£700 Gaming Build

Jimpy762 · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:18

Hi all

This is going to be my first build so I've been carefully trawling the 'net for advice and parts reviews this past week and I think I've finally came up with a decent system.

cmndr_andi's Build £694.82 (£709.19)

cmndr_andi · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:32

It all looks good - couple of suggestions:

If you are planning to mainly use the PC for gaming you could drop the CPU down to a q6700 or an AMD X3 720BE. Either of those chips will give you enough power for games as you will be limited by your graphics card. As those processors are cheaper - spend the money saved on an upgrade to a HD 4890.

Also - the case you picked is capable (have build in one myself) but a small upgrade to an antec 300 will make your life easier and give you better cooling.

Mattus · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:35

Your spec is a good build and you'd be happy with it, but the one problem is that you're buying into a dead socket. There won't be any new gear released on socket 775 and using DDR2, and £700 is quite a lot to spend on end-of-line stuff.

I'd recommend this:

Just about within your budget, and you get a brand-new CPU that would be faster than the Q9550 at stock; if you did decide to overclock later on, you could probably get that CPU to 4Ghz, giving you 50% more performance for nothing. You also get 6GB of RAM

valdai · 18 Jun 2009 at 23:59

Probably a silly question but do OEM graphics cards not come with coolers or is it different to CPUs?

Bar that, I reckon if you can stretch your budget a bit more then go for i7 with a bit less trimmed off or go for AMD X3. This is assuming you are just going to use it for gaming.

If you go AMD it might be worth checking out this thread to get a compatible mobo if you fancy your luck and want to try unlocking the fourth core. Someone please correct me about this if I'm wrong as I haven't read the whole of that thread yet.

cmndr_andi · 19 Jun 2009 at 00:33

valdai said:
Probably a silly question but do OEM graphics cards not come with coolers or is it different to CPUs?

An OEM graphics card will come with a cooler - just no fancy box, driver disks, manual, included game, cables or anything like that. However, no need to buy an aftermarket cooler - just take the card out of the brown box and slot it in your PC.

siumatfung · 19 Jun 2009 at 10:26

i would up the PSU to the 650W model tbh its on offer this week so why not

Jimpy762 · 19 Jun 2009 at 13:22

Thanks for the suggestions folks, they have been really helpful.

cmndr_andi, great advice, I've noted it and scratching my old build.

Mattus, excellent list. I never thought I could get away with an i7 for that price. Problem is I need an OS and the addition of the £80 32 Bit Vista HP SP1 OEM pushes the price up to near £800. I am not sure if I will be able to squeeze it in, but maybe though. Would it be possible to download the Windows 7 Beta, burn it to DVD+Rs and put it on that build?

Jimpy762 · 19 Jun 2009 at 19:38

I am stuck between the two suggested builds by Mattus and cmndr_andi. What would be the smartest buy? I am planning to use this build for about 4-5 years.

For andi's suggested build I need a new mobo as the one selected has sold out. Recommendations, budget considered?

geowal19 · 19 Jun 2009 at 20:08

On your original spec u forgot the cooler the OEM versions of anything will not come with anything except packaging and the thing ur buyin.

CliveUK · 19 Jun 2009 at 22:14

geowal19 said:
On your original spec u forgot the cooler the OEM versions of anything will not come with anything except packaging and the thing ur buyin.

Except from GPUs, ofc

Jimpy762 · 19 Jun 2009 at 23:04

Right, I am going for the i7 build. Thanks for the help Mattus, cmndr_andi and everyone else. I will use the Windows 7 RC which will bring the build back into my price range. I should get it all ordered tomorrow, can't wait!

ArcAneTSGK · 19 Jun 2009 at 23:50

Have fun building it, post some shots of it and tell us what you think of it when you have it all

Jimpy762 · 28 Jun 2009 at 13:31

Almost done...

Build:

http://upload.mattus.co.uk/data/ocuk/spec_jimpy762_1906.png

That's the build but I changed the case for an Antec 300.

I have everything installed into the case but I have some questions. On the motherboard there are two power sockets ATX_12V_2X and ATX. Do I need to have both of them plugged in (from the PSU)?

There are two sockets on the GPU, do I need to plug both PCI-E cables from the PSU into them?

The case has two fans, now I can use a couple plugs from the PSU to place into the sockets of these fans, I guess that's the correct way to do it? http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6922/mybaby4.jpg
How good are these fans if I wanted to OC?

I spent all day yesterday building the thing and it was fun although it did get a bit hairy at times.

Here are some screens:

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6176/mybaby1k.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9978/mybaby2.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3595/mybaby3.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3162/mybaby5.jpg

The cables are a complete mess I know, I just hope it works!

RJC · 28 Jun 2009 at 14:30

You will need to plug both power connectors on the motherboard (24 pin & 8 pin) and both power on the gpu.

Fans are fine being plugged in.