Gaming PC(£700-£1000) Help please!

joe_pesci

I think i had that card on my old system. To be honest reason getting a gaming pc with such high specs, is because i want to play ArmA2 which out this week. That game looks so real i nearly dropped dead;)
So i thought gettinga system than can play that on hgih settings, will secure me for any future games for rest of year and abit after.

-TangleFoot-

I read somewhere that most computer systems are replaced roughly every three years. Think yours can last that long?

Knub

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

I read somewhere that most computer systems are replaced roughly every three years. Think yours can last that long?

I think that's in a business environment, iirc.

Having said that I would ideally LOVE to have a new build every 3 years!

In my personal environment, considering this is MSE, I try and squeeze every bit of life out of my hardware until it either gives up the ghost or is just too old. The longest I have gone for (being a PC gamer) is about 4-5 years before having to buy all new. That was because my motherboard died

joe_pesci

Well i think they can last for years, problem is for gaming wise. You get at most 2 years out of them for the top end games. If i can get a year of solid high end gaming, i will be happy.

You will never have the best computer, as new stuff is released every few months. So guess just set a budget and get what you can for money. Funny thing is, a graphics card can cost almost twice as much as a xbox360.
But i feel it's worth it, the consoles have a cartoon look about them even though they look good. I prefer the pc games and how they look.

All though Fifa 08 and any other fifa always looks poor on pc's i find. But i don't play sport games.

Lum

joe_pesci wrote: »

DBE, as i say i have no clue on motherboards

Whilst a motherboard is probably the most important component (after the power supply) picking one isn't too hard.

1) Does the motherboard have the chipset you want. Since you're going for an Intel Socket 775 CPU you ideally want either the Intel P45 or X48 chipsets IMO. The X48 is the one marketed for gaming but the P45 is just fine

2) Does the motherboard have all the features you want. ie. number of slots, amount of memory supported, crossfire/SLI support, one or two network cards, audio, enough SATA ports, a legacy IDE port for your old optical drives?

3) Is the motherboard from a reputable manufacturer? I personally prefer Asus motherboards, but Gigabyte, which you have chosen, are fine.

4) If you're planning on overclocking, does the board support that, and how well does it support it. I can't be bothered with this kind of thing any more, but head over to the likes of hardocp.com if you care about such things

5) Is the board sensibly laid out and easy to work on? Since you're not building the system yourself you probably don't care, unless you plan on doing your own upgrades in the future. Examples of poor layout include memory slots so close to the PCI-E slots that you have to remove the graphics card to add/remove memory, power supply connectors tucked into stupid places or SATA ports located towards the back of the PC so you have to run the cables further

jammell

I built a gaming PC last year for about £700 and this included a great Samsung Pebble monitor!

Are you going to be running Windows XP or Vista?
Also, will it be used for gaming, or gaming and lots of file storage i.e. Music, Films etc.

This was what I got:

MSI P35 NEO - £56.95 Ebuyer.com - 128047

Intel E2160 - £41.49 Ebuyer.com - 127248

Thermalright Ultra-90 775 - £17.32 Tekheads.co.uk

OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz - £32.99 Ebuyer.com - 116755

Maxtor DiamondMax +22 7200RPM SATA II/300 500GB 32MB Cache - OEM - £51.99 Tekheads.co.uk

TekValue nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI/HDTV (PCI-E) - £99.99 Tekheads.co.uk

Coolermaster Centurion 5 All Black Case + 550W eXtreme Power Plus PSU - £69.99 Ebuyer.com - 141707

Antec Pro 80mm 3pin Double Ball Bearing Case Fan - £7.05 Ebuyer.com - 54152

Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Internal SATA Bare Black Drive - OEM - £15.94 Ebuyer.com - 139414

Sony 3.5" Floppy Drive Black - OEM - £3.73 Ebuyer.com - 74629

Logitech MX400 Performance Laser Mouse Silver - £24.03 Ebuyer.com - 105489

Saitek Eclipse Keyboard - USB - £21.41 Ebuyer.com - 90167

Logitech X-210 - 2.1 25W RMS Speakers - £22.68 Ebuyer.com - 94472

TRUST CR-3600 5.25" Media Connect Bay & Card Reader NEW - £17.94 Ebay.co.uk

Belkin Anti-Static Wrist Band - Ebuyer.com £9.79 - 58199


Total: £493.29

Given it's been just over a year now (14 months) since I built it I'm sure it'll be a lot lot lot cheaper, plus there's a few things there you don't need, i.e. Media bay, keyboard (if you have one spare).

Plus, you'd be able to get the next best lot of components for about the same price as mine a year ago, what with all new releases of processors, RAM, gfx cards etc.

If you want I can help you find/build a cheap gaming PC. Just let me know.

My computer doesn't have any problems and it easily runs Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on max settings and highest screen resoultion.

Recently I've added +2GB RAM
and an 800W PSU.
You can see an increase in performance for sure!

The Processor I have makes a great overclocker, you can get it to work like a £200 processor if you get the cooling right. =P

I honestly think you can get a good gaming PC within your budget, including a monitor man.

joe_pesci

Hi thanks for that. I would not mind some pointers in what to go for. So any help would be appreciated.

It is going to be used for just gaming.

joe_pesci

- Intel Core i7-920 Quad Core 2. 2.66GHz Processor
- 3GB DDR3 800MHz PC6400 Memory
- 500GB SATA300 (SATAII) Hard Drive with 16MB Cache 7200rpm
- 22x DVD+/-RW RAM SATA Double Layer Drive
- 1896MB Dedicated nVidia GTX260 Graphics (DirectX 10 compatible)
- 7 USB2.0 Ports (3 front, 4 rear)
- 52 in 1 Flash Memory Card Reader and Writer
- 10/100/1000 LAN
- 650W Gaming PSU
- 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor with 1680x1050 resolution, 2ms response & DVI
- Microdoft Black Keyboard and Mouse
- Microsoft Windows Vista

This looks a top computer, shame about only 3GB of ram and 500GD hard drive. But rest looks great for £930. It's at PCNEXTDAY.

-TangleFoot-

Looks reasonable, but it's not very economical. You can get a similar system from MESH - without a monitor - for £800. The Cyberpower Mega Sales IV is even better value for money.

joe_pesci

Ive decided to get a monitor seperate now TF. I was looking at this one...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-VH222H-LCD-Monitor-20000/dp/B001TH8ODI/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_i

So i will ahve around £800 for the tower alone. Im so strict i get the right one, last one i bought i rushed into. So i will not buy one unless 100% happy.