New Gaming PC

Jammey

Jammey

Jammey

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Joined
10 Apr 2007
Posts
26
Hi, I'm pretty new to building PCs, only really done simple things like installing RAM and PSUs. My current PC is dated and runs a lot of the games I play quite slowly. Im looking to create a decent gaming rig that will last me for the next 1-2 years for as cheap as possible. Was wondering if someone could check over these parts and tell me if they are compatible and will work together:



If anyone could suggest any cheaper alternatives that wouldn't lose out on too much of the quality that would be great. I already have monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers so all I need is the PC. Is there anything else I would need like a fan/heatsink, as I'm not really sure if they're included or not.

Also I have included Vista in 64bit, although I have read there has been some compatiblity issues with it and wasn't sure whether to go for the 32bit version. I was also not really sure if I should get Vista or XP, because Vista is supposedly lowering the performance of games than on XP and is quite buggy.

Thanks, any help is appreciated.
 
Firstly welcome to the OcUK forums :)

Some of the selections you have made there are good but others could do with changing, motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU and PSU could do with being altered. I will suggest a few components in a minute for you to consider. Do you have a budget?
 
I'd drop processor for a E6300 saving some cash, get a Asus PN5-E motherboard, get a 550watt psu as you don't need 650 watt and get a X1950 graphics card as the X1600 isn't really too good for gaming
 
A 500W PSU should be ample enough power for a core 2 duo system. Should allow you decent headroom to overclock also. I have gone for the E4300 because it is highly overclockable coupled with the chosen RAM and motherboard in the list. You can easily each 3GHz with the CPU and component config. The retail versions of the core 2 duo come with a stock intel fan but they are generally quite noisy and inefficient. The cooler I have suggested there is a great performer and is very quiet. It will allow a cool overclock.

I have suggested a 320MB 8800 GTS as this will aid you in Vista with it being DX10 but I'm not sure what your budget is, if it has to be tigher get the X1950 Pro :)

Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU £54.99
(£64.61)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £189.99
(£223.24)
Intel Core 2 DUO E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £93.99
(£110.44)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £74.99
(£88.11)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £94.99
(£111.61)
Noctua NH-U12F (Socket LGA775/754/939/940/AM2) Heatsink £30.99
(£36.41)

Shipping : £9.95
Total : £646.71
 
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If on tight budget how about this, should be able to get 3ghz easy from processor, graphics wise not the best but good enough if don't game at high res, also get case aswell which would be another £60 on top of spec above. If got a bit more cash to splash get a 8800 GTS as suggested

basket-4.jpg
 
re: Vista. Personally, if you have a XP license that you can transfer to the new PC I'd probably stick with that for now and go Vista later when the big DX10 games start hitting and the teething problems etc have been sorted out.
If you do go Vista I'd say go 64bit. I'm not sure to be honest but I'd say the problems with Vista are Vista related, not so much Vista 32 Vs Vista 64.
64bit is hopefully the way things are going with 32bit slowly being fazed out. Plus it'll only take one big game to make people start upping their rigs to 4GB mem.
 
Thanks for all the replies, would've responded sooner but other people were using the computer. I think I'll definitely go for Vista as it seems to be the way forward, as long as Hitman,BF2 and Pro Ev work I'm happy for now.


Taking into account everything everyone has said, I was thinking of going for this:



Adding on Windows Vista Premium 64bit OEM and the Noctua NH-U12F it comes to a total of £792.98 and £808.20 including delivery.

Although might still downgrade the processor to save cash, and will try to shop around to find the best deals. If I can find DDR2 2-5300 2GB RAM but cheap value brands or something, would it worth be going for? Or should I just stick to proper brands because they are more reliable especially if I want to overclock?

edit: changed it :) sorry.
 
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I chose it because I'd assume games will soon start to take advantage of 64bit and since I'm buying OEM to save money I don't want to buy Vista twice. Figure I might aswell just buy 64bit now instead of 32bit. Is there a list of compatible games at all? If my favourites don't work I'd probably have to choose 32bit.

Edit: also What are the real advantages of 64bit over 32bit? (ignoring compatiblity)
 
32 bit from recent Windows versions suggests that it's the much safer option, in terms of having your programs work.

I think a lot of people only go 64bit because they want to get the full use of their 4GB Ram (on 32 bit, 4GB shows up as 3.5Gb)

I'm sure there are other uses too, of course, but if you're not planning on anything massive and perhaps not upgrading to 4GB anytime in the future (3GB isn't bad) I would suggest going for the 32bit.
 
Ah I see, think I'll probably go for 32bit then, I probably wont upgrade from 2GB RAM for a while. Do you think the rest of my build seems alright? or is there something you would change to make it cheaper without losing overall efficency?

Thanks.
 
From your initial posts and the suggestions of others, you're along the right lines. Can't say there's too much wrong in my opinion.

Software-wise, you're in a bit of a pickle. Vista may not be as smooth as you would want it to be, given its recent widespread use and fixing of issues.

Whilst Aero and all the other nice features of Vista will be tempting - I would suggest doing a bit of boring research on the forums (specifically the Windows forum) and making sure that both your software (programs, games etc) and hardware (drivers for these) requirements are met, before ruling out XP altogether.
 
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