£600 - Spec me ;)

[twistedheat]

Basically, I'm looking at building a rig (with the help of a friend) that can play the latest games for atleast the next couple of years (not necessarily at the 'highest' settings), I'm only a casual gamer so I don't need anything too fancy,...as long as the game runs smooth without many snags.

I will be waiting for the intel price drops before I purchase, so you can factor that into your prices.

What I need for my £600:
- Quiet and relatively cool case (in black), my room gets fairly warm. Would also like some USB ports at the front.
- PSU (if not provided with case)
- Motherboard
- CPU
- Graphics Card
- 500gb hard-drive
- Anything else I've forgotten (I already have a DVD drive and a DVD-writer, 3.5" floppy disk drive and a 150gb back-up hard drive).

Additional info: I have a friend that is willing to overclock the intel for me, so that can factor in. Would prefer a DX10 compatible graphics card, but that is more in hope than expectancy.

Finally, a quick thank you!

EDIT: My TFT only supports VGA connection, and components do not have to be only found through OC's shop (i.e if you know of a better component in my price range than the ones found in the OC's shop, let me know )

 

[Cupra]

best i can do.. should kick @ss tho m8

 

[twistedheat]

Wow, super quick reply. Thanks! Looks good, I was speaking to my mate and he told me that a good quality ram can be as important as a good graphics card..i.e no point having a super graphics card as it will be bottlenecked with inferior ram.

So I was thinking a graphics card around £150-170 inc vat, and ram at around £130 inc vat. My friend could ofcourse be wrong, and if so then you can tell me to shut up.

 

[Cupra]

this ram will do 1100 @ 5,5,5,15 easy mate,

 

[twistedheat]

this ram will do 1100 @ 5,5,5,15 easy mate, also i have posted a q on mm for ya

Thanks mate. Was told this forum was super helpful, a justified comment!

 

[-Nick-]

welcome to the forums twistedheat

i can't see any problems with the spec

 

[twistedheat]

welcome to the forums twistedheat

i can't see any problems with the spec

Thanks for the welcome. Yeah, Paul did a pretty solid spec for me . Would like to see if someone can up with something different.

 

[Nebzor]

With the general low reliability of built-in PSUs, and the fact that's only 430W, I'd suggest going for something a little more substantial. Antec Sonata III with built-in Seasonic 500W PSU would be a good choice, par exemple.

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £49.99
(£58.74)
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £65.99
(£77.54)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £62.99
(£74.01)
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £199.99
(£234.99)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £52.99
(£62.26)

Sub Total : £491.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £88.01
Total : £590.90

 

[Cupra]

the fact mm rig uses under 400w says that the psu will be fine.. so many people saying they need all this power and its utter garbage

 

[Nebzor]

the facy mt rig uses under 400w says that the psu will be fine.. so many people saying they need all this power and its utter garbage

Note you're using a decent PSU not a poor quality jobby.

 

[Cupra]

if i had my watt meter beforehad id have saved some money tho

 

[Nebzor]

if i had my watt meter beforehad id have saved some money tho

That's not the point, whatsoever. You definitely should not, and probably could not, run his spec off a cheapy 430W PSU.

 

[Jaffa_Cake]

That's not the point, whatsoever. You definitely should not, and probably could not, run his spec off a cheapy 430W PSU.

It's not a Cheap PSU - Antec make good PSU's. I am a little worried about that PSU and the 8800 though. Especially if it was OC'd.

My spec would be:

640mb/320mb GTS's make very little differences and not worth if for a 'casual' gamer as you put it IMO.

Mhz is 1333MHz FSB Would overclock very well with a £30 cooler if you can afford to push budget.

 

[Cupra]

it depends on the rails tbh,

i do have a 620w psu but im overcolocked on everything and still using 400w under full load

plus i have 2 pumps and 12 120m fans and 1 80mm fan all @ 12v

im not saying that it is the best psu in the world but i will say it is fine for that setup but by all means spec another one for the lad after all thats what he wants

 

[Nebzor]

Built-in PSUs are known to be of questionable quality when compared to their seperately-sold more expensive counterparts. Do not take brand names as a guarantee, as often they're not made directly by 'Antec'.

 

[melbourne720]

That's what I would get if it was my money...

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
(£93.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (320-P2-E815-AR)
(£211.49)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£64.61)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU
(£29.36)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
(£17.61)

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£18.21)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£52.86)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£58.74)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)
(£52.86)

Total : £612.61

 

[twistedheat]

That's what I would get if it was my money...

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard
(£93.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (320-P2-E815-AR)
(£211.49)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£64.61)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU
(£29.36)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
(£17.61)

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£18.21)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£52.86)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£58.74)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)
(£52.86)

Total : £612.61

Yeah I was thinking along the lines of a 320mb Geforce 8800 as I am not a serious gamer, and only have a 19" monitor (1440x900) so a 640mb 8800 may be slightly overkill.