Wife's Budget Gaming PC

Dancer

Dancer

Dancer

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17 Mar 2003
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My wife wants to get a new PC as WoW is not playing too well on her old one. She has a budget of about £500. I put together what I think is a good rig below, but it's around £160 over budget. How do I get it to £500 but get a gaming rig for the next year or two?

CP-166-AM - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (AM2) Retail £105
MB-021-DF - DFI Infinity nF UltraII-M2/G PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £58
MY-030-GL - GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £80
HD-093-SE - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB SATA-II 8MB - OEM £35
CA-012-TG - Tagan TG500-U25 500W ATX2.0 Dual Engine Silent SLi Compliant Silent PSU £65
GX-053-CO - Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB GDDR3 (PCI-Express) £140
CA-027-AN - Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU £29
OS-001-MS - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - £53

Subtotal £564.88
VAT £98.86
Total £663.74

If anyone can make some suggestions it would be appreciated. I've always had Intel, was going to go AMD, but now see that Intel may again be the way to go... I don't mind either way and although I've never overclocked before am not afraid to try.

Thank You!
 
I forgot to mention that it would be nice if the motherboard had 2 IDE connectors (as well as SATA) for DVD drive, CD Drive and IDE Harddisk.

Just tried intel version (below) after reading some more on this forum and it only comes out £40 cheaper. Maybe there is a cheaper but still decent motherboard... but can I really trust the PSU that comes with the case in this build? Also I might have lost a lot by going for the X1800 GTO...

HELP!

CP-126-IN - Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £115
MB-061-GI - Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £92
OS-001-MS - Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk £53
HD-093-SE - Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ST3160811AS SATA-II 8MB OEM £35
MY-030-GL - GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £80
GX-061-PC - PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £100
CA-048-AN - Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU £55

Subtotal £530
VAT £92.74
Total £622.6
 
PS! If I'm asking for the impossible just tell me so and I'll lower my expectations or wait until Intel releases quad CPUs in mid November in the hope that prices will have dropped a bit then.
 
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.99 £114.99
MB-003-AK Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-003-AK)
£53.99 £53.99
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£66.99 £66.99
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£114.99 £114.99
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£79.99 £79.99
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£46.95 £46.95
Subtotal £477.90
VAT £83.64
Total £561.54
 
Well this gets me much closer burtieb1. Looks like nice motherboard for the price, but of course means I'd have to drop my IDE HDs as it has only 1 x ATA100 IDE connector. If I could find a nice motherboard around this price with 2x IDE and SATA...

Also you picked Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU over the slightly cheaper Antec Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W PSU. Is this for the extra 50Watts or because the case is nicer... or both. :)

Also ATI Radeon X1800 XT is £15 more expensive than the GTO... probably worth it, but all keeps pushing the price up.

Why the Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB over the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB? Sure more storage but I'm under the impression that Seagate Barracuda is somewhat faster and cheaper to boot.
 
REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.99 £114.99
MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS)
£69.99 £69.99
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£54.99 £54.99
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
£52.99 £52.99
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)
£74.99 £74.99
Subtotal £439.89
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £9.95
VAT £78.73
Total £528.57

Heres my attempt, capable of playing nearly everything with medium/high graphics
 
would the power that comes with the Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU....be ok? or would you need to buy a differnet one...if you where looking to get some good gaming based on a e6300 and Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 system?

am looking for much the same thing.
 
GX-025-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI

is roughly the card I am looking at....would it be ok?
 
Dancer said:
Well this gets me much closer burtieb1. Looks like nice motherboard for the price, but of course means I'd have to drop my IDE HDs as it has only 1 x ATA100 IDE connector. If I could find a nice motherboard around this price with 2x IDE and SATA...

Also you picked Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU over the slightly cheaper Antec Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W PSU. Is this for the extra 50Watts or because the case is nicer... or both. :)

Also ATI Radeon X1800 XT is £15 more expensive than the GTO... probably worth it, but all keeps pushing the price up.

Why the Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB over the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB? Sure more storage but I'm under the impression that Seagate Barracuda is somewhat faster and cheaper to boot.
Click to expand...

You can pick up a IDE to Sata hardrive convertor for a few pounds,yes i chose the samsung for more harddisc space,as for the Antec case yes i chose the sonata II because its a nice looking case and the extra 50watts,

The X1800XT is a fantastic card a little faster than the GTO version ;) also your getting a core 2 duo the latest intel chip.find the extra 60 pounds mate she will love it ;)
 
If you are transferring over an IDE harddrive, maybe you could ditch the new HD to save some pennies?
Maybe re-use an old case with a new psu?
 
burtieb1 said:
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.99 £114.99
MB-003-AK Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-003-AK)
£53.99 £53.99
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£66.99 £66.99
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£114.99 £114.99
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£79.99 £79.99
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£46.95 £46.95
Subtotal £477.90
VAT £83.64
Total £561.54
Click to expand...

Great spec however I'd get the 160GB to save some pennies if your machine is for gaming use only.

The seagate barrucuda .10's are better because they use perpendicular unlike the .9's (I think) however they are (ever so slightly) louder than the samsung and also more expensive.

Definately however get Conroe/X1800XT :)
 
Excellent this is looking very promising.

>>The seagate barrucuda .10's are better because they use perpendicular unlike the .9's?

Err what exactly does this mean? Use perpendicular? .9s .10s??? I'm still not 100% sure Samsung or Seagate, but when you mentioned quieter and cheaper the Samsung seems more attractive. I'll have to compare them on Tomshardware tomorrow.

Also Hangtime I want a SATA disk because I am assuming they are a helluva lot faster than the old IDE drives. My idea was to use the SATA as the main drive (OS, programs, etc.) and then use the IDE as a storage drive.

I checked the BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB over on Tomshardware interactive VGA charts. It does almost as well as the 1800XT at resolutions of 1024x768 (which is high enough!) but suffers a lot when anti-aliasing is turned on. But at £30 less than the 1800XT it might be exactly what I need to get it to budget. Thanks Ender.

I'm not to sure about the motherboard you suggest Ender (MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G) as it again only has 1 IDE connector and maximum 4 USB ports. Still it's very cheap so might go with it for that reason, especially since a IDE to Sata hardrive converter costs around £10 (thanks burtieb1). Will have to see if +~£10 amounts to a motherboard with 2xIDE or not first though.

Also, how much impact will going for the £20 cheaper memory (MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4) instead of the GEIL ram when it comes to overclocking the E6300? Just giving me an idea would be nice (I know I'll need to do some reading on overclocking when I purchase this).
 
Hi there,

Some games really do benefit a lot from using 2GB of ram compared to 1GB, I made the upgrade around February this year & saw a big improvement when playing MMORPG's such as EverQuest, Warcraft etc etc. If your not desperate to upgrade, I would wait till you can afford 2 x 1GB Ram.

I know people budget for what you require but in my opinion its better to wait till you can afford a budget including 2GB of ram & that goes for any specs with a low budget, unless of course it's just for web browsing, normal office use then not a problem. :)
 
Throwing a spanner in the works are you Nelly. :)

I was going to go for 2GB but that is almost double the price of 1GB and so I decided to get 2x512MB now and then I can always uppgrade later with 2 more 512MB. Is there a huge performance difference between 2x1024 and 4x512?
 
hey there, take a look at the inno3D 7600 GST, Review here.

7600GT performance at the price of a 7600GS. (cheap!)

also, it might be a good idea to buy a second hand system from the members market instead with your budget? you will get more bang for your buck. just place an advert in the Wanted section.

eg " £500 gaming pc wanted, staffordshire area collection".

try it out and see what you find ;), you will be surprised!!
 
7600 GST looks good.

I am a little bit sceptical to buying a second hand system, I realise that most people are just selling their old rigs to get a new one, but there's always a risk that you get some dodgy ram or other unstable hardware. I've had the mispleasure of buying used ram before that turned out to have bad sectors or whatever you call it in ram. Besides I still need almost 200 more posts to be allowed access to that market.
 
Dancer said:
I still need almost 200 more posts to be allowed access to that market.
Click to expand...


ah, you answered my question for me.. :>

I agree with you mate, that buying second hand is a bit of a risk, and if your strapped for cash (like me) then it might be a costly gamble.
 
Feel free to post any ideas and build for the machine you're thinking of buying in this thread --G-- or give a link if you have in a separate thread. Since we are in similar boats so to speak it can be good to see what thoughts you have.

Also, I checked harddisk performances on Tomshardware and the Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C walks all over the Seagate Barracude .9. So I'm going for the Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB OEM (HD-024-SA). At £34 + VAT I think it's a good buy.
 
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