looking for good value but serious GAMES PC

trets77

long story but i used to have a reasonable pc and play Half life 2 multiplayer deathmatch online a lot. but now i don,t

i'm very eager to get playing again. i,m looking for a gaming PC to last the next five years . i,d like to get a ALIENWARE PC but they aren,t cheap to say the least and thats before the add ons when you customise.

and recomendations ect on better priced companys you have experiance of that could come close to a ALIENWARE AREA 51 setup much appericiated or should i push the boat out and go with alienware?? are they THAT good?

ideally looking for

a dual processor.
2mb ram min
abilty to upgrade to dual SLI graphics in the future but a min 256Mb high spec graphics card included pci X16 ideal
reasonable hard drive ( the PC will be for games ONLY)
excellent cooling (pref liquid)
physics drive or the abilty to install one

my budget is about £1000 but i would prefer nearer the £750 mark

banger9365

throught about building your own eg
Athlon 64 4600 Dual Core 2.4GHz 512kb L2 cache AM2 940 pin ebuyer £133.65
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93ghz - Skt775 Fsb1066 4mb Cache retail boxed ebuyer £804.39
FX-62 Athlon AM2 Dual Core 2.8GHz ebuyer £572.12 ccl £567.17
Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X ccl £145.43
Seagate ST3250820AS 250GB 7200RPM SATA300 8MB Cache - OEM ebuyer £51.69
36GB Western Digital Raptor ccl £75.07
BFG 7600GT 256mb GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E ebuyer £121.57
1GB XFX GeForce 7950GX2 ccl £469.99 this for fun
DFI Infinity nF UltraII-M2/G SKT AM2 PCI-E 8channel audio ATX ebuyer £59.95
2GB OCZ Platinum XTC Series DDR2 Dual Channel Kit ccl £310.11
OCZ (OCZ2SOE6672GK) OCZ PC2-5400 DDR2 2GB Gold XTC Dual Kit (4-4-4-8) 2G Kit 667MHz *S.O* Edition ebuyer £145.99
and do not for get case /opticle drives and a very good psu and lcd monitor or two
remember this is just an example of what you can get or buy one complet

Poppycat

I am looking for a home built pc (just need a little more dosh) thats about £900 better spec than the cheapest dual core 2 they have HERE which is £1100. This is barebones no monitor that I am building sooner or later.

I seen asus do a gaming lan case similar to alienwares case

Heres specs I got

Gigabyter Ga965p-ds4 mobo £117 (ds3 is cheaper without firewire)
Ebuyer aspire X-infinity black tower (mod case) £42.00 (inc 420 watt psu, it should be enough power)
Maxtor 10 sata 2 320gb hard drive (16mb cache) £69.00
Samsung sata dvdrw £28.00 (black to match case)
Asus Nvidia 7900GT (256mb) pci-e video card £211.00 (might have for something less money as money is tight)
2gb Corsair Twin2X (2x1024) pc6400 ram £170 (might have to go for 1gb as money is tight)
Intel Dual core 2 e600 cpu £244

A few odds and sods just in case like sata power cables
UV SATA Cables and " uv LIGHTS FOR CASE

going2die_rich

I think you'll find it hard to find a PC that lasts 5 years for gaming. You just need to look back 5 years now and think what was the best PC for gaming back then and consider whether it could even run some of the average games now, let alone any of the new ones.

Technology is moving too fast to make something future proof for that long, especially in the gaming area.

Make sure whatever you buy is able to be upgraded for the future.

wolfman

Poppycat wrote:

Gigabyter Ga965p-ds4 mobo £117 (ds3 is cheaper without firewire)
Ebuyer aspire X-infinity black tower (mod case) £42.00 (inc 420 watt psu, it should be enough power)
Maxtor 10 sata 2 320gb hard drive (16mb cache) £69.00
Samsung sata dvdrw £28.00 (black to match case)
Asus Nvidia 7900GT (256mb) pci-e video card £211.00 (might have for something less money as money is tight)
2gb Corsair Twin2X (2x1024) pc6400 ram £170 (might have to go for 1gb as money is tight)
Intel Dual core 2 e600 cpu £244

Could go for an Allendale instead of a Conroe. Something like an E6300. I've got mine overclocked as fast as an E6700 and temperatures don't exceed 50C (42C at idle). It only cost me £125.

The DS3/DS4 are good boards. The chipset does run extremely hot though, so you may want to spend an extra £8 and attach a silent fan to it.

Plus, picking the right memory is very important, and some won't be immediately compatible.

Also, if overclocking GeForce cards can be problematic. ATI cards generally are more forgiving. They run more quietly than GeForce cards, but run much, much hotter. I think mine goes near 80-90C sometimes. My brothers GeForce is usually nearer 50-60C.

I'm also a fan of the Antec Sonata II case. It's a bit more expensive at £80 but you get a 450W PSU, of good quality. The case is well put together, has good cooling and helps keep things silent.

Poppycat

Hi Wolfman, thanks.

I read reviews of the ds4 mobo and it gave it a good thumbs up for overclocking, I am sure it said it didnt need extra cooling.

The case I had in mind has several fans in so hopefully it should be pretty cool in it. The Asus card is already a overclocking card.

I have bene wondering about getting a slightly slower Conroe but as my last main pc is 3 and a bit years old I wanted to get one that would last similarly.

As for memory I picked that as it recommended it on gigabytes web site, its a little bit much for what I wanted but with so many out there and your previous warnings about it I wanted to play safe.

wolfman wrote:

Could go for an Allendale instead of a Conroe. Something like an E6300. I've got mine overclocked as fast as an E6700 and temperatures don't exceed 50C (42C at idle). It only cost me £125.

The DS3/DS4 are good boards. The chipset does run extremely hot though, so you may want to spend an extra £8 and attach a silent fan to it.

Plus, picking the right memory is very important, and some won't be immediately compatible.

Also, if overclocking GeForce cards can be problematic. ATI cards generally are more forgiving. They run more quietly than GeForce cards, but run much, much hotter. I think mine goes near 80-90C sometimes. My brothers GeForce is usually nearer 50-60C.

I'm also a fan of the Antec Sonata II case. It's a bit more expensive at £80 but you get a 450W PSU, of good quality. The case is well put together, has good cooling and helps keep things silent.

Poppycat

Thats a good point, 5 years is probably to long for a gaming pc.

I been into pcs for donkeys years and have noticed over the last few years that its moving so fast that its very expensive to keep up. I tend to replace some parts like cpu, ram, mobo, hd every couple of years but this year I need to replace everything inc case.

I dont throw the old pcs out mind you as kids tend to get them and they are fine for them.

going2die_rich wrote:

I think you'll find it hard to find a PC that lasts 5 years for gaming. You just need to look back 5 years now and think what was the best PC for gaming back then and consider whether it could even run some of the average games now, let alone any of the new ones.

Technology is moving too fast to make something future proof for that long, especially in the gaming area.

Make sure whatever you buy is able to be upgraded for the future.

wolfman

Poppycat wrote:

I read reviews of the ds4 mobo and it gave it a good thumbs up for overclocking, I am sure it said it didnt need extra cooling.

I've got a DS3 and it's hot to the point where it can burn you. I've screwed a small 40mm fan to it, keeps it cooler. The DS4 has a heatpipe if I'm not mistaken, if overclocking though I'd keep an eye on it, don't want to go frying your chipset.

I've not seen a huge amount of results for the DS4 regarding overclocking. I have seen that it is very good for overclocking, but most posts on various forums are people showing their DS3 setup and what FSB they can reach.

Poppycat wrote:

The case I had in mind has several fans in so hopefully it should be pretty cool in it. The Asus card is already a overclocking card.

Yeah, the Antec I mentioed is double the price of your one. It's only got two fans, but they're 120mm fans, so can move a good amount of air without generating a lot of noise.

Poppycat wrote:

As for memory I picked that as it recommended it on gigabytes web site, its a little bit much for what I wanted but with so many out there and your previous warnings about it I wanted to play safe.

You basically have to make sure you get RAM that can run at 1.8V. Using Gigabyte's recommended RAM list is the best thing to do (as you did). I took a bit of a risk and didn't, but got lucky. The board is set to that by default, so if you get 2.1V RAM then it won't POST as the RAM will need 2.1V to work, but only be getting supplied 1.8V. Both boards will support such RAM, but it needs to be able to run at 1.8V in order to make that change, if that makes sense...

wolfman

Poppycat wrote:

I been into pcs for donkeys years and have noticed over the last few years that its moving so fast that its very expensive to keep up. I tend to replace some parts like cpu, ram, mobo, hd every couple of years but this year I need to replace everything inc case.

Yeah that's usually the most cost efficient way of doing things. Then you avoid having to pay a premium for a machine that may not last much longer.

I recently upgraded and only needed to change CPU, Motherboard, RAM and Graphics card. I've got a four year old Lian Li case which is still great, and a decent Tagan PSU, so upgrading didn't cost me as much.

Poppycat

I got a Lian li case, great cases just look a little dated now but they are well built cases as I am sure you agree. I would love the front usb ports to be usb2 there only 1.1 unfortunately, expensive case at the time but still worth using. I am planning on using old pc for a home entertainment.

I was hoping to get another Lian Li but they seemed to not moved on much in the last few years, there appears less choice and they do them awful clam shell cases. I didnt want another case that looked the same as my old one, I want a window with lights

Your right about the ds4 being heat piped, if my memory serves me right a Australian hardware site gave it good reviews and ran cool. I THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE Artic cool cooler (sorry caps were on) but I ain't sure there's enough room for it with the heat pipes belong along near the cpu socket.

Thanks