Budget Gaming Spec

[Aelred89]

After months of moaning and argueing my dad has allowed to build my own pc, but at a reduced budget. I already have a HIS ATI X1950pro and an Arctis Cooling Freezer pro 7 cpu cooler, heres what else i was looking at with a budget of £650:

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £171.99
(£202.09)

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £94.99
(£111.61)

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400UDC) £69.99
(£82.24)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £51.99
(£61.09)

Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM £18.99
(£22.31)

Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £9.99
(£11.74)

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Silver £47.99
(£56.39)

Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU £64.99
(£76.36)

Total: £623.83 (+£12.95 shipping)

Any comments welcomed,

Aelred89

 

[Darg]

You'd be happier with a 6300, DS3 and 2GB of RAM. The 2GB will help it perform much better then the 6600 with just 1GB. Also it'll probably save you some cash for something else like a decent soundcard or something. Do you already have a soundcard? If not then the Fidelity series are only £50 or so for the music version.

I can vouch for the Truepower series being a good PSU. I have the 550W and have never had a problem. Did you look at the Antec 900 Gaming case? I've heard mixed reviews about that but overall it's accepted that it has one of the best airflows around. Apparently a lot of screws to undo but Antec generally take that route for some reason. My Titan case is all screws as well.

EDIT: Price difference is £366.56 instead of £395.94 by swapping the RAM, CPU and MB. That gives you £30 to spend on something else

 

[semi-pro waster]

I'd have to agree with Darg about changing to the either the 6300 or 4300 and 2gb Ram although if you need firewire, Crossfire support or the better sound stick with the DS4 and you will still be under budget. Either of those CPUs will overclock well, the 4300 has a higher multiplier (although a slightly lower stock speed) so is easier to get higher speeds out of.

 

[Aelred89]

Thanks for the input guys, i think i wanna stick with the 6600 cus its gotta last me thru uni and upgrading the RAM at a later date will be much easier. I don't plan on overclocking... well not straight away lol I also like the DS4 due to the dual PCI-E so i mite pick up another x1950pro at a later date, trying to keep my options open.