Any ideas on an affordable desktop for gaming?

JasX

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Or could just go with

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/200542

Almost same spec for £399, but its all put together and has a system warranty. Although building is more fun! Has a crappy radeon 5450 which you could sell on ebay for £30, and put another £50 on top to get something like a radeon 5750 or even 5770.

yeah comes close... if I really wanted to quibble the ACER PSU looks a little on the light side**, you take a not insignificant hit on the hard drive and you'll only be getting an OEM edition of windows7 whereas getting a RETAIL one to self build with could be reused in future for his next machine or sold on separately when no longer needed.

But with a bit of ebay faff could achieve a similar end


( EDIT **could actuallly be a problem if you get a graphics card needing a decent amoung of juice only 250-330w ! :shocked: )

jac29

Hi Guys,

Just spent ages on a reply then lost it! Grrr.

His tv is hd ready so from what i've read he can use this as a 'monitor' if he gets a hdmi lead? I assume ebay is as good a place as any to pick up one of these and that just a cheapish one will do the same job?

As he is only 16 and is saving up for this himself he will be looking at the lower end of the price range. He is a tight s*d at the best of times and has to be encouraged to part with his money! So looking at the £500 mark.

The idea of building one scares the pants off me to be honest. Getting one out of the box is probably the best option.

What are the minimum requirements of each aspect that i should be looking at with him? i.e ram/hard drive/graphics etc.....in simple terms!

...And finally, what is a belkin surge protector? I have a horrible feeling i should have one myself :eek:

Thanks x

gonzo127

jac29 wrote: »

His tv is hd ready so from what i've read he can use this as a 'monitor' if he gets a hdmi lead? I assume ebay is as good a place as any to pick up one of these and that just a cheapish one will do the same job?

well get a cheap HDMI cable, the signal that it transmits is digital so its a case of the information either gets there or it doesnt, there is no inbetween so the cheap ones will be as good as a expensive one

jac29 wrote: »

As he is only 16 and is saving up for this himself he will be looking at the lower end of the price range. He is a tight s*d at the best of times and has to be encouraged to part with his money! So looking at the £500 mark.

ok thats a reasonable starting budget, i take it he is working so would there be much flexibility in this budget? and would he be able to 'skimp' on a couple of parts now and then in a year or so buy the better parts and add them in himself?

jac29 wrote: »

The idea of building one scares the pants off me to be honest. Getting one out of the box is probably the best option.

thats fair enough, although building them really is easy if you are not comfortable wont mention it again

jac29 wrote: »

What are the minimum requirements of each aspect that i should be looking at with him? i.e ram/hard drive/graphics etc.....in simple terms!

well this will be the points of contention for most people, however i think its more a case of whats the best compromise for the money, if the system is going to be a gaming system first and foremost the biggest aspect will be the graphics card, however every item will be used in gaming so its 6 of one and half a dozen of another

jac29 wrote: »

...And finally, what is a belkin surge protector? I have a horrible feeling i should have one myself

a surge protector is basically a extension socket which will blow up before your equipment if there happens to be a surge in the electricity in your house,



ANYWAYS a good starting point for a £500 system would be the following
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=902
upgrade the processor to the Athlon x4
upgrade graphics card to the ati 5770
upgrade power supply OCZ
brings the system to £512 + £25 for delivery

OR

upgrade the processor to the Athlon x4
Add the Coolermaster Hyper TX3 cooler
Upgrade the hadr drive to 1tb
upgrade graphics card to the ati 5770

brings the system to £490 + £25 for delivery

OR

upgrade the processor to the Athlon x4
Upgrade the hard drive to 1tb
upgrade graphics card to the ati 5770
Add a wireless N dongle
Add cheap mouse
Add cheap keyboard

brings the system to £495 + £25 for delivery

JasX

Not used them myself but gonzo's spec from the Dino PC place looks prefectly reasonably for gaming and the price. Might be tempted to upgrade the hard disk to 1TB for the extra £15, also consider a wireless PCI card if the PC won't be next to the router and able to be wired in.

Not convinced you need the CPU cooling upgrade but won't hurt.

Regarding the cable you should check the graphics card outputs to see if you need HDMI to HDMI or DVI to HDMI, both should be £3-5 online.

Don't forget a keyboard + mouse if you need one.

gonzo127

JasX wrote: »

Not used them myself but gonzo's spec from the Dino PC place looks prefectly reasonably for gaming and the price. Might be tempted to upgrade the hard disk to 1TB for the extra £15, also consider a wireless PCI card if the PC won't be next to the router and able to be wired in.

Not convinced you need the CPU cooling upgrade but won't hurt.

Regarding the cable you should check the graphics card outputs to see if you need HDMI to HDMI or DVI to HDMI, both should be £3-5 online.

Don't forget a keyboard + mouse if you need one.

sorry Jas been playing with it a bit after a first posted will repost the original spec so it doesnt get to confusing

also added in the spec for one with the wireless and mouse and keyboard

and no i havent used DinoPC either just a company i have come accross when searching who seem to do reasonable speced and priced systems,

AndyJT_2

Hi guys thought i would post here instead of starting a new thread because there are thousands. (been browsing them all afternoon and still no better clued up!)

I am after a gaming PC with a max budget of £500 for everything inc monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. I know this will only get me a lower spec one but I will hopefully upgrade it as needs be.

I dont think I would be confident enough to make my own one completely but have seen the 'barebones' packages which I am open to or obviously buying a fully made one which can be modified as I said when necessary.

If anybody could be point me in the right direction of barebones and parts or a good spec ready build one I would be really grateful. Unfortunately all of this GB, RAM overclocking means nothing to me. Any websites which explain this for dummies would be helpful as well.

Thanks!!

Knarf44

Andy

Refer back to post #8 where JasX linked to Novatech and also check out DinoPC linked to by gonzo in post #14.

Also, check out the motherboard bundles at CCLonline and DABS

AndyJT_2

Thanks for the reply Knarf. I have put together a list of everything (i think) apart from a graphics card. Hopefully you and anybody else can look over the list and make any changes where necessary and help pick out a graphics card (there are so many!) anyway here we go... also apologies for the inactive links... new member and all that

Novatech Barebones Bundle - novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/barebones/Novatech/BB-8304X3.htm

Samsung HD103SJ - ebuyer.com/product/173804

Samsung SH-5223 - ebuyer.com/product/145450

Cisco Linksys Wireless-N PCI - ebuyer.com/product/166269

Microsoft Windows Home 7 - ebuyer.com/product/168373

Please feel free to make any amends like I said. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be attempting to put it together

spakkker

You may be better off with a good dual core(i3-530/540) rather than a so-so quad ,not all games are designed for 4 core, i3 has 2 virtual cores and performs better per cycle than the slower q8300.
See here - http://www.hardcoreware.net/amd-vs-intel-100-150-dollar-cpu/5/
http://www.hardcoreware.net/amd-vs-intel-100-150-dollar-cpu/8/

As it says graphics card is by far more important.

AndyJT_2

spakkker wrote: »

You may be better off with a good dual core(i3-530/540) rather than a so-so quad ,not all games are designed for 4 core, i3 has 2 virtual cores and performs better per cycle than the slower q8300.
See here - ..

As it says graphics card is by far more important.

Hi spakkker. There is a
'Novatech Barebone Bundle - Intel i3 540 - 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz - Intel H55 Chipset Motherboard - 4 Bay ATX Tower Case & 550W PSU' on the website. It has the i3-540 as stated. Would you recommend this instead of the quad. It is £254.99, or is it possible to get a better 'barebones' for that/a cheaper price with the i3 540/530?

Thanks for the article its cleared thing up a little to my technophobic brain!