Gaming Computer Help (In £)

[HHammond]

I know there are quite a few of these topics but I couldn't find any for a UK based person so I thought I'd go ahead and ask.

Right, so I soon will have somewhere about £600-£800 to spend on a gaming computer. I was wondering what sort of computer I should get? I was thinking about going for a Mac but I decided against it as I want to use this computer to play games and I mainly use Steam and most of my games aren't compatible with macs.

Ideas? Comments? Questions? I'm not really sure about what specs to get as well so it would be helpful if someone could give me a estimate.

 

[BigTortoise]

Macs are gross. And if you want a decent gaming computer for that budget, you'll have to build it yourself. So put together a parts list and I can check it over for you ^_^

 

[Zantos]

You'll be able to get something pretty decent for that. Check out http://www.ebuyer.com/ and http://www.cclonline.com/, I'm UK based and these are the sites I find to be cheapest and most reliable. As the guy up there said, you'll be wanting to build your own. Browse around, put a spec together and people around here can check the parts to make sure they're compatible. I would say though don't go less than the following, though feel free to go as far over as your budget allows.

Quad Core processor
4 Gb RAM
500 Gb Hard Disk
600W Power supply
£70 graphics card

 

[Rastien]

In the words of slurms mckenzie wiggedy wam wam wazzole. This rig will run anything you can throw at it have yet to come across anything it wont run. If you have any concerns about building your first pc im more than willing to walk you through it. Contrary to populour belief you gotta try pretty darn hard to break components.

Below is a list of parts from www.ebuyer.com quick find code followed by the price. This is only for a base unit but it comes in under £600 so you have 200 squidleys left for a monitor and a snazzy keyboard+mouse and a fancy headset.

Enjoy.

Case
172779 28.71

Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H H55 Socket 1156 VGA DVI HDMI Out 8 CHannel Audio mATX Motherboard
189292 £60.78

Intel Core i5 650 3.20GHz Socket 1156 4MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
185941 £113.00

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 i5 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V
173122 £30.98

Gigabyte GTX 560 OC Edition 1GB 256bit Dual DVI Mini HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card:
267865 £154

PSU 800w
191844 41.67

1TB HDD
173804 £40.98

DVD/CDRW
263923 14.08

windows 7 64bit home premium
259863 73.28

Total:£557.48

 

[HHammond]

snip

Thank you very much, that's really helpful. I won't actually be able to get the PC for quite a while but one I do I'll definitely contact you if I need help.

Two more questions: I already have quite a nice monitor, 2 in fact, and I was wondering if there is anything special I need if I want to connect both?

And also, does it matter if I used Windows 7 34 bit? I remember reading somewhere that a lot of early games won't run on it and I do have quite a large collection of old games.

 

[Rastien]

snip

Thank you very much, that's really helpful. I won't actually be able to get the PC for quite a while but one I do I'll definitely contact you if I need help.

Two more questions: I already have quite a nice monitor, 2 in fact, and I was wondering if there is anything special I need if I want to connect both?

And also, does it matter if I used Windows 7 34 bit? I remember reading somewhere that a lot of early games won't run on it and I do have quite a large collection of old games.

You shouldn't need anything fancy on the monitor front only issue you might have is if they are VGA monitors rather than DVI if this is the case you need to get 2 little DVI to VGA converters normally 1 will come with the GHX card.

Apart from that plug both in and away you go, you can re arrange the way the computer believes the monitors to be placed in the control panel by dragging the pictures of the monitors around. (basically makes sure that when you move the mouse to the edge of the screen it goes to the monitor next to it, hard to explain but you will know what i mean if it happens).

The bit about windows 7 64bit is true indeed, you can try running it in compatability mode but also you can encounter hardware issues for older games to, how old are we talking? i play alot of games from the starcraft era with not any real issues.

 

[Xrysthos]

I'm looking into purchasing a new gaming rig myself, as I've tired of almost exclusively being able to play games on the PS3 due to that my laptop is somewhat ancient and unreliable. I also need a computer capable of doing some heavy calculations in regards to the 3D-mapping, which will be relevant once I get started on my Master's degree this September. I've made up my mind as far as what I want is concerned, which is naturally more than what I need, and will probably go for an Intel 1155 build - which at the moment offers more power at a lower price compared to AMD's more or less equivalent builds. The only problem I'm having so far is deciding whether to purchase the rig I've decided upon now, or wait until Bulldozer is released (AMD's new generation of CPU), which is supposed to be Q3 this year.

Which I guess goes for the OP as well. The release of Bulldozer will in any case result in a lowering of the prices for Intel's current hardware, so waiting is probably a good idea in order to get more computer for the same amount of money. As far as helping the OP out with a build goes, I'm afraid I'll be of little help. Currently residing in Norway, where the prices of computers and everything else is a lot higher than in other countries, i.e. the UK.