£450 Gaming PC

ripped · 29 Apr 2009 at 19:46

I think I may have it right; basically it a mix up of most of your specs so: thank you.

Macky · 29 Apr 2009 at 19:48

You could probably get an E8400 and a GTX 260 for around £450.00 now.

cmndr_andi · 29 Apr 2009 at 19:49

Looks great, your brother is gonna have a very fast computer

ripped · 29 Apr 2009 at 19:51

Should I downgrade it to a GTS 250 or should I keep it at this

cmndr_andi · 29 Apr 2009 at 20:02

Which ever one you get, you should be able to play all of todays games at the highest settings and get decent FPS. To give you a good comparison check this review out.

Look at the lop left graphs for 1280x1024(closest to your resolution). You are comparing the Yellow bar (9800gtx+/stock gts 250) with the red bar (gtx 260 216 core). As you can see, at that resolution even crysis is playable and every other game is fine with the GTS 250.

Glaucus · 29 Apr 2009 at 20:08

How about this

cmndr_andi · 29 Apr 2009 at 20:44

Acidhell, I like the idea of trying to go quad core on a budget,but in this case i don't think its worth it. First as the 9600BE is only phenom 1, it is rather hot and will only overclock up to 2.5(if your lucky). Second, it is only clocked at 2.3Ghz and clock for clock it is no faster than a core 2- so for non multithreaded apps (like games) a faster core 2 will beat it.

So unless the PC is going to be used for heavily multithreaded apps, I recommend saving the 60 quid and get the intel core 2 duo (e5200 will overclock past 3.0Ghz on the stock cooler)

Glaucus · 29 Apr 2009 at 21:01

cmndr_andi said:
snip

I was looking for the phenom II tri cores but they only have them in am3 socket now.
here we go another shop
Buy AMD Phenom II X3 710 Triple Core CPU £102

Edit doh' that's am3 as well. I'm sure they had am2+ PII tri cores?
Or perhaps I'm getting confused. can you put an am3 in an am2+ MOBO?

Glaucus · 29 Apr 2009 at 21:59

Seems I was confused and am3 cpu's fit in am2+ mobo even says on the biostar it takes am3 :rolleyes:

revised spec.

ripped · 3 May 2009 at 12:36

Thanks all, but I might try and convince him to get and tri-core if it is really that much better for the money (compared to Intel dual core)

zAndy1 · 3 May 2009 at 13:04

AcidHell2 said:
Seems I was confused and am3 cpu's fit in am2+ mobo even says on the biostar it takes am3

revised spec.

Like the look of that spec, lotta grunt there for £500 isn't there!

Cristian · 3 May 2009 at 13:23

yea but what about the mouse and kb?

besides, it doesn't have a hard drive (i know the fella that opened the topic doesn't need one) so it's not a complete system.

Raider888 · 3 May 2009 at 17:10

Some very nice systems posted! I reccomend the 4850 for the graphic card, it's fantastic for your games.

mjones1 · 3 May 2009 at 17:18

zAndy1 said:
Like the look of that spec, lotta grunt there for £500 isn't there!

I would get a amd 720 for the extra money great clocker.

ripped · 3 May 2009 at 22:49

Is this good?

Yes i know Extra £20 for DVD drive

widdyst · 3 May 2009 at 23:06

cpu cooler ? ??? But yes that is a good mix defo

ripped · 4 May 2009 at 21:42

I have Asked My Brother ; and he would rather have a Intel setup so another go;

StevenRaith · 4 May 2009 at 21:56

If you can stretch that budget a little bit, get a TRad2 VGA cooler and a Noctua NF-S12 in there, the GPU will be silent. As opposed to howling like a banshee when it gets any kind of load....
Trad2:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-057-TR

Noctua fan:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-001-NC

Looks like this with the fan on. Needs three PCI slots though:

However, it does mean that after an entire night of Folding@Home GPU [that is, 100% all the time] it doesn't go above 55degrees C. And it's near as dammit silent. And by that I don't mean 'it doesn't buzz as much'. I mean that the hard drive is louder than it.

Always nice.

Cristian · 4 May 2009 at 23:05

that should get similar performance for half price.

if only it were in stock...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
still surprised that many people are willing to spend £150+ on their vga cards but not ready to throw another 25 for decent cooling that doesn't make the video card sound like a vacuum cleaner.

StevenRaith · 4 May 2009 at 23:25

cristi said:
that should get similar performance for half price.
if only it were in stock...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
still surprised that many people are willing to spend £150+ on their vga cards but not ready to throw another 25 for decent cooling that doesn't make the video card sound like a vacuum cleaner.

Maybe so, but:

Two ultra quiet 80mm fans with low noise impeller

I'll put a fiver on two 80mm 'low noise' fans being a shedload louder than a Noctua 120mm fan at 500rpm...

I concur on the VGA cooler point though - the TRad2 is a revalation - My Spinpoint F1 is now the loudest component in my machine, if there are no optical disks being read. :eek: