Gaming build £600ish
- Thread starter Crizzy
- Start date
personally i think you should consider an PhenomII CPU if your buildign from new, while wolfdale is still very good, they are on an outdated socket.
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £107.81
(£123.98) £107.81
(£123.98)
XFX Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (HD-485X-YDFC) £97.99
(£112.69) £97.99
(£112.69)
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS) £72.99
(£83.94) £72.99
(£83.94)
Biostar TSeries TA790GX 128M AMD 790GX (Socket AM2+) DDR2 Motherboard £67.99
(£78.19) £67.99
(£78.19)
Seasonic Silverpower 500W Power Supply £50.43
(£57.99) £50.43
(£57.99)
Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive - Retail £50.42
(£57.98) £50.42
(£57.98)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £44.99
(£51.74) £44.99
(£51.74)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500D2K2/4G) £37.38
(£42.99) £37.38
(£42.99)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £26.99
(£31.04) £26.99
(£31.04)
Sub Total : £556.99
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £85.12
Total : £652.61
im not 100% sure about the MB and if the CPU cooler will fit into your case or does it fit the MB
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £107.81
(£123.98) £107.81
(£123.98)
XFX Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (HD-485X-YDFC) £97.99
(£112.69) £97.99
(£112.69)
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD10EADS) £72.99
(£83.94) £72.99
(£83.94)
Biostar TSeries TA790GX 128M AMD 790GX (Socket AM2+) DDR2 Motherboard £67.99
(£78.19) £67.99
(£78.19)
Seasonic Silverpower 500W Power Supply £50.43
(£57.99) £50.43
(£57.99)
Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive - Retail £50.42
(£57.98) £50.42
(£57.98)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £44.99
(£51.74) £44.99
(£51.74)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500D2K2/4G) £37.38
(£42.99) £37.38
(£42.99)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £26.99
(£31.04) £26.99
(£31.04)
Sub Total : £556.99
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £85.12
Total : £652.61
im not 100% sure about the MB and if the CPU cooler will fit into your case or does it fit the MB
+1 for the phenom II CPU, awesome performance in games for the price. It's compaitble with AM2+ motherboards, but just make sure you don't need to flash a new bios for the board to take the CPU. I'm pretty sure the gigabyte one is fine for the CPU and doesn't require a new bios for the 720 to work.
The 720 is a great CPU, the BE has an unlocked multiplier so it's just a case of increasing this when overclocking, nothing else.
I'd go for the LG instead of the Sony, the latter can't write to DVD's or CD's, whereas the LG is an all in one, plus it still supports HD-DVD (can pick up the discs for next to nothing, I know, I bought about 15 of them
).
I've upped the graphics card to the 4870, it isn't needed for that resolution but is a much better card. If you want to save money I'd go for the 4850, still a great card and better than the 9800gt.
This one http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-117-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938
Definitely go for 4gb of ram, it's pretty much a must in a gaming PC.
The 500W PSU will be enough to power the above rig.
The 720 is a great CPU, the BE has an unlocked multiplier so it's just a case of increasing this when overclocking, nothing else.
I'd go for the LG instead of the Sony, the latter can't write to DVD's or CD's, whereas the LG is an all in one, plus it still supports HD-DVD (can pick up the discs for next to nothing, I know, I bought about 15 of them
).I've upped the graphics card to the 4870, it isn't needed for that resolution but is a much better card. If you want to save money I'd go for the 4850, still a great card and better than the 9800gt.
This one http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-117-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938
Definitely go for 4gb of ram, it's pretty much a must in a gaming PC.
The 500W PSU will be enough to power the above rig.
Ok excellent, I'll look into AMD's tonight - not sure I want to be worried about bios changes though?
To be honest I never thought of going AMD as I always assumed that Intel had got much further ahead. I can go up to £1000 max really if it would be worth it?
Cheers
To be honest I never thought of going AMD as I always assumed that Intel had got much further ahead. I can go up to £1000 max really if it would be worth it?
Cheers
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 5,448
- Location
- North East
yes then you can afford an i7 cpu DDR3 RAM SSD's and erm moster graphics whoudl future proof you for 5 years me thinks
You had the right idea with the intel E8400. You can overclock it to 4ghz very easily. Great chip for gaming. Games generally support 1-2 cores only, you don't need a tri core. If you want more than 2 cores get a quad. But anyways,
Here's a computer I put together for a friend that fits your price range, and is guaranteed to pwn.
Here's a computer I put together for a friend that fits your price range, and is guaranteed to pwn.
Last edited:
Yeah this is what I based the original spec on.
Here's a review of how it performs against the likes of the E8400 and i7.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-ii-x4-810-and-x3-720be-review-am3/24
I'm not saying the E8400 is a bad CPU, I've got one currently clocked to 4ghz, but it is more expensive, was trying to get the spec nearer your budget. For less money you can get pretty much the same performance, plus blu-ray etc.
If you are unsure about the bios then you can either go for a slightly more expensive motherboard like this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-325-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1377
or phone up overclockers, I'm sure they can say if the've had any problems using the 720 in most of the boards. I remember a thread where one of the guys from the shop said the gigabyte boards were booting with the 720 without the need for a bios update.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-phenom-ii-x4-810-and-x3-720be-review-am3/24
I'm not saying the E8400 is a bad CPU, I've got one currently clocked to 4ghz, but it is more expensive, was trying to get the spec nearer your budget. For less money you can get pretty much the same performance, plus blu-ray etc.
If you are unsure about the bios then you can either go for a slightly more expensive motherboard like this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-325-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1377
or phone up overclockers, I'm sure they can say if the've had any problems using the 720 in most of the boards. I remember a thread where one of the guys from the shop said the gigabyte boards were booting with the 720 without the need for a bios update.
Ok, the results are better for the AMD. The money isn't so much of an issue so I would be able to get the better motherboard and not worry about having to flash the bios (something I have never done before...)
The only reason I am not going quad core or i7 is because I understand that games don't really use them and with all high end PC stuff by the time it is more commonly used it will be much cheaper.
The only reason I am not going quad core or i7 is because I understand that games don't really use them and with all high end PC stuff by the time it is more commonly used it will be much cheaper.
Last edited:
yes then you can afford an i7 cpu DDR3 RAM SSD's and erm moster graphics whoudl future proof you for 5 years me thinks
But is i7 really worth it at current costs??
Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Sep 2008
- Posts
- 7,940
- Location
- Glasgow
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (21133-04-20) £164.99
(£143.47) £164.99
(£143.47)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £151.79
(£131.99) £151.79
(£131.99)
Coolermaster Real Power 620w Modular Power Supply £79.98
(£69.55) £79.98
(£69.55)
Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £68.99
(£59.99) £68.99
(£59.99)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX8500D2K2/4G) £42.99
(£37.38) £42.99
(£37.38)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £22.99
(£19.99) £22.99
(£19.99)
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.09
(£13.99) £16.09
(£13.99) Sub Total : £511.35 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £78.20 Total : £599.55
(£143.47) £164.99
(£143.47)
(£131.99) £151.79
(£131.99)
(£69.55) £79.98
(£69.55)
(£59.99) £68.99
(£59.99)
(£37.38) £42.99
(£37.38)
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)
(£19.99) £22.99
(£19.99)
(£13.99) £16.09
(£13.99) Sub Total : £511.35 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £78.20 Total : £599.55
Quick update:
Its all up and running, no problems at all with setting it up. I only really have one new game to test it on and thats Dawn of War 2 - all the settings are maxed out and its running perfectly
I've just overclocked it to 3.6ghz and am running some stress tests now
Excellent stuff, cheers again!
Its all up and running, no problems at all with setting it up. I only really have one new game to test it on and thats Dawn of War 2 - all the settings are maxed out and its running perfectly
I've just overclocked it to 3.6ghz and am running some stress tests now
Excellent stuff, cheers again!
Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 5,448
- Location
- North East
no build pics
what did you end up buying then?
what did you end up buying then?
no build pics
what did you end up buying then?
I have got a few pics of the build, not loads though.
The motherboard was the first thing to arrive:
Then everything else turned up about 30mins later:
Motherboard securely in place:
The brains behind the outfit:
The CPU and PSU installed:
This is just before I powered it on for the first time:
A flicker of life:
Windows, everything working ok. Just need to install the graphics card now:
After everything is installed, just need to do some cable tidying:
Just about to start copying over my files and install those essential programs:
So all in all i'm well chuffed. My previous build had cathodes, sunbeams etc etc but I'm not sure if I want to go down that road again, if not I'll probably get another case.