Cheapest rig

[nutter]

Just wondering whats cheapest rig one could buy to run new games & old looking "ok"

Im guessing a GTX 260 still runs them well & is cheap enough. DDR2 ram is still good enough, 500gb hard drive.

Just wondering whats cheapest CPU one could go, this will all be at stock, no overclocking.

I thinking the Dual Cores are very old news, maybe a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400?

Just out of interest, what can experts throw up to play new games looking ok and old ones "good".

Lets say was playing on 22" monitor.

 

[PermaBanned]

Well what's your actual budget? Just the base unit (no peripherals or OS)?

A good dual core can keep up with the quads in most games. They're just starting to utilise the extra cores...

 

[nutter]

Well i have a choice between high end, or a ok machine. I know what i want in high end rig.

So lets say budget is £600 for ok machine. Thas just tower alone including needing windows op system, which would be windows 7.

 

[PermaBanned]

Something like this, make a few cuts:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £125.98
(£109.55) £125.98
(£109.55)
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £97.99
(£85.21) £97.99
(£85.21)
Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage (PVV34G1600LLKB) £80.99
(£70.43) £80.99
(£70.43)
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD 770 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £76.99
(£66.95) £76.99
(£66.95)
Be Quiet! Straight Power 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply £66.99
(£58.25) £66.99
(£58.25)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail £65.99
(£57.38) £65.99
(£57.38)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £36.98
(£32.16) £36.98
(£32.16)
**B Grade** Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £27.59
(£23.99) £27.59
(£23.99)
Akasa AK-968 X4 CPU Cooler (Socket 939/AM2/AM3/775/1156/1366) £19.99
(£17.38) £19.99
(£17.38)
Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.77) £16.99
(£14.77)
Sub Total : £536.07
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £82.62
Total : £633.44

 

[gurusan]

woops, i went over budget. killer machine though

 

[PermaBanned]

I do wish people would stop putting the Antec 300 in builds...

 

[nutter]

Nice rigs, but whats with that AMD 720 being picked so much?

Surely it's not much good nowadays or am i wrong?

A Intel Quad Core must be better by a mile?

 

[gurusan]

I do wish people would stop putting the Antec 300 in builds...

It's a good case that's affordable and awesome for air cooling. What would you suggest?

Nice rigs, but whats with that AMD 720 being picked so much?

Surely it's not much good nowadays or am i wrong?

A Intel Quad Core must be better by a mile?

Good gain from 2 to 3 cores but not so much yet from 3 to 4 cores.....and the 720 BE clocked to about 3.6-3.8GHz will take cpu limitation pretty much out of the equation comes to gaming. Also some tri-cores unlock to 4 core

 

[nutter]

What about this guys

AM3 Phenom X4 940
4GB DDR3 1333
500Gb
AM3 MSI 770-C45
896Mb GTX260
Powercool 650W
Windows 7


£650?

 

[gurusan]

the 5850 is a newer faster card....if you can base your build around a 5850 that would be ideal

 

[nutter]

the 5850 is a newer faster card....if you can base your build around a 5850 that would be ideal

With my above system though, i could upgrade the CPU & GPU in say 2-3 monhts time couldn't i?

So get one of new AMD's coming out, and say the 5850 or 5870 when price drops?

 

[asoxedri]

or

 

[PermaBanned]

It's a good case that's affordable and awesome for air cooling. What would you suggest?

Coolermaster Elite 335
Asus TA-D21
SunBeam Freezing Storm
Sunbeam Quarterback
Sunbeam 3D Storm
Asus TS-8B1
Sunbeam Silent Storm
Thermaltake M5
NZXT Beta
Asus TA-M11
Akasa Zen
Akasa Freedom Xone
Akasa MIDAS
xClio Propeller

And plenty others besides. I'm not saying it's a bad case, i'm just saying that it's so common and isn't as good as cases cheaper than itself.

 

[gurusan]

OcUK don't carry most of those cases and I was just spec'ing off OCUK. If they sold sunbeam I'd link those for sure.

Also a few of those cases are cack like the Akasa Midas

 

[PermaBanned]

Meh, it's a good HTPC case

I only know of one UK retailer that does Sunbeam... great prices though.