Gaming/Graphics Design Rig For £500?

jcb33 · 2 Oct 2007 at 20:33

Hi all, trying to spec a system to play modern games, and use 3DsMax for £500, so far I have done the following spec, but it is slightly over my budget, and im realy not sure what graphics card to go for...

Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 - Retail
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU
Maxtor Diamondmax 21 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (STM3250820AS)
Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK)
NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Asus ATI Radeon EAH2600XT HTDP Silent 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Total : £541.50

Thanks all

Teaf · 2 Oct 2007 at 20:55

I would advise getting the following items.

You get a better graphics card, better hard drive (Maxtor are rubbish) and a better motherboard. Your CPU took a small hit to a E2160 but nothing drastic. Also your PSU got downgraded to the Akasa Paxpower 400w which is enough to power the system quite easily, the OCZ one was too much really due to the budget. If you can afford the extra £5 then I would upgrade the hard drive from the Samsung 150GB to the Hitachi 250GB which would bring the total to £507. Note that the graphics card and RAM are on "This Week Only" so you'd have to order before Thursday lunch time otherwise the prices will go back to normal (looking at about + £20).

jcb33 · 5 Oct 2007 at 18:30

Anyone else

? Thanks!

semi-pro waster · 5 Oct 2007 at 18:54

This is simply a variation on the theme, the graphics card has less Ram because it is now no longer on TWO and nor is the Ram. However you do get a larger hard drive, a SATA DVDRW and probably a better motherboard.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £415.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £75.05
Total : £503.92

danbroad · 5 Oct 2007 at 21:27

I asked over in the PC Games forum about a PS3 beater for sub-£400....

Ordered this, and built today.. it's a flyer for the money!

NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) -
Akasa Ultra Quiet 460W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel with Blue LED
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 Samsung SpinPoint S 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD161HJ)
Asus M2N4-SLI (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM -
Akasa AK-ZEN-01-WH Zen White Case - No PSU

Came in around the £400 with OCUK special offers. The Asus board seems well put together, and the memory is top notch for £40.. I'm sure I spent more than that on 256k once...