Spec me - £500-£600

[Dynix]

Hey,

My mate wants a new PC and his budget is around £500-£600 (£600 being the upmost maximmum - he can't go over). He'll be using it for primarily gaming (I'm guessing mainly Steam games, but with the possibility to venture off into newer games with half-decent graphics).

Anyone kind enough to kick up a spec for this amount? Would be much appreciated

Cheers

 

[semi-pro waster]

Just for the base unit this is nipping in at the lower end of the price range but should offer a very good system. You could fit in Windows or a few other changes to the budget if necessary.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3200AAKS) £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)
Pioneer DVR-212D 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £149.99
(£176.24) £149.99
(£176.24)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Sub Total : £414.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £74.53
Total : £500.41

 

[melbourne720]

my ownly question mark over the otherwise perfect semi pro spec is that psu with that graphics card. I'd splash out on an zen (case) and a corsair 520W PSU to be on the safe side.

Oh, and chuck in a tuniq tower to get the most out of that e2160 (i.e. 3GHz+)

 

[jk1001]

I like that spec for £500. I'm in a very similar position - need a new gaming PC and have about £600 to spend next month. My kit list so far is Antec P182 case, Corsair PSU, ASUS P5K-E WiFi, overclocked E2160 and 2Gb Crucial Ballistix 6400, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, and ATI X1950 Pro or XT.

As you can see I'm planning to spend a bit less on my graphics card and a bit more on my mobo, case and RAM. The idea behind this is that'll I'll upgrade the CPU and GPU next year once the price of the current decent DX10 cards come down in price a bit and more mature cards are out there. This may be another option your friend could explore.

Looking forward to UT3 and COD4

 

[Mangelwurzel]

As you can see I'm planning to spend a bit less on my graphics card and a bit more on my mobo, case and RAM. The idea behind this is that'll I'll upgrade the CPU and GPU next year once the price of the current decent DX10 cards come down in price a bit and more mature cards are out there.

Good thinking. I've got about the same money to spend, might just do the same.