PC Help

[iBilo]

My parents have finally let me have a desktop (due to my laptop dying and me using their pc) , but I need to order the parts, and I have a budget of £500. I have the keyboard, mouse, should I use my 32inch TV or should I get a smaller screen aswell?

 

I want it to be a gaming pc that could run the usual things, rFactor, LFS, TDU, Crysis etc. but I dunno if I could with £500 because of the OS software etc etc. Would it be easier to buy an outfit from a PC shop or something as it would have the OS and things?

 

Cheers.

[kalniel]

Are you comfortable building a PC yourself from parts? If so then it's something to consider *alongside* looking at pre-built systems. Don't rule anything out at this stage (except playing crysis on full with that budget :p)

[iBilo]

It would be my first build and I have friends who have built pcs in the past so if I screw up I have plenty of help. I don't mind building one as it would be a challenge.

 

A list will be up soonish. Justin's helping me with one =P

[Nodz86]

Iced has a good system for about that price iirc. Building is easy, I thought I was gonna muck it up but so far so good.

 

Don't make the mistake I did by forgetting a keyboard and mouse and monitor leads, lol

[Guest RB26DETT]

i gave him a similar build to iced's rig only diff is instead of a 8800gts, i suggested the HD4870.

[StrickenHAWK?]

well, i would reccommend getting a E8400 processor, 3.00 core 2 duo.

 

also, have a look at my system under my name and see what fits in and what doesnt.

 

mine was custom built.

 

it runs everything on high (including crysis).

[iBilo]

Okay, this is the list that Justin helped me with, its £80 over budget tho. I don't think I can go any higher than that. If anyone has any advice about anything in my list let me know and if any improvements let me know :)

 

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k103/SodaChris/0af405b0.jpg

[StrickenHAWK?]

well, do you need to have such a big hard drive? maybe bring it down to 320 or something. when you say i dont think I can go over 500, is somebody else buying for you? because you could always put the rest in if you have to.

[iBilo]

Well I have 175GB worth of music and videos so it would be easier if I have plenty of space, especially as games take up more than 1GB these days.

 

Also my parents are gonna buy for me and I nbever thought of that, thanks. I can't really give much cos I have to buy xmas presents and things.

[StrickenHAWK?]

to begin with, i think a 320 should be big enough. you can always upgrade.

[Nodz86]

Well I have the Premium version oif that Mobo and its good so I can see the pro being up to what you want. I have the sapphire HD4870 but again the gigbyte uses the same technology and your only really paying for the name.

 

Have a look and scan and overclockers to see if they have anything cheaper, some of the things I got was £20 cheaper.

 

And remember your gonn need more money by the time you include a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc etc

[StrickenHAWK?]

he already has them ;)

[iBilo]

Monitor, keyboard and mouse I already have, going to use my 32inch TV as a monitor, have a spare keyboard and mouse.

 

Also checked on SCAN and Overclockers, can't find any cheaper prices for the components. Should I go for a more powerful PSU or would a 500W be fine?

[Iced_Bullet]

Consider going for a more powerful Code2Duo, rather than Quad. rFactor and TDU will use the extra power/per core giving better performance. However games (GTA IV) are starting to encorporated Quad now too. So the choice is yours.

 

Quad (2.4ghz) is better for video editing etc. Dual (3.0ghz) is slightly better for gaming.

 

Also, go to the OEM version for the CPU + a different fan (stock ones are aparently worse than 3rd party ones) (like this)

 

Also, dont you mention needing an OS in the 1st post?

[kalniel]

Okay, this is the list that Justin helped me with, its £80 over budget tho. I don't think I can go any higher than that. If anyone has any advice about anything in my list let me know and if any improvements let me know :)

 

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k103/SodaChris/0af405b0.jpg

 

1) Why are you buying two PSUs?

2) How much faster is that cold cathod kit going to make your PC? :p

3) You can save at least £20 by going for a non-pro P5Q

4) You can save another £20 with different RAM

5) I wouldn't trust that PSU to be honest.

6) Are you only running linux?

 

CPU and GPU choice are good though.

[Guest RB26DETT]

he told me he was going to swap out the PSU that came with the case since it was pretty weak.

[NitroBlueUK]

get something like a hiper or coolermaster etc psu not some cheap crap thing if your gonna run a 4870 and a Q6600 you need at least a 550W well known brand PSU with around 38A minmum on the combined 12v rails

[iBilo]

Thanks for the advice.

This is my new list:

 

Gigabyte HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

 

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

 

Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM

 

Sony DRU-190A 20X DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM IDE internal - Retail With Multi Bezel & Nero

 

Scan '2012' 4 in1 Kit. Black/Silver inc Keyb/Mouse/Speakers ATX Midi Tower 400W Passive PFC PSU

 

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual/Quad Core Ready - The Favourite One!

 

4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18

 

Asus P5QL Pro, iP43, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

 

Total price: £558.56p.

[Camel]

[ATTACH]6786[/ATTACH]

 

Just thought I'd throw this idea out there for you, and it even leaves you with almost £60 to choose a case.

 

I have 4GB of that RAM and it is fantastic, very fast and overclocks very well, got my timings down to 4-3-4-10 at DDR2 800Mhz.

 

9800GTX + It's a stock version of my graphics card with higher clock speeds and then it's been overclocked more.

 

With that motherboard you can have Hybrid SLI, which is where your graphics card gets turned off and it uses the onboard graphics when you're not on games. It saves power, it's quieter and it reduces the heat in your case.

 

The motherboard also supports AM3 chips and DDR2 1066Mhz RAM

 

CPU, I have the old 6000+ X" and can't fault it, overclocks well and runs very cool. It'll handle anything you throw at it.

 

Oh and you still get your cathode kit.

[macd79]

at the moment ati card provide much better bang for buck than nVidia if your wanting to keep it cheap i would save on the gfx card by buying a 4850 and spend the money you saved on a quality power supply like coolermaster or Antec etc.

[iBilo]

I'm stuck for choice now. and +rep Jungle Goat, that list is good!

[SLRRR]

Monitor, keyboard and mouse I already have, going to use my 32inch TV as a monitor, have a spare keyboard and mouse.

 

quote]

 

 

Dunno if you get nice graphiqs on such a screen

[Nodz86]

Monitor, keyboard and mouse I already have, going to use my 32inch TV as a monitor, have a spare keyboard and mouse.

 

quote]

 

 

Dunno if you get nice graphiqs on such a screen

 

I've got a 32" samsung with HD4870 and the graphics are great, running DVI to VGA atm but upgrading to DVI to HDMI soon me thinks

[SLRRR]

 

I've got a 32" samsung with HD4870 and the graphics are great, running DVI to VGA atm but upgrading to DVI to HDMI soon me thinks

 

 

Okey, i just got a new screen. And its just awesome, although my graphiqs card cant run a lott of games on high with high resolutions.

 

Edit

 

I quote myself ? But you said that xD

[iBilo]

I only have a HDMI cable atm. Do you need the DVI for sound? I noticed I couldn't get the sound from my laptop.