Spec me a gaming rig

gam3r · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:33

Oki's here is an outline of what i need:

-Cool looking case
-Should run latest games no problems
-A PSU
-CPU
-Motherboard(AGP, or ULi) - I will be using my 6800GT for a while
-Heatsink/fans
-RAM
-A HD, at least 250GB

For my budget of £600.

I will probably upgrade the Mobo and GFX card in a few years after that so the motherboard does not have to be pricey.

Also i got a question, is it possible to have 3 HD'S? I mean my IDE cable only has 2 connectors.... :confused:

Thank you!

Edit: Its gotta be at least AMD64..

fenderbass86 · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:36

The budget's a little tight for running all the latest games. A 512MB graphic card (which is recommended now) will set you back atleast £250, plus 2 Gig RAM which is another £100 roughly, maybe £150 for a good gaming CPU. The budget's nearly gone already.

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:43

Im a little confused, are you not upgrading the graphics card at the moment?
If so is it AGP? Have you got any other parts you can use from your current system?

Also if it is AGP get it auctioned off as AGP cards make good prices. You will get at least enough to get the equivelent PCI card so you dont have to bother with a AGP mother board.

gam3r · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:51

Right, Thanks for replying guys. I got an AGP6800GT. I dunno about selling it, i might just use this machine as a second one and build a completely new one, taking this into account, I could probably stretch the budget to £700...512MB...Isnt that a bit too extreme? I thought 256MB would do it ok :confused:

fenderbass86 · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:56

More modern games are relying on you to have a 512MB gfx card to make the game run as smooth as possible. However, this is most noticeable on resolutions larger than 1280x1024. The new Tomb Raider game on the other hand won't let you use "next-gen" graphics unless you have a 512MB gfx card.

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:56

If this is going to be a second machine do you need monitor mouse etc?
512 is only needed if you are going to run games at full spec, depend what system you put together. It will be need more and more this year tho

gam3r · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:05

Nope, no monitor/mouse needed..just do your best

I've looked, but i haven't really been browsing the hardware forums in the past few months so i have fallen out of sync with whats "hip" and whats not..

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:20

GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£194.95 £194.95
CP-147-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-147-AM)
£99.95 £99.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£49.95 £49.95
HD-022-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ 400GB ST3400832AS SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-022-SE)
£129.95 £129.95
MB-040-GI Gigabyte K8N SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-040-GI)
£54.95 £54.95
CA-030-AN Antec TruePower 2.0 430W PSU (CA-030-AN)
£44.95 £44.95
CA-009-AS Asus TA-250 Series Midi Tower (Black) - No PSU (CA-009-AS)
£31.95 £31.95

Subtotal £622.60
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £110.88
Total £744.43

Little over you budget. Mother board is basic and not great for overclocking. As is the case, however you should get some good gaming performace out of it. If you want to drop the price you could lower the cpu spec but not by much otherwise it will bottleneck. If anything I would advise going for a ATA hardrive instead of the SATA ( altho these are much better ). The 400 Gig one was the only SATA over the 250 you wanted

for instance

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB ST3250824A ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-055-SE) Price: £48.95 (£57.52 Including VAT at 17.5%)

this will take £90 off letting you pick a better case.

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:22

And yes you can have 3 harddrives as most boards have 4 SATA connectors. If they are ATA harddrives You should have 2 IDE ports cabable of taking 4 hard drives, however one will be needed for a DVD drive. Which Ive just relised Ive missed off the spec

gam3r · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:28

Thank you for your help...Whats the diff between IDE, SATA and ATA? I thought IDE would always do me well...

If i was thinking just to upgrade my GFX, Mobo, CPU, Ram and PSU would it be better for a budget of £600/700? Therefore leaving out the HD and case...maybe i could do this later as these aren't neccesities. Im confusing the heck out of myself :confused:

lol

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:37

GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£194.95 £194.95
CP-147-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-147-AM)
£99.95 £99.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£49.95 £49.95
MB-040-GI Gigabyte K8N SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-040-GI)
£54.95 £54.95
CA-030-AN Antec TruePower 2.0 430W PSU (CA-030-AN)
£44.95 £44.95
Subtotal £460.70
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.95
VAT £82.19
Total £551.84

Theres the price without the HArd and case. If you wanted to put some more money into that you could go dual core. One of the amd 64 x2 would go straight in however the cheapest 3800+ would add £80 to the price. Or maybe twice the memory adding £60 as some games are starting to use over 1 Gig, black and white 2 for example likes 2 Gig. Or maybe you could get an x1900xt which will add £70 to your price. Its up to you realy. I went for the memory but that was when the x1900xts where more expensive, they have come down since.

Explicit · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:37

gam3r said:
If i was thinking just to upgrade my GFX, Mobo, CPU, Ram and PSU would it be better for a budget of £600/700? Therefore leaving out the HD and case...maybe i could do this later as these aren't neccesities. Im confusing the heck out of myself lol

You didn't mention a DVD drive so I presume you have one already(?)

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£140.94
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£70.44
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£111.57
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£18.74
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) **this week only**
£229.07
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£66.39
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£61.04

Total inc VAT: £698.19

Good cpu, 2GB ram, decent graphics on this week only @ a silly price

Chucked in a Freezer to keep things silent.

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:39

The SATA drive helps with load times, they are much quicker and personnaly I wont go back to ATA. But if you have never had one you wont notice the differnce. They have little to no impact ingame. SATA stands for serial ATA btw. They dont plug into the IDE port anymore, theres a new serial port on the board.

Edit: did not relise the NF4s took SATA2, would not care but I have one. Thats what I get for buying B-grade without the manual :rolleyes:

That power supply is cutting it a bit close mind. Connect3D recommed a 450 W one for there x1800xt.

ACESHIGH · 9 Apr 2006 at 07:38

Explicit said:
You didn't mention a DVD drive so I presume you have one already(?)

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£140.94
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£70.44
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£111.57
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£18.74
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) **this week only**
£229.07
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£66.39
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£61.04

Total inc VAT: £698.19

Good cpu, 2GB ram, decent graphics on this week only @ a silly price Chucked in a Freezer to keep things silent.

The above spec looks good.
The Athlon 64 3700+ is a great choice.
Could get this mobo instead to save some cash ... Gigabyte K8NMF-9 nForce4 Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI-Express

brightside_ · 9 Apr 2006 at 09:59

I think he put that motherboard on so that the person might be able to clock the CPU a bit

gam3r · 9 Apr 2006 at 11:18

Hi guys, thanks for all your replies. I was toying with the idea of going X2, as i do quite a bit of video encoding and multitasking etc...If i didn't buy a new GFX card(yet anyway) i think i could do this as well.

Also, the AsRock s939 ULi board is tempting as its cheap and has both PCI-E and AGP, which means i could upgrade easily without changing motherboards. What do you guys think of this?

ACESHIGH · 10 Apr 2006 at 12:37

the X2 dual core are great CPU's especially for multitasking, encoding (& gaming with dual core patches are getting very good).

The Asrock mobo is very good by most accounts.

WatchTower · 10 Apr 2006 at 12:44

Have you seen the price of most 512mb graphics card they're insane. I was looking at 7800 and 7900 you'll be luck to get one for less than £350.

ACESHIGH · 10 Apr 2006 at 13:01

WatchTower said:
Have you seen the price of most 512mb graphics card they're insane. I was looking at 7800 and 7900 you'll be luck to get one for less than £350.

This card is great, has 512MB ram & quicker than a 7900GT. ...

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
Price:**£194.95 **(£229.07*Including VAT at 17.5%)

gam3r · 11 Apr 2006 at 11:13

Is a 512MB card really essential?...i thought 256 would cut it ok for a few years.