A Gaming rig for <£800 please?

Jukesy · 1 Mar 2006 at 12:35

Good Afternoon,

My mate has asked my advice on building him a gaming rig as his current setup doesn't even run pre 2000 games, and as the current technology is advancing at a phenomenal rate im not upto the spec on the latest gadgets and gizmo's that are required nowadays...

This is where you experienced guys/gal's come into the fray, with your sublime knowledge on building pc's could you please put together a gaming machine with the top top budget of £800 and i can pass these onto him. Now he doesn't need a new monitor, mouse or keyboard but he does need Windows XP incorporated into this price. Can you help??

Thanks in advance.
Jukesy

semi-pro waster · 1 Mar 2006 at 12:54

Something like this ought to be suitable. You have a fantastic graphics card, good CPU, large hard drive and all the other components are solid.

OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM (OS-001-MS)
£50.95 £50.95
CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£61.95 £61.95
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£129.95 £129.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£199.95 £199.95
MY-006-OK OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
£89.95 £89.95
CD-028-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-028-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£60.95 £60.95
Subtotal £671.60
VAT £117.53
Total £789.13

BigDom · 1 Mar 2006 at 12:55

CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£122.95 £122.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM (OS-001-MS)
£50.95 £50.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£199.95 £199.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE)
£24.95 £24.95
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA)
£34.95 £34.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.50 £14.50
Subtotal £678.10
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £120.94
Total £811.99

fenderbass86 · 1 Mar 2006 at 12:56

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM) 1
£129.95 £129.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) 1
£61.95 £61.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£109.95 £109.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO) 1
£199.95 £199.95
HD-048-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-048-WD) 1
£51.95 £51.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) 1
£24.95 £24.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) 1
£65.95 £65.95
OS-002-MS Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition inc. SP2 - OEM (OS-002-MS) 1
£81.95 £81.95
Subtotal £726.60
VAT £127.16
Total £853.76

It's over buydget but it's well worth it. A decent CPU, 2GB RAM and a wicked graphic card. Should last a long time (within reason).

BigDom · 1 Mar 2006 at 12:57

Haha as allways me and Semi come out with damned similar spec's. Had to go for a smaller disk on my spec but swapping to a retail SD and dropping the Freezer would allow a bigger disk.

ACESHIGH · 1 Mar 2006 at 12:58

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £193.82
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) £17.04
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF) £93.94
G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit (F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ) (MY-008-GS) £152.69
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £258.44
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB 6V250F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-088-MD) £69.27
Philips SPD2400BM 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-006-PH) £25.79
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) £77.49

Total = £793.54 Including VAT

Have all you need. Good dual core CPU, very fast graphics (better than 7800GTX), plenty of ram, big HDD, good mobo, good DVD burner & nice case with strong PSU.

BigDom · 1 Mar 2006 at 13:00

Your missing XP in that space ACES. Pushes it up to over £850. In fact potentially over £900 as doesn't a X2 need Pro?

ACESHIGH · 1 Mar 2006 at 13:01

yeah just noticed that, oops. i could modify it, but you guys have done well, so i wont bother.

semi-pro waster · 1 Mar 2006 at 13:23

BigDom said:
Haha as allways me and Semi come out with damned similar spec's. Had to go for a smaller disk on my spec but swapping to a retail SD and dropping the Freezer would allow a bigger disk.

Its kind of worrying but I tell myself it is because we have worked out what is the best value

Either specification is fine though BigDom's has slightly better Ram and a better cooler but with less hard drive space.

Jukesy · 1 Mar 2006 at 14:04

Thanks all, as always youve come up trumps...

I shall print this off and pass it to him...

Cheers again for all your help.

Jukesy

Eliot · 1 Mar 2006 at 14:46

Jukesy said:
Thanks all, as always youve come up trumps...

I shall print this off and pass it to him...

Cheers again for all your help.

Jukesy

Jukesy? were you on a another forum around 2-3 years ago, with a halo signature.? sorry for the obscure question lol.

Jukesy · 1 Mar 2006 at 14:47

Eliot said:
Jukesy? were you on a another forum around 2-3 years ago, with a halo signature.? sorry for the obscure question lol.

No problem but i don't think it would be me sorry, especially with a Halo sig...

dave2k2005 · 1 Mar 2006 at 15:04

Well, my PC was 700 quid and my spec is:
AMD 64 3500+
X800GTO 256mb
1GB RAM
19" Digimate TFT
Asus A8N SLI deluxe
160GB HDD
sony DVD Rewriter

All of thius for 700, it is better than a lot fo peoples computers and will lasyt you quite a bit!

Eliot · 1 Mar 2006 at 16:52

Jukesy said:
No problem but i don't think it would be me sorry, especially with a Halo sig...

ok m8 just wondering