The £600 challenge

Mercian · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:04

With a stingy budget to play with, I'm struggling to find a pc that will cope with the likes of X3TC and high settings. Is it possible? Some of the overclocked models available here look promising but I would appreciate some advice please?

Pilky01 · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:06

Claimed.

hp7909 · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:15

Pilky01 said:
Claimed.

Looking for a complete system or just base? & if you already have a monitor, what size/res?

EDIT: Oh, you don't mind building it?

Mercian · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:29

Sorry, I appreciate how vague I was now. Just the PC needed, current monitor is 19" only (no plans to change).

greywolf · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:30

Assuming you have monitor, dvd drives , OS.

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK)
Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin

£606.95 + shipping

If you want to overclock it you will need to add a better cpu cooler such as the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro at wroughly £18. For the case you can add 3 more 120mm fans, as it only comes with top and rear fans. I included only 1 extra fan as to keep near to your budget.

You could save some more money by going with pc2 6400 ram instead of the pc2 8500.

Another choice could be the E8400 duel core instead of the Q6600 quad core. Would save abit of cash. Depends on you main use, if it is gaming i would go for the E8400, otherwise the Q6600 is the best bet.

hp7909 · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:39

ro55o · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:48

The spec above is really good for the money, though I'd change the memory to 4gb, something like this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-086-OC

It's worth the extra £13. Also maybe get a cpu cooler, and get that E8400 overclocked

they are great chips for it, mines is sitting at 3.8Ghz.

Also for an extra £6 you can get the 640gb samsung F1 hard drive.

Mercian · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:56

Much apreciated all. If I dont build (time, experience both lacking) I will use above as my a great guide. thanks again.

El Jimben · 26 Oct 2008 at 17:52

I would suggest getting a slightly beefier PSU, the 520W Corsair for instance.

pjansell · 26 Oct 2008 at 18:13

Great spec, i've emailed it to a friend of mine, he's looking for something at a similiar price.

PwnDirect · 26 Oct 2008 at 19:06

would get a p5q pro & a 600w + psu to allow for a second 4850 or similar later down the line

twitch · 26 Oct 2008 at 21:31

Pilky01 said:
Claimed.

No wonder you have over 2,000 posts..

Should be able to make a sentance by now..

Well one that helps the OP

:rolleyes:

Pilky01 · 26 Oct 2008 at 22:08

twitch said:
No wonder you have over 2,000 posts..

Should be able to make a sentance by now..

Well one that helps the OP

I was going to help, but then I noticed the lack of useful information so decided against it.