Building my first gaming PC and I could use some advice.

Iron Goldfish

Iron Goldfish

Iron Goldfish

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11 Nov 2006
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I've finally decided to get myself a gaming PC. I don't need anything top-end, I'm not too bothered about playing anything on the level of Oblivion just yet. I'm after something that can play the games of about a year or two ago smoothly, on high settings if possible. Games like The Sims 2, Guild Wars, Morrowind, possibly World of Warcraft... things like that.

Now, I know very little about PC hardware, but I've been reading the sticky and a few threads, and I've ended up with this:

- Intel Pentium 4 820 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.8GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-102-IN) £59.99

- Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK) £45.99

- BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG) £84.99

- Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT6464AA53E) (MY-081-CR) £79.99

- Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £44.99

- Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU (CA £58.99

- Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-038-PO) £18.99

- Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO) £10.50

- Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 Keyboard (KB-054-MS) £11.99

- Logitech LX3 Optical Mouse - Retail (KB-085-LG) £17.99

- Creative SBS260 2.0 Speakers - OEM (SP-080-CL) £7.95

- Belinea 1925S1W 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-005-BE) £124.99

- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) £52.99

Subtotal £620.34
VAT £108.56
Total £728.90

Apart from if it'll all work together properly, I'd like to know if it'll run the games I've mentioned well. I'm kind of pushing it with the price, so I'm also wondering if this is overkill, and if something cheaper would suit me just as well.

I probably have a hundred more questions, but I'll leave it at that for now and see what advice I can get. :p

And as I said, I don't really know what I'm doing, so be gentle with me. :(
 
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If you bump that processor upto the lowest allendale core 2 duo it'll definately be fine, would add about another £60 to the total cost.

Would be ideal to get a seagate, wd, or samsung as maxtors have a higher failure rate, plus they are loud fookers.

The rest is good, but there's still a few places you could improve.

ie. MS Comfort Curve is a very nice budget keyboard, purchased 4 already myself, friends and family love em.

I can understand wanting to fit in a budget though, and to answer your direct question, yes i think it would max out most games (older ones), but the core 2 duo would likely ensure that more so....
 
Okay, I've changed the HDD to a Samsung one of the same price.

The Comfort Curve is the same price too, so I might aswell give that a try.

I really can't afford to spend any more than I have, so a core 2 duo is out of the question. I didn't really want to go above £700. That said, I have a question about the graphics card. Does it make much difference getting the GT over the GS? Think I could consider getting the GS instead to lower the price a little?

Thanks for your help.
 
I've got a GS, and i'd say yeah its fine, but the GT is faster.

Though if you get the Palit one, the OCuk branded red card with the blackheatsink they apparently clock really well, i have one myself. Mild overclock right now, but it handles BF2 at 1440x900 maxed, see sig for my rig.

Will run any older games maxed i should think quite easily.

EDIT: reading back i was thinking of the 7900 card, and you're going with the 7600GT. I'd stick with the GT if you can, it'll be better for games.
 
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I've had a little look around and managed to find *ahem* another site that builds the PC for you and lets you pay over 9 months with no interest. This would let me push my budget up a little, allowing me to get the cheaper Core 2 Duo, along with the 7600 GT (and it'd probably be safer having someone build it for me ;) ). I've brought the price down a little by going for a 160GB HDD, because I really doubt I'll need 250GB. Even if I do, I can always get a bigger HDD later.

The only problem with this other site (apart from it making me paranoid by seeming too good to be true) is that you get very little choice in motherboards. It looks like I'd be going for the Asus board. So, how reliable are Asus?

Thanks for all your help so far by the way. :D
 
ASUS are fine in my own experience, but i'm sure there's people that disagree, its down to personal experience.

What i can say though is, whatever board choices they give you, run the model number in google like "a34tf problems" where 'a34tf' would be the model number, and see if there's many problems with that board. Budget boards can be problematic.

Why don't you contact OCuk and ask if they'd fit the cpu and mobo for you, might help to offer to pay them for it. Worst they can say is 'no'........

If the payment installments are what you really want i can't offer any more help, this is the OCuk forums, and asking for help when buying from competitors isnt going to go down with the Don's.
 
Heh, I know, I was just asking about Asus, that's all. I came here looking for good help with picking hardware, and that's exactly what I've got. :) Didn't mean to sound like a naughty rule-breaking type guy.

Ran a search on google and can't see any problems. Think I'll go for it.

Thanks again!

Ooh, can't wait to play something newer than Starcraft for once.
 
OMG! people still play that,,, :eek: no offense meant.

New system is gonna just look at you and say "NO!! gimme something more demanding now!!!" .... :D
 
Iron Goldfish said:
People have played it so much that they're too good at it... I can't keep up. :(

Time to be bad at a prettier RTS methinks. :D
Click to expand...

If im right the competitor you've mentioned also charges a hefty fee for this service.

Would definately recommend a core2duo as minimum processor
 
I'm ordering this syetm and its under £700, its from a competitor though. I also think I could get one or to of the components even cheaper if I look around!

I believe this is a much better GPU than the 7600GT....

Case:
Antec NSK6500 Black/Silver Super Mid Tower Case - With 430W PSU £66.79
Motherboard:
ASRock ConRoe945G-DVI i945G SKT LGA775 onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX £41.69
CPU:
E6300 Core 2 Duo *OEM* 1.86GHz 1066FSB 2MB Cache £99.98
CPU cooling fan:
Arctic Cooling (AC-ALP-7) Alpine Socket 775 Cooler £7.67
DVD RW
Sony AW-G170AB2 18xDVD±RW/RAM Dual Layer Writer Black - Bare Drive £17.01
HDD:
Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 16MB Cache - £43.95
GPU:
Sapphire X1950Pro 256MB 256bit GDDR3 Dual DVI TVO PCI-E £110.62
Monitor:
Belinea 1925S1W 19" Widescreen 5ms 850:1 (1440 X 900) Silver & Black MultiMedia TFT Monitor 3 Years Onsite Warranty £109.99
Memory:
Corsair 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 667MHz 2x64Mx64 non-ECC 2x240 DIMM Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty £73.30

Total: £682.00 incl VAT
 
Hmm, that card's a little more expensive than the 7600GT.

Turns out I don't work enough hours to qualify for that pay later thing, so I'm just going to order the parts from here and buid it myself. I get paid soon, I've managed to sell this PC I'm using now and I have more than enough overdraft to pay the rest (I love being a student *cough*).

So yeah, I've decided on the PC above, and I'm going to be crazy and get the Core 2 Duo.

I have a couple more questions though. Will the PSU be enough? I doubt I'll be doing any overclocking. What about cooling? Do I need anything else to keep my PC from bursting into flames?
 
PSU should be fine, just start worrying when you add more hdd's and optical drives. PSU's never have a 100% efficiency.

Ideally it would be better to go with something like......

Akasa Zen case - £30 inc depending where you look
Good brand 500w - FSP, Enermax, Antec, Seasonic, Corsair. £70 tops if you look around.

It would give you more space to add parts later without stretching the PSU to its last legs.

As a comparison i'm running a Enermax Liberty 500W, and i'm drawing about 356W under load, and i think the Liberty (without looking it up) has about 80% efficiency (500W minus 20% = 400W), not leaving me much. I run, 3 x hdd's, 3 x 120mm Akasa Amber fans, Audigy 2 ZS, NIC Card, DVDRW, Floppy, UV Cathode, 6 USB devices (inc mouse + kb) and the rest is in my sig.
 
Okay, I'll do that. If I do decide to upgrade later, I'll be kicking myself if I have to splash out for a new PSU.

What about fans? I ask because I'm clueless about the different types of fans, how many you need etc.
 
The Zen comes with 2 120mm fans fitted, which is one reason its a bargain, i have one as my spare.

The build quality is very good for a £30 case, and considering they bundle in some decent fans its even more attractive.

Comes in white and black, but i can't see many drives that come in white.

I can take some pics of the Zen i have if you want, mines black.
 
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