Gaming pc, £600 budget

[The Grue]

New to the forums, have been browsing for a bit and thought I'd finally do a "spec me" thread.

Anyway, would like the best possible gaming pc for £600, just the base unit and Windows 7 include on the list. I have screen, keyboard, mouse etc. Am gaming on a 17" so low resolution. Have no preference AMD/Intel but get the idea AMD is best for lower budget. Thanks to those who can put forward an idea!

 

[coupe69]

Welcome to the forums This will do you just fine, save up for a new monitor though!

EDIT: oops forgotten win7

 

[Tiamat21]

^ya thats pretty much perfect
i5s are nice to overclock, 5770 is epic, but I don't like the Tranquillo, very overrated.

 

[The Grue]

Yeah, plus Win 7 would be over budget, but otherwise thanks a lot. Also motherboard is mATX, but not sure if that'll affect it much. Would I be able to get an AMD spec from anyone?

 

[coupe69]

^ya thats pretty much perfect
i5s are nice to overclock, 5770 is epic, but I don't like the Tranquillo, very overrated.

Perfect apart from the fact I missed off Win 7

Whats wrong with the Tranquillo, it's had some good reviews

Quoting from Guru3D review found here

The Tranquillo is a budget to mid-range cooler that kicks some nice punch when it comes to cooling. It can take a 185W heat which means that for normal usage it's excellent, and for overclocking even the more high-end processor it will have give enough headroom before temperatures would get out of control - you'll be able to pick up the Gelid Tranquillo for less than 30 EUR which makes this a good value CPU cooler

Anyway to the OP here is an AMD spec just over budget, but includes Win7, and if you're lucky you could open up a couple of cores on that cpu with the mainboard I've specced.

 

[The Grue]

I have read about the core unlocking, set ACC to auto etc.. But would I need to update BIOS, and if 3rd and 4th cores were defective, how well would it play, say TF2? Also that would be on a stock dual core fan, not for a quad core, which I guess runs hotter.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

Phenom II X3 720BE ~ £100

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM

This is a triple core processor with an unlocked multiplier.

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo ~ £73

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-355-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

This motherboard has an 8+2 phase VRM with cooling,all solid capacitors and has integrated graphics too. Has ACC for core unlocking too.

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £77

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM ~ £77

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

OR

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail ~ £100

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-124-MS

HD5770 1GB ~ £113

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-131-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w ~ £60

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-031-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB ~ £40

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £15

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-099-SA&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=951

Antec 300 ~ £41

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-101-AN

With the OEM version of Windows 7 the total comes to arohnd £596 excluding postage.

Alternatively you could get an X2 550BE and try unlocking this to a triple or quad core.

 

[Tiamat21]

Completely missed the fact that it was a Matx board :$ and I thought he said he had it.
Oh well, guess that'd work now, am to lazy to upload a rig for him.
That CPU is VERY good if you no how to unlock it to a tri or quad core.
I managed to get my one to a tri core 3.6ghz or something along them lines, I gave it to my bro.

Ohh and the tranquilia, am a Zalman fan boy, I just like that their a copper based cooler and look, well awesome.
That cooler IMO just is to big and brick like.

 

[The Grue]

Thanks guys, very quick response! I will look into those options as all seem good. Should be a nice upgrade from current rig of Pentium, 512mb of DDR, 3XXX series ATi!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I know this is off topic but when I looked at the user name of the OP it reminded me of this song:

 

[The Grue]

Would the stock fan from the Phenom X2 550 BE be able to keep it cool with the cores unlocked? And what's the diffence between oem Win7 & and Retail?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Would the stock fan from the Phenom X2 550 BE be able to keep it cool with the cores unlocked?

I would look at this webpage:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227019

I would also look at this article:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/cpu/phenom-2-cnq-p1.html

Of course you should make sure that your case has decent ventilation.

 

[The Grue]

Decided to go slighly over budget and get a £20-30 cpu cooler. Any recommondations?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hopefully an Antec 300 with the 2 stock fans plus a modular PSU would be good enough.

There is a fair chance you could unlock the X2 550BE to a triple or quad core:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227004

OTH,unlocking is not guaranteed. I would have a look on this thread too:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18108943

There are quite a few people on these forums who have unlocked a Phenom II X2 to a triple or quad core so I would definitely ask them for some advice regarding core unlocking.

 

[The Grue]

Based on the xtreme systems link there's about a 75% unlock to 4th core rate, 23% failure rate and a 2% 3rd core unlock rate. If I was in the 23%, how well would the 550 BE run in games with a 5770? For example TF2 or MW2 (disregarding lag on the latter)

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Decided to go slighly over budget and get a £20-30 cpu cooler. Any recommondations?

I would look at these coolers:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hs-035-ar&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hs-001-gd&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hs-069-ak&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hs-008-ti&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

i would check the reviews for them to see which is the best value for money.

based on the xtreme systems link there's about a 75% unlock to 4th core rate, 23% failure rate and a 2% 3rd core unlock rate. if i was in the 23%, how well would the 550 be run in games with a 5770? for example tf2 or mw2 (disregarding lag on the latter)

i had a quick look at some reviews and here are some reviews which look at the x2 550be in world at war:

http://www.neoseeker.com/articles/hardware/reviews/pii550/10.html

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenom2x2_athlon2x2/11.htm

Both reviews used a GTX260 which is around the same speed as an HD5770 AFAIK.

TF2 should run fine on most modern CPUs IIRC.

 

[The Grue]

Thanks, I'll look into those and choose one. Should be ordering by Easter, so'll have to cope with COD4 on the Wii till then. Thanks to everyone that has contributed!