Looking For Decent Gaming PC (Well..Kinda)

wapow

Hello. Just a quick Hi to all those that remember...Mr Tom, The Dell Guy Etc.

Iv been looking into customising my own pc for quite awhile now. But iv just realised i dont need so much power just yet.

My uses will be web browsing, watching videos, downloading videos and music/graphical/video editing. Budget of around £600 - 650 max. Now, i would prefer the full package, meaning decent monitor included (Doesn't matter about speaker/mouse keyboard..just a monitor and base system will do). Iv decided i will custom build my own unit later on in the year. At the moment i wish to play FarCry Multiplayer and some decent point and click games. I probably wont be playing games like Call of Duty or FEAR till later on anyway.

Prefer to be Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 system. reason being i can then upgrade without buying this processor or switching from AMD to Intel. The E6300 is an amazing overclocker with the right board. This Spec is what i will be ultimately buying:

Antec P180 Case
SeaSonic S12+ Power Unit
NForce 680i Mobo
Intel E6300
Hitachi T7K250
Geil or Corsair RAM
Samsung/NEC Drive
Nvidia SLI Mobo (Nvidia Graphics Card)
Creative X-Fi Sound Card
Card Reader
TV Tuner

So i would like my PC to consist of some of the above components (probably not possible) Just post your suggestions i will be glad to hear from everyone...A bit of a time issue..need one by the end of the week hopefully.

Thanks to all on the board and members! Happy New Year!

Gib_Gib

I would be amazed if you can buy a cheap base system with any of those parts bar the cpu

http://www.gladiatorcomputers.com/ProductDetail.aspx?StockCode=PCSCENCB6300&Link=SearchResults

# Intel Core 2 Duo 6300
# Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (SP2)
# Intel P965 + ICH8 PCIe Motherboard
# ATi Radeon X1950 XT 256MB
# 1024MB DDR2 PC5300 Memory
# 320GB Hard Drive Serial ATA II
# 18x DVD±RW DVD Writer

Is the best base system I can find for the money,


As for your wish list,
you would be better off buying a p5b deluxe and a e6600 (costs the same as a 680i and a e6300, but will overclock better and is faster at stock, admittedly it does not have sli, but it does have cross fire capabilities)
And be aware that the antec p190 is going to be released very soon, an it looks like a better performer than the p180

And plenty of people seem to be having difficulties with geil memory on the core2duo platform, its ok at stock, but not the best overclockers.

Adamant_3

I've used https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk before and the systems are amazing for the money.

Only downside is the slightly slow delivery time of 2 weeks when I ordered.

wapow

Thanks for the advice on the P190...I may have made a slight mistake lol! I wasnt looking for a unit with the mentioned parts... Thats just something i will custom build in the future. All i need for about 6 months is a PC that can play games at decent frame rates, and is quick enough to handle video editing and lots of downloads.

Thanks for the info...I was gonna order the P180 this week an'all lol!

Cheers

Dead_Eye_Jones

Doesnt sound very MSE to be lokoing at two purchases so soon? tbh whatever you buy will be out of date in a year anyway! I always just buy the mid range stuff, go for the best bang for bucks components. Ive done this every two years since about '96 and have never felt 'behind' in technology, my expenditure varies from about £200 to about £400 some years I splash out on a gfx card. tbh my old Radeon 9800 still runs games just fine.

From an MSE point of view I think people spend far more than is really necessary to play games, some people spend £400 on a gfx card that is as powerful as £150 one in just a few months time - its crazy. Most games take a while to catch up anyway so there is really little point.

Dual processsing is another thing to not get too excited about just yet, multi threaded games will be few and far between, I guess you can encode a video whilst playing but how many people will really need that. If you want cheap PC id get one of the top last generation chips, my old 3700+ (£130 over a year ago still runs all games on the market with all the eye candy). FYI im a competative gamer, won a few EU wide UT2K4 competitions etc, so I am actually quite fussy about fps rates etc lol!

I will be upgrading this year though, depending on the demands of C&C3, ut2007, Crysis etc.

If you want to get into getting the most power, head over to https://www.overclockers.co.uk and ask the 'enthusiasts' there to spec out a machine for you. Just give them a budget - they love it!

Jay1b

E6400 is far better value for money than the E6300. Costs about £25 more though.

BillScarab

How is an E6400 far better value for money? It has the same amount of cache and is only slightly quicker. Personally I'd rather buy an E6300 and spend the £25 on a good CPU cooler and then overclock it. In fact once Vista Home is released I shall be doing just that.

I doubt if the E6400 can be overclocked much more than the E6300.

BTW have a look in this month's PC format to see how well the E6300 overclocks.

Gib_Gib

BillScarab wrote:

How is an E6400 far better value for money? It has the same amount of cache and is only slightly quicker.

Good call.

If you can afford a e6600, then that is better, but there is very little difference in a 6300 and a 6400.

wolfman

Jay1b wrote:

E6400 is far better value for money than the E6300. Costs about £25 more though.

Not if you're overclocking. The E6300 is arguably the best of the lot for overclocking, the E6400 not far behind. I've got mine running faster than an E6700.

You'll need the right motherboard though. Maybe the Gigabyte DS4/DS4 or Asus P5B. If not read much about it but the Abit A9 (or something like that) gets a lot of positive feedback.

Apart from that, the spec you mention sounds very nice. Especially the Seasonic PSU. Case too actually, although as mentioned maybe see what the P190 is like. Or look at the Eclipse.

nintendosensei

E6300 is the best for overclocking. 100% overclocks are achievable especially with newer revisions. The P5B deluxe would suit it well. I like your case, but if you're open to suggestion, look at the antec 900 or the TT Armour, both nice cases, although the Armour is a bit big. You could save your money and get a tuniq tower or a big typhoon cpu cooler to help keep those temps low.

Gib_Gib

nintendosensei wrote:

E6300 is the best for overclocking. 100% overclocks are achievable especially with newer revisions.

WOLFMAN wrote:

Not if you're overclocking. The E6300 is arguably the best of the lot for overclocking, the E6400 not far behind. I've got mine running faster than an E6700.

Ok I think people are starting to over egg the e6300, it is a great chip (I have one in my secondary system)

But looking on hwbot.org, people have overclocked the e6400 higher than they have with a e6300
on superpi 1m the fastest e6300 is 4.2ghz compared to 4.48ghz on the e6400
on cpu-z the fastest e6300 is 4.2ghz compared to 4.57ghz on the e6400
In every benchmark I checked the e6300 was beaten

You are not going to get results like that with out a cascade, where as I got 3.9ghz off an e6600 on water.

Other people have gone over 5ghz, normally using liquid nitrogen.

The e6400 is a faster chip, it is at stock and it will overclock higher than an e6300 in the same circumstances.

But I still stay buy an e6300 much better value, but it is not better than a e6400 in terms of performance.

Stock speeds
e6300 runs @ 1.86
e6400 runs @ 2.13
e6600 runs @ 2.4

Sorry for the rant