Where to spend and where not to

Tioga

Tioga

Tioga

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Joined
10 Dec 2009
Posts
41
Location
Scotland
Hi guys

i was wondering with a budget of about 600pounds if theres any areas i should look to skimp on and areas to spend more on.

Thanks :)
 
Sorry forgot to mention :) will mainly be for playing games like world of warcraft and such. I'm not too fussed about trying to run things at high settings just so it's good enough to play.

Thanks
 
Get a cpu that can be overclocked well, same with a mobo and ignore any features you wont use in an effort to save money (aka dont go for the more expensive motherboards if you wont use most of their features!)

Aside from that, main rule is NEVER skimp on the PSU. I know tonnes of people who get any old piece of **** for their PC and end up having the PSU destroy it within a year...
 
You can skimp on a case, but you get what you pay for which probably means poor ventilation, poor construction and cheap noisy fans should you skimp.

You can skimp on the graphics card, you really don't need to spend much more than £100 on a graphics card to play todays games at adequate frame rates at 1080P. Gforce GTS 250 1 Gig (DX10 card) for example.

Don't skimp on CPU, buy the most expensive you can afford, but remember CPU dictates what motherboard you use and what variation of socket.

CPU cooler (HSF), depends what you are going to be doing and if you are over clocking it, again buy the best you can afford.

Memory you can skimp on, depending how much ram you want and speed it's set at but it is dictated by mobo type.

PSU, don't skimp on, that's a important piece.

Hard Drives you can skimp on but you won't appreciate a slow one.

DVDRW's drives you can skimp on, pick one up for £15.
 
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Ty scottMC very informative post and has given me a much better idea of what im doing. Once again thx much appreciated :)
 
Get something like c2d E8400/E8500 both great Overclockers, 4GB Ram ... I'd look at LGA775 system for about £300 second handed!

HD4890/GTX280/GTX285/GTX275 - great GPU's for almost all games!
 
do you need everything as in also monitor/keyboard/mouse or just the core components?

Frankly for £582.99 inc VAT you can get a Titan Krypt prebuilt with a AMD HD6850 that would smoke WoW and about every game out as well as play things on high. You can also use that build as a template and buy parts and put it together yourself for around 60 less but need to know if ya need a monitor and anything else.

That system or one built like it is a pretty powerful, well rounded gaming machine that will serve you well for a couple years. That CPU is a pretty good overclocker as well. If you do wanna OC you can add a cooler and it still keeps ya in your budget.

My 2cents anyways
 
^^^^^^^^^

This is you have a low knowledge base

Or if you want to take the plunge and build your own. Ask the guys for a "Spec me" with your budget (£600) and purpose (play WOW mostly) and as much honest info as you can give. You'll get a full parts specification from the folks who specialise in this with no real need to "skimp" on anything :)
 
+1 for build your own.

If you don't need monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers, then for £600 you can put together a good quality gaming rig with good quality parts all round, without actually 'skimping' on anything.

It depends if you are considering upgrades over the next 12-18 months, or whether this new PC will remain 'as is' for the foreseeable future.

If it's going to stay as it is, then I would try to create a balanced system so that no one area bottlenecks another.

If you're going to be upgrading, then as someone mentioned above I'd weight the build in favour of the CPU, motherboard, PSU, and possibly case - the idea being that a lower-cost graphics card and less RAM will suffice for now, but also offer easier upgrade options for the future.
 
Try not to skimp too much. The problem with building your own computer is that you think you wont need all the latest hardware, but once its built you find yourself wanting better all the time. I do anyway :p
 
Just tell us what the budget must include (monitor, keyboard, mouse, OS for example, or is it just the tower, or less), then we'll spec you up a killer system :)
 
ScottMC7000 said:
You can skimp on the graphics card, you really don't need to spend much more than £100 on a graphics card to play todays games at adequate frame rates at 1080P. Gforce GTS 250 1 Gig (DX10 card) for example.
Click to expand...

Decent advice in your post, apart from the graphics card. You'd want something a lot better than a GTS250 to play at 1080p res. A 5770 1GB or GTX 460 should do it
 
Just to illustrate

A self build without windows

Untitled-36.png


A self build with windows

Untitled-37.png


Or you can look at the prebuilt systems such as the Cataclysm Hogger or one of the Titan range

Edit: If you do need to include monitor and Peripherals in that budget then spec will have to be revised quite a bit as this will use up about £150 itself
 
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AndyH_Lufc said:
Decent advice in your post, apart from the graphics card. You'd want something a lot better than a GTS250 to play at 1080p res. A 5770 1GB or GTX 460 should do it
Click to expand...

You would be surprised what this card can do, I max out all my games at the highest resolutions with no noticeable frame drops on my i7 920 based system, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Dirt 2 but.. yeah I was just using it as an example and put (DX10) to illustrate it's not one of the latest DX11 cards that are out currently but is certainly capable and good value if you are not fussed about tessalation.

Oh, as for 1080P, I've run at 1900x1200 on with the GTS250, there is nothing I can't play. :P
 
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Hi everyone

The budget does not need to include monitor or any peripherals and i also dont need an OS. So just the tower :)

Thanks
 
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