New gaming rig for £800

funky_llama · 5 Apr 2006 at 08:59

Hi everyone, I havent posted here in a loong time! I recognise a few faces around here at least

I pop back occasionally to try and keep up with the latest developments and to read all the excellent info here. Alas I am a student now and don't really spend much time playing with my pc setup, mainly cos I am always skint

I have been asked by my brother to build him a new gaming rig. He is a WOW addict like me and spends a lot of time playing games (Wow, BF2, DOD source). His budget is £800. This is what I am considering atm:

Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - £42.95 (does this come with psu, is it up to the job?)
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM - £99.95
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler - £15.95
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) - £109.95
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI(PCI-Express) - Retail £209.95
Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU - £61.95
G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit - £129.95

Inc. VAT = £805.58 + shipping (oops £5.58 over

)

He already has a Panel, DVD writer and some reasonable storage so that isn't included.

I included a crossfire board so that he has an upgrade option in the future. He doesn't plan to use this currently. I was tempted to go with the A8R-MVP because it's £70 cheaper. I originaly specced it with an X1900XT but after reading some bad comments about the board I had a rethink and decided to go with a slightly cheaper card and spend the extra on an A8R32 and some G.Skill. I think this should give some nice stable overclocks (my bro isn't too pc savvy and I am at uni most of the time so it needs to be rock stable.) You may say just don't overclock it, but where's the fun in that?

Over to you guys. What do you think?

fenderbass86 · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:12

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM) 1
£126.95 £126.95
MB-131-AS Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS) 1
£109.95 £109.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£89.95 £89.95
GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) 1
£209.95 £209.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG) 1
£59.95 £59.95
CA-045-LL Lian-Li PC-61 Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-045-LL) 1
£66.95 £66.95
Subtotal £663.70
VAT £116.15
Total £779.85

This includes a 3700+ San Diego CPU which is better than the Venice core. Don't worry about the RAM, the Geil Value is superb stable RAM and overclocks a little bit. The Tagan PSU has been getting a lot of praise on these boards and i'm actually gonna be getting one for my new rig (580W). The case is just down to preference really, and Lian-Li do make very good quality cases.

Monstermunch · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:50

This would be better, dual core, much more up to date and should last longer. The ar32 is a good board but OTT for an £800 rig. This MSI board will be just as good and is a good clocker:

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS)
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£89.95 £89.95
HD-024-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-024-SA)
£45.95 £45.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-017-TT Thermaltake VB1000BNS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - Black (CA-017-TT)
£39.95 £39.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£59.95 £59.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£189.95 £189.95
Subtotal £702.55
VAT £122.95
Total £825.50

funky_llama · 5 Apr 2006 at 09:56

Thanks m8. I was gonna leave the final choice of case up to him neway. I have a Lian-Li PC-60 bought from these very forums

They are nice cases inded!

I just read the 38 page long thread in the motherboard forums about the A8R32 and wished I hadn't :S Seems to be a few problems with this board and certain games. Wasn't pleased to see BF2 mentioned several times. Hopefully the bios update will be released in the next few days before I order or I will be very nervous when it arrives :/

Are there any immediate alternatives?

EDIT: Ty Monstermunch. I was writing my reply at the same time as you. That looks like a very nice spec. I was thinking duel cores would be out of his budget. I dont need the dvd drive either so that puts it just inside £800

Monstermunch · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:18

IMO crossfire boards are nothing but problems, unfortunately because of the fact that technically the chipset is better than nF4 people keep reccomending them. But it's pointless if they don't work properly.

nF4 is tried and tested and is very stable, the MSI is a good mobo and will allow you to clock very well should you chose to.