[bimbojim]

Hi,
is it possible to get a resonable gaming PC for around £500/600 ?.
I have an old imedia 1702 and it's just not upto playing much on line games with an ati radion 9200 se even with a 4 mb net connection.

Me thinks it's time to put the imedia to my daughter and get a new one for myself and this is where i am lost... self build or buy off the shelf.
What angers me is my imedia has XP as oem so i will have to pay for a new xp disk as well or is it worth going vista and what specs of pc run games and vista as there seems a lot off non vista player out there.

I would apreciate any sites that you could point my way or if a home build is possible for the money i have (well for the money jaws has if i beg enough (jaws the wife...yap yap yap)), many thanks Jim

[Spencer2004]

easy, 600 pounds will buy you a dual core cpu, a good motherboard, the case, an 8800 gts or gt, couple of hard drives, keyboard and mouse and a monitor. this will allow you to play all the latest games on either high or medium settings.

it might be better to build it yourself depending on how picky you are as you will get exactly what you want.

it would be best to get all the stuff off ebay as it will probally be the cheapest by far.

[bimbojim]

Hi, many thanks for the reply,
i saw this on ebay and wondered if this is any good for £629, The thing i'm not sure about is the graphics cards are worth going for and they ask £76 for vista home premium 64 bit.
i appreciate any thoughts on set up and if i'd be better tweaking anything then buying parts and building or just go for it.... thanks jim

COMPRISES:
INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 2.4GHZ FSB1066 PROCESSOR 8mb Cache
4x 1Gb 240pin DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) DIMM - CL4

THE QUICKEST 20X WRITE DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER
LiteOn DH-20A1P DVDRW 20X Black Front Bezel

MASSIVE
1TERRABYTE SATA HARD DRIVE STORAGE (2X 500GB)

TOP BRAND
ASUS P5N-E SLI MOTHERBOARD

6 USB PORTS

5.1 SURROUND SOUND

10/100/1000 GIGABIT NETWORK

TWO HUGE
512MB NVIDIA 7600GS VIDEO WITH TV-OUT, SLI CONFIGURED

ALL HOUSED IN A STYLISH BLACK AND SILVER TOWER CASE

£629 from computerplus limted

[alex]

A big fat no to that one.

You're paying for a card with 512mb ram that can't perform at resolutions (1680x1050/1920x1200) that require 512mb of ram. This card can only perform upto 1280x1024/1440x900, and at those resolutions you'll not require more than 256mb ram on a card. So you're paying extra for ram that will never see use.

The cpu is spot on for future proofing (not a lot of games are multi-threaded at the moment). The board, whilst being ok, is a SLI board and you've only one gpu in there. This is fine should you want to purchase a second card but for now its not. It's also a lousy chipset on the board. Bad latency's.

Quad-cores also require a lot of ram-bandwidth. 667mhz won't give you this. You require 800mhz or, preferably, 1066mhz ram for a quad in a gaming build.

I'd stay well away from it as it's compromised in too many areas. I get the distinct impression the vendor is trying to blind prospective purchasers with numbers, look at the ram for crying out loud: 4gb! Vista Premium can only 'see' 3gb.

So basically, with os included (which they're charging too much for), you're looking at £705 all in. Nope, stay away from it.

Basing my noseying upon that:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E6750 (2 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
2GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Motherboard
ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1
Operating System
WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)
USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
NONE
1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE
Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 8800GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Sound Card
8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE)
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
NONE
Case
Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Firewire & Video Editing
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Monitor
NONE
2nd Monitor
NONE
DVI Cable
NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
NONE
Mouse
NONE
Speakers
NONE
Printer
NONE
Surge Protection
NONE
Webcam & VoIP
NONE
Media Center Kit
NONE
Anti-Virus
NONE
Office Software
NONE
Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1 Year Free Collect & Return: £5
Delivery
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)
Quantity
1


www.pcspecialist.co.uk Total: £701. This'll game upto 1680x1050 (20-22" tft) with decent settings and frame rates, will even game at 1920x1200 on a whim but you might have to compromise on details settings (game dependent) as the cpu will start to cause bottlenecks.

Or this. Not a bad spec for the money; £588 with Vista Premium. Not as good as the build above, it'll also only game upto 1280x1024/1440x900 with decent detail settings/frame rates. (I consider 25fps the minimum). But it also works out over £100 cheaper.

[Spencer2004]

dont get that one i think i recognise that descryption, its that ebayer i dont like. he sells pirated versions of vista and makes up crap about his proudcts. what is the item number?

well anyway here are some good ones that i have found: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-6400X2-DUA...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-2-Q...QQcmdZViewItem

for the last one it only has an 8600 but it has an sli motherboard so you could get another 8600 for it.

another tip, go for ddr2 800 ram or higher as it is faster than the 667 ram that is in the pc you found.

[bimbojim]

Hi all,
sorry for not replying quicker as i have moved house and now have time to respond.
Oki.. how about this set up

arianet case £15.90
asus m2n-sli dlx nf570 socket am2 motherboard £58.95
amd athlon 64x2 duel core 6000 3.00ghz £84.75
samsung memory 4x 1 gig pc2-6400 £47.80
320gb hitachi deskstar sata2 16mb £39.95
nvidia geforce 8800gts 512mb pci-e £158.95
lg gsa-h66nbal 20x dvdrw/ram x2 £29.10
ocz 600w stealthxtream psu £39.25
52 in 1 card reader with usb £4.75


total £479.40
plus vat £83.89


£563.29 hopefully i will add another 8800 gts shortly if this spec seems oki to you good people....jim

[Macmac508]

Yeah, not too bad. Are you an AMD person? Personally, i think just about everyone here would agree, I would go for an intel chip. The 45nm Wolfdale far out-class the AMD. E8400 or if on a cheaper budget the E6750, both would be better than the AMD.

Also the 8800GT also outperforms the 8800GTS despite what the name & price suggests. Have a look at the intel options. Everything else is fine.

Can I ask where you have seen this set up, or are you looking to build it yourself?

[bimbojim]

Thanks for the info Macmac,
i'll price up an intel chip.
I intend to build the rig myself and sourced the bits from Aria.

[Carbon]

Dump 2gb of the RAM, you won't need 4gb.

[bimbojim]

Here's my order...........
4 x Samsung Original 1Gb PC2-6400 @ 14.04GBP
1 x Arianet Aeros 2 Black/Silver @ 18.74GBP
1 x ASUS M2N-SLI DLX nF570 Socket AM2 Motherboard @ 69.27GBP
1 x 320GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA2 16MB @ 46.94GBP
1 x nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E @ 140.94GBP
1 x OCZ 600W StealthXStream PSU @ 46.12GBP
2 x LG GSA-H66NBAL 20x DVDRW/RAM Black - SATA @ 16.39GBP
1 x 52 in 1 Card Reader Black with USB @ 5.58GBP
1 x 1m Crossover Net Cable RJ45 @ 1.16GBP
1 x DVI TO VGA CONVERTER @ 4.52GBP
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 PRO PWM @ 11.10GBP
1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Retail AM2) @ 99.58GBP
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Order Total (inc.VAT inc. Shipping): 543.58GBP

This is the order i've placed as i have to chance off a AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 6400 Black Edition 3.2GHz from a mate for the extra 2 gb of ram as he's not into gaming. so i guess i'll be swapping chips.