A question on gaming pc's

[jonnopon3000]

Can you recommend any changes? I don't need a monitor because I can use my TV.

Honestly, you really do need a monitor. Unless you've got a high quality HD TV, you're not going to be able want to use the TV for basic interface stuff. Even 720 is painfully low res for a computer.

This is true. I use my HD TV sometimes in 1920x1080, and i tried it in smaller resolutions. It really is horrible.

 

[caz105]

Yes. Windows 7 ultimate I think I will be getting. Why does this affect your judgement?

Just wondering because my OS was quite a chunk of my price

Can you recommend any changes? I don't need a monitor because I can use my TV.

Honestly, you really do need a monitor. Unless you've got a high quality HD TV, you're not going to be able want to use the TV for basic interface stuff. Even 720 is painfully low res for a computer.

I have a 23" 1080p Samsung LCD TV With a PC connector thingy which I chose especially for my PC.

 

[Mr Orange]

That graphics card is good. Go for the motherboard that is on the Bit Tech link I said. Get it from this here:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1056610&source=froogle

Get this RAM:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(2x2GB)-Corsair-XMS3-Dominator-DDR3-PC3-12800-(1600)-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-DHX

And definitely get this Power Supply:

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=28148&tid=frooct

It is the same one that Danny, Bit Tech, Custom PC and myself have recommended. This is NOT an area where you should try and save money.

Also, don't just look at Overclockers UK for hardware. 1) You never know which place has the best deals and 2) Overclockers UK are not that good. Scan, Ebuyer, CCL, Tekheads and Yoyo tech are the best places to buy from.

If your budget can stretch another £45, however, I would recommend going with the Palit GTX 275: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=36138&tid=frooct

Either way, if you get an Antec 300 MAKE SURE YOU BUY 2 INTAKE FANS.

These, for instance: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm-AKASA-AK-191BL-near-Silent-Imperial-Blue-value-case-fan

The £9 spent on them will be £9 well spent.

 

[Aunel]

for 600 quid it's good, but yeah, build it yourself, or get a friend to do it.
and just to rub some healing salt in the wounds, my laptop has better specs then that, and it's a year old.

 

[Nutcase]

Your processor and graphics card are a bit weak. Don't expect to play a lot of games on max settings.

I suggest buying all those parts on Newegg and building it yourself or getting a friend or local technician to build it. You will save a lot of money which you can use to get a better CPU and GPU.

I'm not too worried about the graphical settings as long as I can play the majority of games at regular settings, will this rig handle that?

Most likely yes. Just don't plan on running Crysis or anything like that.

I have a slower processor than that, and Crysis runs just fine.

 

[Mr Orange]

Your processor and graphics card are a bit weak. Don't expect to play a lot of games on max settings.

I suggest buying all those parts on Newegg and building it yourself or getting a friend or local technician to build it. You will save a lot of money which you can use to get a better CPU and GPU.

I'm not too worried about the graphical settings as long as I can play the majority of games at regular settings, will this rig handle that?

Most likely yes. Just don't plan on running Crysis or anything like that.

I have a slower processor than that, and Crysis runs just fine.

The processor is not the biggest bottleneck in games.

 

[Nutcase]

Your processor and graphics card are a bit weak. Don't expect to play a lot of games on max settings.

I suggest buying all those parts on Newegg and building it yourself or getting a friend or local technician to build it. You will save a lot of money which you can use to get a better CPU and GPU.

I'm not too worried about the graphical settings as long as I can play the majority of games at regular settings, will this rig handle that?

Most likely yes. Just don't plan on running Crysis or anything like that.

I have a slower processor than that, and Crysis runs just fine.

The processor is not the biggest bottleneck in games.

I know. If you pay attention, Emphraim was calling the OP's choice of CPU weak and implied it's not good enough to run Crysis.

 

[Mr Orange]

Your processor and graphics card are a bit weak. Don't expect to play a lot of games on max settings.

I suggest buying all those parts on Newegg and building it yourself or getting a friend or local technician to build it. You will save a lot of money which you can use to get a better CPU and GPU.

I'm not too worried about the graphical settings as long as I can play the majority of games at regular settings, will this rig handle that?

Most likely yes. Just don't plan on running Crysis or anything like that.

I have a slower processor than that, and Crysis runs just fine.

The processor is not the biggest bottleneck in games.

I know. If you pay attention, Emphraim was calling the OP's choice of CPU weak and implied it's not good enough to run Crysis.

I was supporting what you were saying. That processor would be alright for games. Not great, but alright.

 

[Woodsey]

£604 isn't what I'd call a gaming PC - I didn't read the spec because it was obviously a copy and paste job, but the most important stuff is basically a good net connection (if you want to play online) lots of memory (and memory on your GFX card), a new GFX card (not a model or 2 ago) and a mighty processor.

Processors and RAM are over taking GFX cards in terms of importance I hear. Sort of. It all balances anyway, but yano.

 

[caz105]

Well after taking advice I'm going with Overclockers and building it with help.
The case is an Antec 300: £46
The PSU is a Corsair HX 450W: £60
AMD Phenom II X3:£93
GPU HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB:£104

Thats all at the moment I still need to decide on a mobo, RAM, Cooling Optical and HDD.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'd try this:

Case: Antec 300 ~£45
Mobo: MSI 770-c45 ~£65
CPU: AMD Phenom X2 550 Black Edition ~£75
RAM: Corsair TWIN3X02048-133C9A ~£30
GPU: Perhaps a 4770? ~£85
CPU cooler: OCZ Vendetta 2 ~£20
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W ~£55
HDD: WD Caviar Blue (320GB) ~£35
Opical Drive: LG GH22ns40 ~£15

Which comes out at about £425, which leaves you some money spare for peripherals, a couple of games, or to upgrade a component or two. S'up to you.

Everyone else: Feel free to pick this apart.

That's actually pretty darn close to what I use.

The changes are I have a pair of Caviar Blue 160's (Raid 0, similar price I suspect after currency conversion), a 4850 (cost me 180 USD), used the stock cooler with my Phenom X2 (runs a tad warmer than I'd like peaking at 55 degrees on average), and a different case. The entire build cost me just over 1100 USD inclding shipping (and a 23 inch monitor).

 

[Mr Orange]

Well after taking advice I'm going with Overclockers and building it with help.
The case is an Antec 300: £46
The PSU is a Corsair HX 450W: £60
AMD Phenom II X3:£93
GPU HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB:£104

Thats all at the moment I still need to decide on a mobo, RAM, Cooling Optical and HDD.

No no NO.

Jesus man, listen to what I am saying. That PSU is shite, get the CHEAPER and BETTER and MORE POWERFUL and MODULAR one that I RECOMMENDED FOR YOU.

Also, get the mobo that I RECOMMENDED FOR YOU SO THAT YOU CAN UNLOCK THE EXTRA CORE. This will improve your multitasking ability.

DON'T FORGET THE FANS.

I'm trying to help here man, and you're ignoring it. I even sent you the links for the cheapest places to buy those parts, rather than just STICKING WITH ONE SUPPLIER THAT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD ANYWAY, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU'RE GETTING THE BEST DEAL.

As for HDD, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB. Fast and lots of storage. Buy it from here: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=723884&source=froogle. it is the cheapest good place.

Start reading Bit Tech for advice on this kind of thing, if you are absolutely determined to ignore the advice of the people that respond to your thread and try to help you.

 

[Horticulture]

Well after taking advice I'm going with Overclockers and building it with help.
The case is an Antec 300: £46
The PSU is a Corsair HX 450W: £60
AMD Phenom II X3:£93
GPU HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB:£104

Thats all at the moment I still need to decide on a mobo, RAM, Cooling Optical and HDD.

No no NO.

Jesus man, listen to what I am saying. That PSU is shite, get the CHEAPER and BETTER and MORE POWERFUL and MODULAR one that I RECOMMENDED FOR YOU.

Also, get the mobo that I RECOMMENDED FOR YOU SO THAT YOU CAN UNLOCK THE EXTRA CORE. This will improve your multitasking ability.

DON'T FORGET THE FANS.

I'm trying to help here man, and you're ignoring it. I even sent you the links for the cheapest places to buy those parts, rather than just STICKING WITH ONE SUPPLIER THAT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD ANYWAY, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU'RE GETTING THE BEST DEAL.

As for HDD, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB. Fast and lots of storage. Buy it from here: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=723884&source=froogle. it is the cheapest good place.

Start reading Bit Tech for advice on this kind of thing, if you are absolutely determined to ignore the advice of the people that respond to your thread and try to help you.

This has been another issue of "How to Win Friends and Influence People: Capslock edition."

Edit: though the PSU Orange is recommending is solid. 450W is on the weak side for that build, even if it is a Corsair (which is a great brand).

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Seriously, who honestly averages 76.4 FPS in Crysis? =P

*raises hand* Admittedly, though, I spent a lot more than 600 pounds even with building it myself.

I'm going to agree with adding more RAM, if you can; 2GB would be ample for a 32-bit system (which can't address any more than 4GB, anyway) but you have a 64-bit motherboard and Vista 64-bit as your OS... and DDR2 RAM is relatively cheap now that the "big boys" are all drooling for DDR3 sticks. See if you can add another 2GB without killing your budget. If not, look at buying a couple of sticks after market the next time you get some spare cash; adding RAM is the simplest and cheapest way to "mod" your computer into better performance.

The terrabyte hard drive looks good... I went with a 32MB buffer because the difference in price for me was $10CAD (~4 pounds) and I was in an endulgent mood; I find it does help with load times and caching.

Your heat sink may be a bit more beefy than necessary unless you decide to overclock it yourself. Ditto on the power supply (quad-SLI is a bit much for a single GPU system) unless you plan on adding components as you go... and if that's the case you might be better off getting a baseline quad-core and adding to it as time goes by. However, if you do plan on overclocking ignore this paragraph.

Good stuff on the vibration gaskets and the like; too may folks get mesmerised by the shiny and forget how loud some systems can get. I went with a noise-absorbant case myself because I got tired of how loud my old beast had grown.

To sum up, there are some tweaks that would help but this isn't a bad computer for today's games. I'd have some reservations about how future-proof it would be, though.

-- Steve

 

[caz105]

That graphics card is good. Go for the motherboard that is on the Bit Tech link I said. Get it from this here:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1056610&source=froogle

Get this RAM:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(2x2GB)-Corsair-XMS3-Dominator-DDR3-PC3-12800-(1600)-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-DHX

And definitely get this Power Supply:

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=28148&tid=frooct

It is the same one that Danny, Bit Tech, Custom PC and myself have recommended. This is NOT an area where you should try and save money.

Also, don't just look at Overclockers UK for hardware. 1) You never know which place has the best deals and 2) Overclockers UK are not that good. Scan, Ebuyer, CCL, Tekheads and Yoyo tech are the best places to buy from.

If your budget can stretch another £45, however, I would recommend going with the Palit GTX 275: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=36138&tid=frooct

Either way, if you get an Antec 300 MAKE SURE YOU BUY 2 INTAKE FANS.

These, for instance: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm-AKASA-AK-191BL-near-Silent-Imperial-Blue-value-case-fan

The £9 spent on them will be £9 well spent.

Sorry mate It's my first PC and I'm getting soooooo much advice from loads of different people.
It was only a rough idea anyway.(Would this PSU let me overclock if I Learn/decide to do it?

£604 isn't what I'd call a gaming PC - I didn't read the spec because it was obviously a copy and paste job, but the most important stuff is basically a good net connection (if you want to play online) lots of memory (and memory on your GFX card), a new GFX card (not a model or 2 ago) and a mighty processor.

Processors and RAM are over taking GFX cards in terms of importance I hear. Sort of. It all balances anyway, but yano.

If you haven't read the specs how can you criticize it?

 

[Mr Orange]

Well after taking advice I'm going with Overclockers and building it with help.
The case is an Antec 300: £46
The PSU is a Corsair HX 450W: £60
AMD Phenom II X3:£93
GPU HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB:£104

Thats all at the moment I still need to decide on a mobo, RAM, Cooling Optical and HDD.

No no NO.

Jesus man, listen to what I am saying. That PSU is shite, get the CHEAPER and BETTER and MORE POWERFUL and MODULAR one that I RECOMMENDED FOR YOU.

Also, get the mobo that I RECOMMENDED FOR YOU SO THAT YOU CAN UNLOCK THE EXTRA CORE. This will improve your multitasking ability.

DON'T FORGET THE FANS.

I'm trying to help here man, and you're ignoring it. I even sent you the links for the cheapest places to buy those parts, rather than just STICKING WITH ONE SUPPLIER THAT ISN'T EVEN THAT GOOD ANYWAY, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU'RE GETTING THE BEST DEAL.

As for HDD, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB. Fast and lots of storage. Buy it from here: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=723884&source=froogle. it is the cheapest good place.

Start reading Bit Tech for advice on this kind of thing, if you are absolutely determined to ignore the advice of the people that respond to your thread and try to help you.

This has been another issue of "How to Win Friends and Influence People: Capslock edition."

Edit: though the PSU Orange is recommending is solid. 450W is on the weak side for that build, even if it is a Corsair (which is a great brand).

Lol, I thought if I used caps it might GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS. XD

 

[Woodsey]

£604 isn't what I'd call a gaming PC - I didn't read the spec because it was obviously a copy and paste job, but the most important stuff is basically a good net connection (if you want to play online) lots of memory (and memory on your GFX card), a new GFX card (not a model or 2 ago) and a mighty processor.

Processors and RAM are over taking GFX cards in terms of importance I hear. Sort of. It all balances anyway, but yano.

If you haven't read the specs how can you criticize it?[/quote]

I didn't. I just pointed out what I felt were the most important things if you wanted a true gaming PC. And the point I made about the price was that £604 wouldn't be enough if you wanted a monster.

If I'd of been criticising I'd of told him he should (for example) get a better GFX card, or add more RAM because what he had wasn't good enough or something like that. Which I didn't.

 

[koichan]

Sounds like most things have been covered already.

I'll just echo the others saying you need 4GB ram minimum for a gaming PC, as welll as you should spend more money on a GPU (somewhere around the 4870 level).

OS though: don't buy Vista.
Use the win7 RC for now and preorder win7 for £45 [http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=174772] instead

 

[Joshimodo]

I finally saw the light and decided to get a gaming PC for Christmas, I chose to get a custom one from cyberpower PC and got this one:

Spoiler

*BASE_PRICE: [+208]
CAS: Silverstone Precision PS01B-W Mid Tower Case Black with Side-Panel Window [+20]
CASUPGRADE: NONE
CS_FAN: Maximum Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+10]
CPNR: Cyberpower Power Supply Gasket -- reducing the noice generated from Power Supply [+3]
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core? 2 Duo E7400 CPU @ 2.80GHz 1066FSB 3MB L2 ***Overclockable XXX*** Cache 64-bit [+35]
CD: (Special Price) LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (Black Color)
CD2: NONE
CABLE: None
EXPAN: NONE
FAN: XtremeGear HDT 120 Xtreme CPU Cooler (5 Heatpipes Direct Core Contact, with rubber rings detachable 120m Neon Fan) ***Overclockable XXX*** [+22]
FLASHMEDIA: None
FA_HDD: None
FLOPPY: NONE
HOMEINSTALL: NONE
HDD: Single Hard Drive (1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache Hard Drive [+22])
HDD2: NONE
IEEE_CARD: NONE
KEYBOARD: Logitech PS/2 Keyboard (Black) [+8]
MOUSE: NONE
MODEM: NONE
MOTHERBOARD: MSI P43 Neo-F P43 Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1333 DDR2/800 SATA2 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio [+19]
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC8500 DDR2/1066Mhz Dual Channel Memory [+17] (G.SKILL PK Series w/Heat Spreader)
MONITOR: NONE
MONITOR2: NONE
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista? Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 [+74] (64-bit Edition)
OS_UPGRADE: Upgrade to Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
PS_VGA: NONE
POWERSUPPLY: 700 Watts Power Supplies [+22] (CyberPowerPC Performance ATX 2.0 Power - Quad SLI Ready)
PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU [+11]
RUSH: NONE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: Logitech S120 2.0 Stereo Speaker Set [+8] (BLACK COLOR)
TEMP: NONE (AS SHOWN)
TVRC: NONE
UPS: None
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
USBHD: NONE
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 4670 PCI-E x16 512MB Video Card [+47]
VIDEO2: NONE
VIDEO3: NONE
WEBCAM: NONE
WNC: NONE
WAP: NONE
WARRANTY: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
_PRICE: (+526)
_view_: detail

Is this a good PC for £604(inc VAT)? Can anyone recommend any improvements or changes? I would like to keep it about £600 or cheaper.

Your RAM is poor. For £600+, you could do a lot better.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

You overpaid. That's all I have to say.
Yeah, that's about as good as my laptop which cost £350 2 years ago.