Gaming rig

barros · 29 Oct 2006 at 17:19

Hi,

I am a newb to building gaming rigs and was wondering if you guys could help me out a little?

I have a budget of £800 and need an idea of what i can spend it on.
I need everything from mouse and keyboard to operating system.

Thanks in advance

Barros

semi-pro waster · 29 Oct 2006 at 17:39

Welcome to the forums. This should be suitable I think and comes in around the budget.

OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£52.99 £52.99
MO-019-OK OcUK Value Hanns-G HC194D 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-019-OK)
£109.99 £109.99
KB-072-LG Logitech Cordless Desktop EX-110 - Retail (KB-072-LG)
£17.99 £17.99
CA-035-AN Antec Performance TX1088AMG Metallic Grey Tower Case - 480w Truepower PSU (CA-035-AN)
£38.99 £38.99
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£99.99 £99.99
HS-017-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-017-AR)
£14.99 £14.99
MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£139.99 £139.99
GX-089-LT Leadtek GeForce 7900 GS 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-089-LT)
£107.99 £107.99
CD-042-NE NEC AD5170 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-042-NE)
£18.99 £18.99
HD-024-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-024-SA)
£35.99 £35.99
Subtotal £683.89
VAT £119.69
Total £803.58

barros · 29 Oct 2006 at 18:50

Thanks a lot, i really appreciate this.

I am gonna order the parts and build for a friend.

Great help

Barros

barros · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:30

Sorry about the double post but here is what my mate got instead
Acer AC1916AB 19" monitor
Kingston value ram 1 gb 533 mhz ddr2 non ecc cl4 dimm
CASECOM KL999 ATX CASE WITH 350 PSU
SEAGATE ST31602121A 160 GB 7200RPM
ASUSTEK M2V AM2 VIAK8T890 SOUND, GIGALAW AND USB 2.0 2000 MHZ FSB SATA ATX
SONY DEM 3.5 FLOPPY DRIVE
SONY DDU 1615-S 16X40X DVD ROM
XP HOME EDITION
POINT OF VIEW 7900GS 256MB 256BIT GDDR3
ATHLON 644200 DUAL CORE 2.2MHZ 512KB L2CACHE

set him back £691 including VAT

what are your overall thoughts of the system ? and is the semi-pro waster posted a better rig?

barros

A.N.Other · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:35

No competition between those tbh. The E6300 jumps all over the X2. With s-p w's spec, you've also got double the RAM, better case and (more importantly) PSU.

barros · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:41

Thanks a lot for the quick reply, gonna have to try and convince him.
I told him about the rig semi-pro wrestler and he went off and asked a friend who has been upgrading his comp piece by piece for the last few months and just believes him cause he has a bit of experience.

Barros

squiffy · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:43

Out of that system posted earlier y semi-pro waster I would get a decent motherboard, not asrock. Change NEC to a Pioneer, and change Samsung drive to a Western Digital or a Seagate (if getting 7200.10 make sure you check it's the quieter one)

RJC · 29 Oct 2006 at 21:44

Hi,

Definitely go for the conroe rig, good overclocks as well.

Rob

barros · 29 Oct 2006 at 22:06

After a long talk over msn the lad isnt going to change his mind, he thinks the rig shown 2nd is worth the extra £110 saved. If he got the 1 gig ram kit he would save himself about £60. Even with the 1 gig kit he is still getting a better processor and better psu as you lot have pointed out.

Barros

V|per · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:54

Semi-pro wasters spac was far greater in all areas, except the gfx card, he had 2gb ram, a c2d cpu, better psu, and the optical drive is a writer too...

The system your mate has isn't too bad, just depends what games he wants to play really...

semi-pro waster · 30 Oct 2006 at 00:41

squiffy said:
I would get a decent motherboard, not asrock.

Just to clarify a point here, ASRock aren't that bad by any means, they are basically the budget division for Asus and they do come out with some quite innovative motherboards(AGP and PCI-E on one motherboard or DDR compatability for a socket 775 system for instance). Sure a Gigabyte DS3 or similar will be better for overclocking but then you are paying about double the price.

The system he has bought isn't a bad PC but a Conroe based system would be a lot faster, one question though is the Ram a single stick or is that just a lack of clarity in the description(it mentions a dimm, not dimms)?

barros · 30 Oct 2006 at 18:17

Hi just been told by the lad who designed the other system that a cooler voids the warranty on a processor ? Is that true ?

Barros

RJC · 30 Oct 2006 at 18:22

barros said:
Hi just been told by the lad who designed the other system that a cooler voids the warranty on a processor ? Is that true ?

Barros

Hi,

I dont think so, as you can by oem processors which do not come supplied with a heatsink so you can use your own, also many after market coolers are more efficent than the stock coolers.

Rob

semi-pro waster · 30 Oct 2006 at 18:33

barros said:
Hi just been told by the lad who designed the other system that a cooler voids the warranty on a processor ? Is that true ?

Barros

If you didn't have any cooler you'd certainly void the warranty

More seriously no, I'm pretty sure that an aftermarket cooler doesn't void any warranty, for a start how are they going to be able to tell that you didn't use the retail cooler(not to mention OEM CPUs as RJC points out). Technically overclocking does void the warranty but I don't think even that it is all that strictly policed unless you go for a stupidly over the top overclock.