How's this for a setup? (first try)

PSGamer

PSGamer

PSGamer

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Just been looking over all the 'spec me' threads and i thought id try to throw together a system, budget but OC/gamer as i can get it. Please let me know what you think, bare with me because it is my first try ^^.

355pc.jpg


Just a few reasonings from what ive read on this forum :

5200 - I've Heard this makes for quite a good overclocked CPU, hence the FP7, would the motherboard be suitable for overclocking? it'd be my first time overclocking and i was just wondering.

I saw the case from an old thread and seemed good for its price so thats why thats there.

High MHZ ram to allow high overclocks. (from what ive read, the higher the better to stop the ram giving in.)

I am looking at this computer for gaming and overclocking so would it fit the job well? are any of the parts overpriced, are there cheaper but better alternatives at all?

comments and critisms welcome, just wanted to see if the parts i put together would work well.

thanks for reading.
 
good choice of parts

my changes will be a different choice of case and PSU, i dont like psus that come with cases.

p43/p45 based MB if you can stretch that far
 
I reckon you should be going for at least a Radeon 4850 for some decent gaming..

also the PSU (380W) seems a bit sparse considering you want to OC it as well (and the need for a decent graphics card)... something along 550W would be more reasonable...
 
Okay, Ive tried to improve it,

can't quite stretch to the 4850 though, but then again i am merely a casual gamer. 420 is the maximum (sorry, my pound key isn't cooperating at the moment.)

here it is :

420pc.jpg


Better now? any un-needed expenses in the list?

Comments and Criticisms welcome.
 
I suppose the Antec 300 would be more spacious so thats a good idea, not much more either.

The 4850 is out of my reach though, quite a big price jump.

but its a pretty solid setup otherwise? just the graphics would be lacking a little?
 
There was absolutely nothing wrong with your original choice of psu and case. Yes psu's that come with cases are usually rubbish but not in Antecs case. The 380w smartpower in that case is a very good high quality psu and is more than enough for that rig. It is 80%+ efficiency rated too. The case is very good with a good layout, good ventilation and a good build quality. It also has rubber grommets for mounting hdd's too.

As you are a casual gamer the 4670 will be fine and accompanied by the E5200 will make for a very power efficient rig.
 
How about...
  • Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
  • Gainward ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £59.99
  • Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £56.99
  • PC Power & Cooling Silencer 470W Power Supply £41.99
  • Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £32.99
  • Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Rev.4 Zen Black Case - No PSU £25.99
  • OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £21.99
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £15.99
  • LG GH22NS30 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
  • Sub Total : £344.91
  • Shipping : £12.99
  • VAT : £62.63
  • Total : £420.53
 
pastymuncher said:
There was absolutely nothing wrong with your original choice of psu and case. Yes psu's that come with cases are usually rubbish but not in Antecs case. The 380w smartpower in that case is a very good high quality psu and is more than enough for that rig. It is 80%+ efficiency rated too. The case is very good with a good layout, good ventilation and a good build quality. It also has rubber grommets for mounting hdd's too.

As you are a casual gamer the 4670 will be fine and accompanied by the E5200 will make for a very power efficient rig.
Click to expand...

ah, thats good to hear, IMO its better if i can get a good cheap system.

but would the 380w power supply be efficient to get the e5200 to say 3-3.2ghz? thats about the range i was thinking of trying to get out of the CPU, just to boost the speed a tad.

Thanks for the help everyone ^^
 
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pastymuncher said:
There was absolutely nothing wrong with your original choice of psu and case. Yes psu's that come with cases are usually rubbish but not in Antecs case. The 380w smartpower in that case is a very good high quality psu and is more than enough for that rig. It is 80%+ efficiency rated too. The case is very good with a good layout, good ventilation and a good build quality. It also has rubber grommets for mounting hdd's too.

As you are a casual gamer the 4670 will be fine and accompanied by the E5200 will make for a very power efficient rig.
Click to expand...

I have to echo this. That Earthwatts PSU has been proven to be enough for a quad core + 4850 rig, so its more than suitable for this build, making your original spec a much wiser choice. I'd recommend looking at picking up second hand 8800GT, it should be no more than you plan to pay for that 4670.

The E5200 is 45nm and low cache, so it eats barely any power, even when overclocked and the 4670 doesn't even require a PCIe power lead it uses so little power.

Switch the Geil RAM for 4GB of OCZ PC6400, the freezer pro for an Akasa 965 (cheaper and proven better cooler) and then make the jump to a P43 motherboard, soething like a Gigabyte P43-DS3L or Asus P5QL is great for the price.
 
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Yeah - I would aim for a Gigabyte or Asus mobo (at least a P43)
The rest looks ok though - of course, with Chrimbo round the corner you could always wait and get a few more pennies saved towards some slightly better components. Not sure about the 4670 - what about a 9600GT or a second hand 8800?
 
UltimateBadger said:
Yeah - I would aim for a Gigabyte or Asus mobo (at least a P43)
The rest looks ok though - of course, with Chrimbo round the corner you could always wait and get a few more pennies saved towards some slightly better components. Not sure about the 4670 - what about a 9600GT or a second hand 8800?
Click to expand...

4670 performs on par with the 9600GT whilst costing less and using much less power.
 
Okay, so the best bang for buck would be something like :

400pc.jpg


Thanks again for all the help, i think this is the optimum bang for buck spec for this amount of money.

The keyboard isn't a hardware problem, just something wrong in the settings that hasn't bothered me too much.

any little changes or is this best for the price?
 
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PSGamer said:
ah, thats good to hear, IMO its better if i can get a good cheap system.

but would the 380w power supply be efficient to get the e5200 to say 3-3.2ghz? thats about the range i was thinking of trying to get out of the CPU, just to boost the speed a tad.

Thanks for the help everyone ^^
Click to expand...

I have a E5200 clocked to 3.6Ghz with a Freezer 7 Pro in a Gigabyte P35 DS3L motherboard, 2GB Geil Ultra PC2 6400C4, ATI 3850Pro, Samsung 20x DVDRW drive, Seagate 7200.10 320Gb sata hdd and 5 fans and according to my Zalman ZM-MFC2 fancontroller/temp and power monitor, it peaks at 189w. Most of the time it's at 102w though. Yours will be considerably less than that because of your graphics card. To further set your mind at rest, it's in the exact same case and psu that you are getting, albeit the silver one. My main rig (in siggy) only draws just under 300w at the wall and that includes monitor, speakers, light and water cooling. Most people think you need a far bigger psu than you actually do (says me with a 750w beastie in my main rig).
 
pastymuncher said:
I have a E5200 clocked to 3.6Ghz with a Freezer 7 Pro in a Gigabyte P35 DS3L motherboard, 2GB Geil Ultra PC2 6400C4, ATI 3850Pro, Samsung 20x DVDRW drive, Seagate 7200.10 320Gb sata hdd and 5 fans and according to my Zalman ZM-MFC2 fancontroller/temp and power monitor, it peaks at 189w. Most of the time it's at 102w though. Yours will be considerably less than that because of your graphics card. To further set your mind at rest, it's in the exact same case and psu that you are getting, albeit the silver one. My main rig (in siggy) only draws just under 300w at the wall and that includes monitor, speakers, light and water cooling. Most people think you need a far bigger psu than you actually do (says me with a 750w beastie in my main rig).
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks, thats very helpful, 3.2 seems achievable, could always push it more if i wished,

i suppose i could change the CPU cooler to the akasa mentioned and with the reduction in price bump the memory up to a 2x2gb ocz gold set, but i think otherwise ill stick with the first shopping list i created, i think thats probably best for its price?

i would prefer around the £350 mark so i think the choice now is the AP7 and the geil 2gb set, or the akasa cooler and the ocz 4gb, i suppose the 4gb is better overall?

it'd only be around £370 overall and i think that would be a good performing system for the price?

or would the Gigabyte P43-DS3L make for better OC'ing ?

thanks again for all the help, just trying to get the best bang for buck really. still getting used to all the components and the like
 
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PSGamer said:
Ah, thanks, thats very helpful, 3.2 seems achievable, could always push it more if i wished,

i suppose i could change the CPU cooler to the akasa mentioned and with the reduction in price bump the memory up to a 2x2gb ocz gold set, but i think otherwise ill stick with the first shopping list i created, i think thats probably best for its price?

i would prefer around the £350 mark so i think the choice now is the AP7 and the geil 2gb set, or the akasa cooler and the ocz 4gb, i suppose the 4gb is better overall?

it'd only be around £370 overall and i think that would be a good performing system for the price?

or would the Gigabyte P43-DS3L make for better OC'ing ?

thanks again for all the help, just trying to get the best bang for buck really. still getting used to all the components and the like
Click to expand...

The Akasa 965 is actually a significant upgrade from the AF7, so that + 4GB is definitely the way to go.

See here, for example:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=22229&PageId=22

If you plan to overclock, then the upgrade to the Gigabyte motherboard is a worthy investment.
 
ukbrainstew said:
The Akasa 965 is actually a significant upgrade from the AF7, so that + 4GB is definitely the way to go.

See here, for example:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=22229&PageId=22

If you plan to overclock, then the upgrade to the Gigabyte motherboard is a worthy investment.
Click to expand...

I was looking around for a comparison but i didn't realise the difference between them would be that much, thanks!

I think that newest £400 spec i made would be the best for my needs.

Thanks again everyone.
 
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