Pre-Built System Help - Gamer

Hi all,

I have been out of the gaming sector for a while now and lost all the tech info on "whats best" .

Im after a baseunit (just system) that will be able to cope with things like Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2 and the new battlefield Company 2 on full / max graphics.

I dont have much clue with fitting the parts together so would ideally like to purchase one of the "pre-built" systems.

Budget ; I have money for max of say £650, but ideally if a system can run cod and bf on high / max settings then i would say £450-£550.

Im not extreme in gaming just like a decent FPS with good graphics.

Can anyone link me on OCUK the best system to buy??

think the AMD one is better for gaming??

what about this ??? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-192-OK&groupid=43&catid=1445&subcat=

I think your going to struggle to find something on such a low budget to play at max settings but still maintain a decent FPS rate. Already, my online gaming friends are talking of rig upgrades to run BC 2

The "Pyro" has good reviews, but I wonder how long it would be before you were contemplating a "upgrade" of the vid card. + with a OS (Win7 64bit) your near the top of your budget already.

If thats the budget... bite the bullet go for it and play on reduced settings to higher FPS

lastly check through the forum threads for machine spec requests and get a friend to build it for you or "build it yourself"

to be honest, once all the bits are there infront of you its pretty much common sense, things generally only fit in one place and that place is obvious. it can save you a bit of money too, and there is always people on here to help. its worth a go, you will find that building the system yourself and then playing on the finished product will make it all worth it in the end.
failing that, if you are on such a small budget, look second hand maybe, a lot of reasonable systems going cheap.

paradisiac said:

to be honest, once all the bits are there infront of you its pretty much common sense, things generally only fit in one place and that place is obvious. it can save you a bit of money too, and there is always people on here to help. its worth a go, you will find that building the system yourself and then playing on the finished product will make it all worth it in the end.
failing that, if you are on such a small budget, look second hand maybe, a lot of reasonable systems going cheap.

Click to expand...

Yep agree with the last comment.

I picked up a second decent system, second hand, for a family friend from a ...um .... not a online store... Cas* ****erters on the high street. I'm just going to add in a few more parts... and bingo. Times are hard and some people are hocking the box in the bedroom to raise cash. Just keep a eye out. ATB

have a go at building , your in the best place to learn.

thanks for the input, i would have thought maybe £600 would have got me a decent gaming system as the one i linked?

i am quite adapt to pc;s know what goes where etc just mainly never fitted a motherboard , cpu heatsink etc and hooking up the psu.

would the prebuilt ones at £400 like i linked cope with cod and bf on med graphics?

ssharp59 said:

have a go at building , your in the best place to learn.

Click to expand...

+1

It may look daunting at 1st but motherboards these days are much easier to work with than the old style ones where you had to mess with all the jumper switches and set the mhz manually. everything is pretty much plug in and go these days so don't be shy and give it a go. you will get plenty of help on here if you get stuck but once you have the board in the rest is a doddle

The titan Pyro should be adequate for MW2 and then there's the "Titan Proton". Im not sure how the new i3 cpu's perform compared to their bigger versions but this would probably be better at £611.99 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-225-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

but in the end you will save more money by doing it yourself with your own choice of components.

ps: you may also want to check out this thread

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18060182

if i built myself on that budget of say £600 would that get me what im after? (if so can anyone recommened a spec / parts to buy ? )

realistically i could cope with lowering graphics just thought i might be able to get a system to run it all on high. thanks

Here's a quick spec



Some things can be changed and the hard drive is out of stock but knowing OCUK they will have them back in in a flash

And the system listed above will give you better all round performance than your first choice. The peeps here will more than gladly help solve problems or advise on "how to" as you go.

what resolution is the monitor you are going to be using ? without knowing that it's hard to recommend a gfx card.

chipps101 said:

what resolution is the monitor you are going to be using ? without knowing that it's hard to recommend a gfx card.

Click to expand...

17" so prob 1024x768 or 1280x1024

in that case the gts 250 would be more than enough for modern warfare 2 at max settings, not sure about the new battlefield game though but i would imagine it would manage at least med settings at that resolution.

Could anyone give me a quick answer to which you would go for out of the 2 following. I will explain the spec / price after .

Option 1********

Graphics Card XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Processor AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz @ 3.30GHz Black Edition
Power Supply Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Memory Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX Dual Channel
Processor Cooler AMD Approved CPU Cooler
Case Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black
Warranty 1 Year Onsite Collect & Return Warranty
Sound Card High Definition 7.1 OnBoard Sound Card
Optical Drive LG GH22NS30 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter


*** Option 2 ********

Phenom II X545 X2 3.0GHz
2 x 2048mb 800Mhz
Gigabyte M620 -US3 motherboard
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Sony Optiarc 5240 Sata 24x DVD-RW
CIT Black Case with 450 WATT PSU
Graphics card - (to be added but can spend an extra £300 on this system)

Now the question i want to answer is comparing the 2 options would there be quite a big difference in CPU / general performance and will adding a £200-£300 graphics card into Option 2 give me more of a gain playing games.

Option 1

option 1, but i would personally not get either

paradisiac said:

option 1, but i would personally not get either

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pay day today for me. Im going to order a system from here next week.

My option 2 came to £300 from my local shop and was tempted to buy a £300 graphic card from here.

I am so out of the looop its untrue. Would you get something else within my budget then Para?

£600 - £650 is my tops n prefer to have it built, i know i will cok it up

leaves you £75 to pick a case and psu. be a bit tight but well worth it, and putting it together is easy

also as that board supports xfire, you can always add a second gfx card in a month or 2 if you need more for higher res.

do you have any old parts you can recycle like dvd drive, hdd, OS, case.....