£600 gaming build. Tower only.

Tummy · 28 Apr 2009 at 14:01

Hey guys and dolls

My friend wants to get back in to PC gaming after a long time out.

He needs a new tower, nothing else and will require an opperating system. £600 max.

I'm not to sure where to start, so any spec's would be helpful.

*I have free postage from OcUK aswell

cmndr_andi · 28 Apr 2009 at 16:01

Hi there, here is my idea. I recommend overclocking the cpu (should be able to hit 3.5 with this cooler).

With your free shipping this should be right on your budget.

OVC · 28 Apr 2009 at 16:26

Looks good to me.

reflux · 28 Apr 2009 at 16:28

Seconded.

Cristian · 28 Apr 2009 at 16:37

I'd save some money on the motherboard
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-170-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1344
and get a 1tb hdd.
rest looks great.

siumatfung · 28 Apr 2009 at 19:47

over budget but more bang for buck

Kennysevenfold · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:12

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99
(£86.95) £99.99
(£86.95)

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.80GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £99.99
(£86.95) £99.99
(£86.95)

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £98.99
(£86.08) £98.99
(£86.08)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
(£79.99) £91.99
(£79.99)

OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply £60.00
(£52.17) £60.00
(£52.17)

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD5001AALS) £54.04
(£46.99) £54.04
(£46.99)

Corsair XMS2 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX) £38.99
(£33.90) £38.99
(£33.90)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £32.99
(£28.69) £32.99
(£28.69)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £517.36 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £79.37 Total : £596.48

mattyA · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:15

i like cmndr_andi spec

RJC · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:27

Mine:

XFX GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £148.34
(£128.99)£148.34
(£128.99)

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard£99.99
(£86.95)£99.99
(£86.95)

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.80GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £99.99
(£86.95)£99.99
(£86.95)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939)£91.99
(£79.99)£91.99
(£79.99)

Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK)£69.99
(£60.86)£69.99
(£60.86)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel (KHX8500D2K2/4G)£42.99
(£37.38)£42.99
(£37.38)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ)£40.24
(£34.99)£40.24
(£34.99)

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM£18.99
(£16.51)£18.99
(£16.51) Sub Total :£532.62Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)Shipping :£10.00VAT is being charged at 15%VAT :£81.39 Total :£624.01Take £10.00 off for free shipping £614.01

siumatfung · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:31

RJC wheres the case?

Audigex · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:31

If you go with cmndr_andi's spec then get this for £15 less - it's pretty much the exact same card (google for "9800 250 rename")... certainly not £15 quid's worth faster IMO

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-108-OK

Although I'd take kenny's myself, although I'm not a fan of that case.

RJC - you forgot a case ;-)

cmndr_andi · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:49

Audigex, you are quite right that NVidia have been playing some silly games with naming recently. However, the GTS 250 is infact the same card as the 9800GTX+. While the 9800GT is basically the same card as the 8800 GT (only change is respin to 55nm). Both are very good cards, but the GTS 250 is definitely the faster card (128 stream processors vs 112, and clocked higher).

RJC · 28 Apr 2009 at 20:50

siumatfung said:
RJC wheres the case?

Haha it's an invisable case

Drop the GPU to a 4850 / 250 and put a Antec 300 in.

Tummy · 29 Apr 2009 at 22:30

cmndr_andi looks good to me

Will get my friend to look at that spec.

Thanks everyone for your input, can't thank you all enough !
Will deffo post pictures if / when he buys it

widdyst · 30 Apr 2009 at 01:57

I know this is a little over budget BUT we are talking quad core kentsfield and 260gtx here. This would be a cracking little set up mate without doubt the most capable rig in this thread

cmndr_andi · 30 Apr 2009 at 02:04

All that hardware is a bit wasted with Vista Home basic 32bit. An upgrade to 64 bit Home premium is definately in order, but that will put the build quite over budget. That said, it is up to the OP as to whether he can afford it. I do indeed agree q6700 is a brilliant chip, I have one myself

widdyst · 30 Apr 2009 at 02:11

wasted hardware ........how very dare you ? The only thing from that system that would possibly be wasted with a 32 bit system is approx 750mb of ram. bang for buck that system would be sweet

cmndr_andi · 30 Apr 2009 at 02:15

Hehe- sorry, It does look like a very nice build. But since last year I have been dismissing 32 bit OSs out of hand. Maybe another suggestion would be to get the Windows 7 beta and pay for the cheapest verstion when it comes out (likely to be a lot better than any vista version)

widdyst · 30 Apr 2009 at 02:18

agreed windows 7 beta is looking very good indeed. I have to be honest I'm not a massive vista fan I run a dual boot of 32bit xp pro and 64bit vista premium and I get better performance and a lot less hassle from the xp os.

killari · 30 Apr 2009 at 02:31

my 2 pence