Please help with a new gaming rig!

bobboberts

bobboberts

bobboberts

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Joined
21 Sep 2003
Posts
408
My last PC was built in 2003, so I've decided it's time to treat myself to a new system. I'm looking at a budget of £600-700 (including an OS), and it will be used for gaming, pure and simple.

I don't need a keyboard or mouse, and I run my PC through a 40" LCD, so I'm looking for something that will make use of that real-estate, as I'll be looking to run as much as possible at 1900x1200.

Sadly I am so far out of the loop with PC parts, I have no idea what I'm looking for. From looking at other threads I'm guessing nVidia seems to be the GPU of choice, maybe a GTX? And dual/quad core processors are the best around? As for mobos, I haven't got a clue.

Recommendations, please! (And I would be looking to overclock where possible).

Thanks in advance!
 
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £72.99
(£85.76) £72.99
(£85.76)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £204.99
(£240.86) £204.99
(£240.86)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £68.99
(£81.06) £68.99
(£81.06)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £50.99
(£59.91) £50.99
(£59.91)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Sub Total : £553.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £96.94
Total : £650.86

needs a case.
i went for the hx620 over the 520 due to the small price difference
i went for the e2200 rather then the e2180 due to the higher multiplier, change this if you want. i didnt go for a quad as i couldnt fit it in without sacificing on the otehr parts of the pc
the 8800GTX should be good enough, you could get a 8800GT for now and put the money you saved to a 9800 in a few months
change two the seagate 7200.10 250GB drive if 500GB is too much space
edit: i missed the ram out.
 
Last edited:
What is the deal with quad cores at the moment, then? Are any games on the horizon actually being developed with quads in mind (I'm guessing not)?

And what about RAM?
 
This is pretty close to the middle of your budget, quad core would be nice but not strictly necessary and does put you over budget.

PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £72.99
(£85.76) £72.99
(£85.76)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Sub Total : £558.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £97.81
Total : £656.73
 
bobboberts said:
What is the deal with quad cores at the moment, then? Are any games on the horizon actually being developed with quads in mind (I'm guessing not)?

And what about RAM?
Click to expand...

I think Alan Wake is designed to utilise quad core + Valve are developing multithreaded games for the Source engine - again with multi core CPUs in mind.
 
Ok, what if I threw caution to the wind and upped my budget to, say, £900? What would I be looking at then? A good o/cing quad core, GTX? Is a Sonata case the way to go? I've seen other people suggesting not to go with them (although noise-reduction would be nice)?
 
slimlar to my other spec above, but for the £900 budget
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £72.99
(£85.76) £72.99
(£85.76)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM £204.99
(£240.86) £204.99
(£240.86)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK) £68.99
(£81.06) £68.99
(£81.06)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £22.99
(£27.01) £22.99
(£27.01)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £139.99
(£164.49) £139.99
(£164.49)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Sub Total : £687.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £120.39
Total : £808.31
needs a case.
i went for the hx620 over the 520 due to the small price difference
the 8800GTX should be good enough, you could get a 8800GT for now and put the money you saved to a 9800 in a few months
change the hdd to the seagate 7200.10 250GB drive if 500GB is too much space
 
semi-pro waster said:
This is pretty close to the middle of your budget, quad core would be nice but not strictly necessary and does put you over budget.

PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £72.99
(£85.76) £72.99
(£85.76)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Sub Total : £558.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £97.81
Total : £656.73
Click to expand...

How does that system overclock? And in games how much performance boost would I get from a quad-core CPU?
 
It is difficult to say precisely since overclocking isn't exactly a precise science but 3ghz isn't uncommon for a similar set of components and you may get more out of it. Quad core won't benefit many games directly at the moment as they aren't coded to take advantage of multiple cores but the number that are can only increase.
 
Is the E4500 worth getting for the extra cache? And do I want Vista, or should I go for XP64? And maybe get 2 HDs, 1 for Windows, 1 for the rest? And Antec 900 better than the Sonata?

I'm looking to maybe order this today/tomorrow, but am so out of touch with it all. Would I need Artic Silver or will I be ok just attaching the cooler? The devil is in the detail...
 
I personally would save the £20 odd on the E4500, from what I've seen the cache doesn't make a huge amount of difference normally. It is there but with judicious use of overclocking it is pretty minimal.

I'd go with Vista now I think, not that it matters much yet but as a newer OS it will be supported for longer but the argument is largely academic as by the time XP isn't supported you'll probably have bought a new PC anyway.

Two hard drives can make sense, I've got four that I could use at any one time but it is very much up to you.

Main point to note is that if you bought the Antec 900 you would need to buy a separate PSU. I'm not a fan of the looks but it is a fairly decent case for all that.

The cooler comes with thermal paste/pad pre-applied so you just need to seat it carefully and it should be fine.
 
bobboberts said:
Ok, what if I threw caution to the wind and upped my budget to, say, £900? What would I be looking at then? A good o/cing quad core, GTX? Is a Sonata case the way to go? I've seen other people suggesting not to go with them (although noise-reduction would be nice)?
Click to expand...

I've used the Sonata case to build a couple of PCs and I love them. The PSU is plenty powerful enough for most systems, they run very quietly and come with some really nice features such as the easily removable and damped hard drive bays. There may be something I'm not aware of with this case, but from my experience I would recommend them highly :)
 
bobboberts said:
Is the E4500 worth getting for the extra cache? And do I want Vista, or should I go for XP64? And maybe get 2 HDs, 1 for Windows, 1 for the rest? And Antec 900 better than the Sonata?

I'm looking to maybe order this today/tomorrow, but am so out of touch with it all. Would I need Artic Silver or will I be ok just attaching the cooler? The devil is in the detail...
Click to expand...

I have a single hard drive with two partitions - one for window and applications, and one for other documents such as music etc. This way, I can format the OS partition without having to back anything up apart from bookmarks etc. So if you have enough capacity in one hard drive, this is another option for you.
 
Thanks for all the help so far guys, it's all been very helpful. So are the compatability horror stories I hear about Vista and games a bit overstated then? And is the E2800 a better o/clocker than the E2200 (as there is only about a quid difference between them)?
 
The E2200 has an 11x multiplier rather than the 10x of the E2180 so it might clock a little bit higher at lower Ram speeds but frankly with PC6400 you'd be lucky to be hitting the limits of the CPUs multiplier since you'd be either at 4.4ghz or 4ghz respectively while running the Ram at a guaranteed 400mhz. A better option is usually to revise the CPU multiplier down and up the Ram speed to create the greatest memory bandwidth as I understand it.

So in essence what I'm saying is that either CPU will be fine, the practical limits for both is likely to be about the same. :)
 
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