Spec me a PC - £1000

Belmont

Belmont

Belmont

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Joined
18 Mar 2009
Posts
15
Hi OcUK,

Im planning on building my first PC soon and my budget is £1000 (can go over).
Primarily it will be used for gaming so I want great performance.

It will need everything since I haven't got anything to add to it. So it needs a screen, OS, gaming mouse/keyboard, headset.etc

Thnx in advance
 
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That's pretty much what I'd go for. Although you can still use DDR2 with the AM3 CPU, just pick an AM2+ motherboard that supports the newer AM3 CPU's (AM3 is backwards compatible with AM2+). So you can make the above cheaper by changing to a different mobo and DDR2 ram, like these

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-325-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1377

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-039-KS

The mouse and keyboard is bascially what you prefer, I'm a razer fan, got myself a deathadder and lycosa (same as the arctosa, only it lights up :p) and love using both of them. Others on here prefer logitech to razer.

The GTX 260 that's on offer is the older version (192 as appose to the newer 216 SP), but for the price offers excellent performance, it isn't really any slower than the newer version.

Here's the intel alternative

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Both will perform to similar levels and overclock easily.
 
headset wise have a look round for a Sennheiser set.

i'd go with ro55o's tri core setup, and stick with the ddr3 as its in budget, maybe change the mouse to the Lachesis.
 
Thnx for the advice Ro55o and mp260767.

I'll have a look at the Sennheiser headsets.

A question I had is is there really no difference between the AMD and Intel?
I'm leaning towards the Intel setup atm but only because it's familiar.

Another thing is I'm willing to go higher than £1000 so if someone can think of a great build that's over my price limit as well it would be cool.
 
only thing i might change is with the intel setup and up the 8400 to the 8500 so you can clock it a bit better.
 
You could get an AMD Phenom II X4 with the £200 extra on your budget, aswell as a better graphics card if you REALLY need it to play Crysis @1680x1050 full aa/af with reasonable fps. Other than that, I'd stick with the GTX260, or look at the ATi HD4870 range.(similar pricing)
 
I don't understand though, if I'm not going to be overclocking and I get the i7 the processor speed is 2.66Ghz, whereas with the core 2 duo it's already running at 3.0Ghz.

Is it a quad core or something?

Also would a 550W PSU be enough?
and is the GTX 260 a good graphics card model?
 
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The i7 is quad core, and is also better clock-for-clock than previous generations Core 2 processors. They also have hyperthreading which helps with parallel workload.

As for the graphics card, its the older 260 i think, so thats worse than 4870, i would look for a 4870 to be honest especially the 1GB model is great.

Cant comment on the PSU, never used an antec psu before. I like OCZ psus, cheap and powerful.
 
For gaming, price vs performance, core 2 duo is better than i7. You don't buy i7 purely for gaming, it's for number crunching, benchmarks etc. If you have the money for i7 then why not, but for a lot less you can get a fast intel dual core or AMD tri core, which both will perform to the same levels as i7.

Obviously i7 is a lot more future proof than the older generations, but at the moment hardware is ahead of gaming (crysis being an exception), so say for example my overclocked E8400 will last a good few years, by which time i7 will be cheaper and mainstream. So by buying 'older' tech, you won't exactly be buying a PC that will only last a year.

So basically i7 will cost you more for the same performance (in gaming anyway), but will have a more future proof system. So again, if you're willing to spend the extra on i7 then go for it.

The GTX260 shown is the older version (192 sp as appose to the newer 216 sp), it's a little bit slower, not by much though. For the price it's a great performer, the 216sp or the 1gb 4870 will be slightly better cards, but obviously cost more.

550W will be enough, im not sure on the antec basiq though. As it's not always about the power stated, it's about what it actually puts out and the power on the 12V rails, also the efficiency of the PSU. Good, reliable makes to go for would be corsair, be quiet, zalman and a cheaper alternative being coolermaster. Any one of these above 500W will be more than enough.
 
I've just finished building the PC listed above by Ro55o with only two changes which was upgrading the PSU to the 650w version and changing the hard disk to 500GB.

This was my first PC build and it was an interesting, enlightening and frustrating experience.

I'd like to say thnx to all the guys at Overclockers and everyone who gave advice.
 
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