Which Gaming PC???

reckyroo

Hello
My son is big into online gaming - mainly WOW - and has saved about £500.00 to buy a new gaming tower (he has a new monitor/keyboard so just needs the tower) but although he's a whiz on the pc, he wants to make sure he buys the right one! Any help would be appreciated - have been looking at overclockers but recent posts make him nervous - he's saved up this money from birthdays and his job and can't afford to waste it.
Thanks.

ComplexP

Generally when buying a gaming PC the main things to get right are

- Graphics Card
- Processor
- Memory

Generally there's no one place to go to find the best deal. The main high street shops have a lot of rubbish for sale but if you know what to look for the odd gem does pop up.

The only other option is to go with one of the online custom build companies where you can specify the components you want. Alienware is the leader in this respect but they are expensive.

I believe Dell and Comet both have these options too where you start from a Stock model and adjust whatever you want to taylor it to your needs.

For £500 you should be able to get a very respectable gaming rig.

ghale

The best idea, would be to contact an online retailler such as Novatech, Aria or Ebuyer, they all have phone numbers on there websites, tell them what you want, how much you have to spend, and ask them to come back to you with a quote, because they build to order and they have all parts in stock, they will generally do you a very good deal

the even cheaper option would be to buy the components and build it yourself.....however you do need some know-how to do that

JasX

If he's quite good with computers by FAR the best value machine he'll get would be to buy separate components and self build.

would allow further savings if you have an old 'half decent' spec machine you're scrapping and can re-use some components (eg CD-drive, Hard Drive if its SATA2, case if its a good one, floppy drive etc etc)

self spec is fairly straightforward
1-choose the type of processor you want -look at performance benchmark sites and see how far up the table you can go on your budget.
2-choose the graphics card you want -same idea
3-choose a motherboard thats compatible with 2 components chosen above, also check available card slots and type (PCI/PCIe) for additional cards you know you'll want (eg soundcard, wifi, any unusual ones you might have) also check number and typr oe HDD connections if you have/plan multiple hard drives in future.
4-buy some RAM compatible with the motherboard chosen in 3 -> can make some saving now here and upgrade later if you plan it well (ie don't buy lots of small sized RAM chips that fill all your slots)
5-Buy a PSU with enough power to supply all the above (5-600W would be typical these days unless planning multiple graphics cards or something else unusual -if taking a very cheap one check it has enough connectors for all hard/CD drives and motherboard connections you need)
6- get a case big enough to fit everything in without being too cramped
7-maybe invest an extra £2 or so in a few extra case fans

again some things you can put off buying to save cash now so long as you leave space for in future (eg sound card if motherboard has basic onboard sound)

reckyroo

Hello
Thanks for that everyone - he knows his way around a computer but i don't think he's confident enough to build his own but i've done as advised and emailed ebuyer etc and just waiting for them to get back to us (hadnt thought of doing that). We have looked at alienware but as you say, they are very expensive. Also, when comparing specs, they all seem to use different makes etc so again, very confusing.
Cheers

ComplexP

reckyroo wrote: »

Hello
Thanks for that everyone - he knows his way around a computer but i don't think he's confident enough to build his own but i've done as advised and emailed ebuyer etc and just waiting for them to get back to us (hadnt thought of doing that). We have looked at alienware but as you say, they are very expensive. Also, when comparing specs, they all seem to use different makes etc so again, very confusing.
Cheers

If ebuyer send you a spec, post it up and we'll let you know how it should perform and whether it's good value or not.

Good luck.

Mobeer

Just having a very quick look, this looks to be the sort of thing you want:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-197-OK&tool=5

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.66GHz @ 3.00GHz
ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel
£494 with windows vista premium

ComplexP

Mobeer wrote: »

Just having a very quick look, this looks to be the sort of thing you want:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-197-OK&tool=5

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.66GHz @ 3.00GHz
ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel
£494 with windows vista premium

That's not bad. The graphics card is above average I think scoring 14643 on Tom's Hardware 3DMark06. For comparison, the top cards were scoring around 24000 but they cost about £400. I believe ebuyer sells the HD 4850 for a far more reasonable £80.

I think that computer would run most games today in near top settings at a reasonable frame rates with only a few exceptions (Crysis and GTA 4 come to mind).

ComplexP

reckyroo wrote: »

Hello
Thanks for that everyone - he knows his way around a computer but i don't think he's confident enough to build his own but i've done as advised and emailed ebuyer etc and just waiting for them to get back to us (hadnt thought of doing that). We have looked at alienware but as you say, they are very expensive. Also, when comparing specs, they all seem to use different makes etc so again, very confusing.
Cheers

I couldn't build a computer either so that's why I got my brother to build this one a few months back. To give you an idea of what's possible on a self build, here's what I got for about £1000...

Core i7 920 (overclocked to 3.7Ghz)
6GB DDR3 RAM
1TB Hard Drive (2 x 500GB)
ATI HD 4870x2 2GB (scores 24412 on Tom's Hardware 3DMark06 chart)
TV Card (this is great, acts like a Freeview+ box)
Vista Premium

And a load of high end extras my brother insisted were money well spent like additional fans and a quality power supply.

I haven't found a game it couldn't run in its highest settings so far.

JasX

Mobeer wrote: »

Just having a very quick look, this looks to be the sort of thing you want:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-197-OK&tool=5

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.66GHz @ 3.00GHz
ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel
£494 with windows vista premium

Isn't the E5300 a bit dated now (less than a third the processing power of the i7 920 in the other post).

I built one smilar to ComplexP's recently myself, looking round a similar spec machine bought assembled would add about £1000 to the bill...

ComplexP

JasX wrote: »

Isn't the E5300 a bit dated now (less than a third the processing power of the i7 920 in the other post).

I built one smilar to ComplexP's recently myself, looking round a similar spec machine bought assembled would add about £1000 to the bill...

Don't forget that the OP has a total of £500 to spend and is unlikely to build themselves. Would be interesting for someone who has lots of experience with custom builds to post the best self assembled rig and the best pre assembled rig they could buy for £500 and see the differences.

Unless the OP comes back saying that they know someone who will do the build for them it's going to be a case of finding the best spec on pre assembled machines for £500.