Gameing Machine Spec

Battery · 5 Apr 2006 at 17:51

Hello

Looking to upgrade my PC atm, purely for gameing. Budget is somewhere between the 900/1000 £ mark. I dont need a monitor at all, and i was gonna use roughly about 80 quid of the budget or so to get a new case. So the things i need help with are CPU/Mobo/Ram/Hard Drive. If anyone could spec me a kit for around my budget that would be great

Thanks

fenderbass86 · 5 Apr 2006 at 17:56

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM) 1
£279.95 £279.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS) 1
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£89.95 £89.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£55.50 £55.50
Subtotal £490.35
VAT £85.82
Total £576.17

What graphics card have you got to go with this?

*Edit* - Welcome to the forums, the guys are usually pretty helpful

Battery · 5 Apr 2006 at 17:58

Lol, totaly forgot about that, my 6800 recently fried (this morning) So yes, i'd need a new gfx card

fenderbass86 · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:02

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - Price: £259.95 (£305.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Should come to about £880 now. You'll also need an ATX2.0/2.01/2.2 PSU, everyone will suggest Enermax, FSP, Hiper, Seasonic and Tagan. I would suggest one of the Tagan modular's, i'm gonna be building a new gaming rig soon and i'm going for the 580W.

Battery · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:10

thanks for the reply

will start delving into stuff now

Electronic Punk · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:11

For an ATI card wouldn't a crossfire motherboard be better for upgrade options?

/waves at battery

fenderbass86 · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:44

Depends how big his monitor is, if it's no bigger than 19/20" then X-fire/SLi isn't needed.

Battery · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:50

Well, I currently have two, though I only ever run the pc through one at a time. The first being a 17" TFT. The other Being a 46" HD DLP telle.

/wave Electronic Punk

The Running Man · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:51

tbh if i went with an nvidia mobo i would go nvidia GPU... and if i wanted an ATi Gfx card i would get an ATi mobo (x-fire and SLi)

no one knows whats going to happen with the PPU rendering etc but u dont want to pigeon hole yourself tbh

fenderbass86 · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:54

The only question is Battery, are you ever likely to run big resolutions with full effects in games? If so, then swap the motherboard for an SLi or X-fire board. If not, then the ATI card I specced will run perfectly fine on any norce4 motherboard.

Battery · 5 Apr 2006 at 18:56

The largest reso ill use is 1280x1024 on the TFT.

squiffy · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:04

I would definetly go ATI/ATI or Nvidia/Nivida, purely for upgradability possiblity for the second card (recently bought 580 ATI and X1900XT, rather than Nforce 4 + X1900XT, as I would be fixed to single ATI, or replace that with dual Nvidias) Decide if you want to get ATI or Nvidia, and buy matching SLI/Crossfire motherboard.

fenderbass86 · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:05

Then i'd personally stick with the single slot PCI-express motherboard and get one decent graphics card, which I specced earlier. X1900XT, currently the best 'bang for buck' top end card (I think). But it's your call in the end.

Battery · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:26

If i did go down the route of buying a crossfire mobo for the XT1900... would i "have" to buy a second graphics card for it ?

squiffy · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:32

No you don't need the second card. You could buy a SLI or Crossfire motherboard but just use a single card. The second slot is there if you do decide to have two videocards. I just have a single X1900XT with the 580 motherboard.
You can also have a single Nvidia in a Nforce 4 motherboard. You might want the possibility of SLI/Crossfire later though. If you don't need that many PCI slots I would probably say worthwhile to get a SLI/Crossfire motherboard, just in case. If you do want it later but only have a single slotted PCI Exress videocard slot you'll need a new motherboard, and probably by that time new memory and CPU also. Perhaps the system is still fast/enough RAM except for video side things so it'll be a expensive upgrade.

Jack Bauer · 5 Apr 2006 at 19:57

If you buying an ATI you might as well get one of the new boards that do not need a master card, Then if you do deside to go crossfire it wil be cheaper. Not sure exactly which chipset this is.

Battery · 6 Apr 2006 at 09:14

Just read a long thread about problems with crossfire boards.... plus im unlikely to add a second graphics card.

fenderbass86 · 6 Apr 2006 at 09:25

Plus it's a really expensive hobby.

Battery · 6 Apr 2006 at 09:29

Not to sure about a PSU for this lot though, any thoughts specificaly ?

fenderbass86 · 6 Apr 2006 at 09:55

I would say:

Antec NeoHE 550W Modular ATX2.0 PSU - Price: £69.95 (£82.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU - Price: £89.95 (£105.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)

FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon 600W ATX2.0 PSU - Price: £69.95 (£82.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply - Price: £87.95 (£103.34 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU - Price: £77.95 (£91.59 Including VAT at 17.5%)

The Enermax, Seasonic and Tagan being the best 3 out of the bunch. I'm building a new gaming rig based on X2 4400+, 2GB RAM, X1900XT and i'm going for the Tagan Easycon 580W as my PSU. It's very similar to what I specced you yesterday, so i'd think anything above 550W is good.