Budget Gaming PC advice

feedtheram

feedtheram

feedtheram

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1 May 2007
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1,150
Hi all,

Used to game loads when i was younger spent hours playing Quake with awful lag on dialup!!! anyway its about time i got back into things and am after a budget gaming PC. Am looking to spend around £550 but could probably stretch a bit further.

Comments would be greatly appreciated...

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £99.86

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

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£21.14

Enermax Liberty 400W ELT400AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
£46.99

Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£70.49

Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM
£35.24

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
£77.54

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
£66.96

Total: £447 (tho need monitor mouse and keyboard also)

I dont really know much about PSU's or Drives so advice on them would be great. Also a good recommendation for a budget screen, mouse and keyboard would be great. Also i am unsure of whether i would require additional cooling?

I am plan on doing a bit of overclocking.

Many thanks :)
 
Lol, definately easier for budget gaming rigs now that you can have high end memory in there for such a low cost, if you plan on waiting for any reason, make sure to buy the memory now.
The above build looks fine to me, I quite like the Hitachi Deskstars but a few people would recommend the Seagates.

You should be able to clock a bit on the stock heatsink but would maybe be better getting another one.

Edit: That mobo is more expensive than I remember, you could add a few quid more and get the DFI Infinity 975x, it's a really nice clocking board with latest bios updates.
 
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Welcome to the forums, that all looks pretty good. I'd probably stick with the S3 for the motherboard as it is based on the 965P chipset which tends to reach higher FSBs than the 975X chipset unless Emlyn_Dewar knows something about the DFI that I don't (which is entirely possible). :)

Logitech and Microsoft both make good peripherals so just pick ones in your budget. As for screen I think that the OcUK Hanns-G screens are relatively popular and fairly cheap although I know little about monitors in general.
 
400w should be ok for the x1950pro, but i would get at least 500w for a new graphics card in the future.
 
put this together, slightly over with the inclusion of the corsair 520w psu, if you have extra possibly look at the gigabyte ds3p mobo and 4400 processor:

NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99 (£21.14)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £65.99 (£77.54)
Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99 (£70.49)
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £84.99 (£99.86)
Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU £24.99 (£29.36)
OcUK Value Hanns-G HC174D 17" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £87.99 (£103.39)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99 (£70.49)
Creative Fatal1ty 1010 1600 DPI Gaming Mouse - Retail £11.99 (£14.09)
Cherry G83-6105 PS2 Keyboard - Black £11.99 (£14.09)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £46.99 (£55.21)
Sub Total : £472.90
Shipping : £12.95
Vat : £85.02
Total : £570.87
 
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Thanks for the replies once again.

I will take all that into consideration.

A couple of other random questions. Can i specify Saturday delivery from Ocuk? and if so how much does it cost? i may be going blind but cant see any info on the site.

Also i have had a look in the B-Grade section and am considering a monitor from there. I assume B-Grade is repaired stock? Does anyone have an opinion on if this is a bad idea.

Cheers
 
I think it depends how much you are buying. Press Checkout on the main site and it will give you shipping options at the bottom.
 
The Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ULTIMATE SILENT 256MB comes with a free game, loads of cables and a Zalman VF900-CU Copper Silent Cooler with variable fan for an extra £17.

The Samung Spinpoint's are reputed to have the lowest noise level, I would pick one of them.

Your system is very close to the one I'm looking to buy.
 
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