how cheap can u go?

Soullkilla

Soullkilla

Soullkilla

Associate
Joined
22 May 2009
Posts
139
Location
Guernsey, Channel Islands
Hey guys, my dad was at my house the other day and saw me playing crysis and american army 3 on my new rig and really liked the look of it. so i went to his and installed steam on his pc and d/l AA3.

His pc is nothing special at all, some crappy HP pc deal they got for like £400, think its like a pentium 2.4, 2gig ram and a cheap as chips graphics card. we d/l AA3 and the game was struggling on the start menu lol. he plays WoW atm.

How cheap can i go to buy him a cheap pc for his birthday that will play games like that, Grid/maybe crysis or not etc? price range 400 max if possible or cheaper. just the tower needed.
 
Well, my ATI 4850 plays crysis @ 1680x1050, setting on high with nary a slowdown.

Have a look at the Phenon II X2 or perhaps some of the lower end of the C2D range. Make sure you get a decent PSU (Corsair, or as budget is tight an OCZ would also be ok).
 
if the pc has DDR2 and an PCI-e slot, just buy an video card for it that does not require an power the new 9800GT does not need PCI-e power now that i find very cool but may need new PSU if its low spec

if its running vista up the ram to 3gb or more as that make the games run with out it having to page other stuff out of ram
 
I would check to see what you could reuse from his current PC, hardrive and optical should knock it under £400 but if you cant downgrade the graphics card.

The stock cooler should also be good for 3.2Ghz if your willing to overclock it by a small amount.

450gamingspec.png
 
mjs4fk.jpg


dont think u need to overclock it tbh that could be a 'future upgrade'

but you should be able to get free delivery so this is just under 400£:D
 
if u can save hd drive case and dvd drive you can cut it pretty cheap

same as the above build except go for teh kingston ram
dont waste extra 30 or 40 squid on 4870 the 4850 will do just fine
i can play crysis on full on my rig

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCS 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail - is what i own and have never had a problem with it in its 1 year
 
i didnt have time to complete my post earlier as my bost nearly caught me slacking

by full i meant i can run max settings ie all setting to very/ultra high on 1280*1024 on my 19" monitor.
I did not mean i can run 2 * 32" hd plasma screens side on with full resolution on a specially edited graphics config
 
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £98.99
(£86.08) £98.99
(£86.08)
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £74.99
(£65.21) £74.99
(£65.21)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 400w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply OCZ ModXStream Pro 400w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply £45.99
(£39.99) £45.99
(£39.99)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLK2/4G) Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLK2/4G) £35.98
(£31.29) £35.98
(£31.29)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)
Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)
Sub Total : £352.99
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £54.82
Total : £420.31

What I would get if I wanted good setup for cheap price.


------------------------------------

What I would get if I wanted cheapest setup possible but so I still can play games on it:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £66.69
(£57.99) £66.69
(£57.99)
Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £60.98
(£53.03) £60.98
(£53.03)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £45.99
(£39.99) £45.99
(£39.99)
OCZ StealthXStream 400w Silent ATX2 Power Supply OCZ StealthXStream 400w Silent ATX2 Power Supply £42.99
(£37.38) £42.99
(£37.38)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLK2/4G) Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLK2/4G) £35.98
(£31.29) £35.98
(£31.29)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)
Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)
Sub Total : £280.54
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £43.96
Total : £337.00

Don't be put off by the 4830 - it overclocks like crazy and most of them will go far above 4850 speeds easily.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all your replies.

Well yea i guess i can get him to use his DVD Drive and possibly the Harddrive too, think its only 120 or so though.

As for the price, £400 would be max, £350 would be better as money is tight,

BUT, to help, i will be paying the NON-VAT price so that will drop it quite a lot, also i will need a copy of vista home.

There will be no plans on OC it, unless possibly in the future. but at the moment, no OC at all.
 
Soullkilla said:
money is tight,

i will need a copy of vista home.

no OC at all.
Click to expand...

Fail.

Use windows 7, I assume its still out. Otherwise use whatever his system currently runs.

Overclock it. The whole point to overclocking is more performance at lower cost. If you won't even take it up to what it'll do on stock volts, you are asking the wrong group of guys
 
OCing any of the AMDs I've posted will be as easy as upping the multiplier by 1 or 2 notches if you'll need it so very simple even if you have never done it.

Anyways, the 337 rig will come down to 293 without VAT so you can get a copy of vista with win7 upgrade voucher for the remaining cash, will still fit under 400 with that.

But yeh, I guess you could have used whatever you have right now or just use the win7 till it's free and worry about it later.
 
He won't be able to use the copy of windows currently installed as it will almost certainly be oem. W7 home premium is on preorder for £50 at several competitors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom