I've got £200, i need a CPU, motherboard and graphics card, i cant think what the best combination would be, games being the main focus, I'm not really bothered about how good the motherboard is just so long as its happy to have 4x1gb sticks

so its all about wether i spend more on the graphics or the processor or split it down the middle

i was thinking my best bet on the graphics side of things would be to look for an 8800GTS 320/640mb in the MM as there quite cheap now and still cope well with the latest games

Though i would like other opinions, what would you do?
 
New Graphics cards are out in next 2 weeks, the new ATI 4850 is expected to cost 130 or around hopefully, that is fair bit of your budget but i think the cost of the 8800 cards to drop and really there respectable cards.
CPU the e7200 nice dual core, cheapest of the wolfdales but good clocking on it.
Motherboards umm the p35's really, unless you can stretch to the new p45's but really for new stuff maybe £300 for those three.
Thats very off my head.
Some one else can most probaly think of some smarter stuff you.

~Slash
 
for £200 i wouldn't bother. i'd save another £110 and get the following:
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 - £130
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R - £74
OcUK GeForce 8800GT - £112
 
Ok ive got a better idea, seeing as i have a 6600 i can use as a temp card until the new ones are out, what motherboard and processor should i go for for a maximum of £200?

i was thinking an 8200 + MSI P45 board which comes in at £199 :p but are the new chipsets worth it (might be better waiting till they have matured? seeing as i could save myself some money by getting a cheaper alternative) and would the 8200 be the best cpu to go for at the moment? what sort of impact does the extra cache on a processor have in a gaming environment?

Cheers
 
get a quad off the MM for 100 sheets. that seems to be the going price nowdays. then grab yourself a p35 board and then maybe a new gpu when you have some more cash. :)
 
mrbios said:
Ok ive got a better idea, seeing as i have a 6600 i can use as a temp card until the new ones are out, what motherboard and processor should i go for for a maximum of £200?

i was thinking an 8200 + MSI P45 board which comes in at £199 :p but are the new chipsets worth it (might be better waiting till they have matured? seeing as i could save myself some money by getting a cheaper alternative) and would the 8200 be the best cpu to go for at the moment? what sort of impact does the extra cache on a processor have in a gaming environment?

Cheers
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for £200 for a CPU and Mobo, you'd be mad to get anything other than a Q6600 and a P35 mobo, like the gigabyte i suggested earlier.
 
due to the price i found one for ive ordered an Asus P5Q P45 board, im going to sit a Q6600 in it, now i just need to save for a graphics card that will cope with a 24" screen in games lol

havent ordered the processor yet though because for some reason i still feel undecided, with games being the sole use for this computer will it definately be the best to get? im not sure why im so reluctant :D
 
mrbios said:
due to the price i found one for ive ordered an Asus P5Q P45 board, im going to sit a Q6600 in it, now i just need to save for a graphics card that will cope with a 24" screen in games lol

havent ordered the processor yet though because for some reason i still feel undecided, with games being the sole use for this computer will it definately be the best to get? im not sure why im so reluctant :D
Click to expand...

A quad is a waste for gaming. Games that use all the cores in a quad are few and far between, In fact the only one that i know of that uses all the cores is Supreme Commander. Most games use one or sometimes two cores and no more. I really can't see it changing anytime soon either and by the time games do use all the cores a Q6600 will be old tech and superseeded by a far more powerful cpu. Nehalem is out at the end of the year and bringing with it a new socket so anything you buy now is probably not going to be compatiable with any future upgrade. You would be better off getting a dual core such as the E7200 and clocking it.
 
thats exactly what i was thinking pastymuncher (what a username that is :D) im still tempted to get an E2180 and see how far i can clock it in the asus board but then again im not that good at overclocking so i wonder if i should stick buying a decent clock speed from the getgo and maybe overclock it if i feel brave
 
why are you all recommending he buy a quad for gaming?...

and mrbios, Msi are meant to be a horrible brand, I wouldn't buy one of their boards.
 
Ben M said:
ah right i see :p

still quite brave ordering a P45 chipset. guinea pig tbh :p
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thats what i thought, though when the P35s first came out i dove right in on the gigabyte DS4 and that was an excellent board that served me well for quite a while

i think im going to go with an E8200 processor, now i just have to persuade the missus to let me borrow £100 from the shared account until next month :o

EDIT: how good is the arctic freeze 7 pro?
 
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mrbios said:
i think im going to go with an E8200 processor, now i just have to persuade the missus to let me borrow £100 from the shared account until next month :o

EDIT: how good is the arctic freeze 7 pro?
Click to expand...

You just know that's going to cost you in the near future. ;)

As for the Freezer 7 Pro. It is a good budget cooler but i have no idea how it performs with the Wolfdales. Maybe if you have a look in the Wolfdale clocking threads someone in there is using the same combo.
 
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