Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?)

tatsumaru · 10-25-2007, 09:53 AM

Hi,

Okay so I'm sorting myself out with a new pc because my old one is on its way and I can hardly play games from 2005 with the lowest settings, let alone play any new ones.

So, I already have a DVD-RW and a monitor, and now I'm looking to get the rest.

1: A case with good airflow. I've been looking at several cases, but can't decide.

2: A hard drive (500gb would be good, as I'm a bit of a media freak, Sata II looks nice also.)

3: A motherboard.

4: A CPU (mainly for games and media programs such as Adobe Audition, and Photoshop... I multi task a lot on the pc)

5: AT LEAST 2gb of RAM

6: A new power supply which will be capable of powering 2x graphics cards in SLi,

7: A single PCI-e graphics card. (When the games get more demanding, I'll buy a second and SLi.)

So I'm wondering what you guys recommend... I have a budget of £700, that works out as $1,428, but I've found that the prices in the UK tend to be higher than that of the US, so it realistically works out as about $1,200.

I want this pc to last me a long-ish time, because I'm not likely to come into any money to buy a new one in the coming years. The one I have now has lasted me roughly 5 years, and has only had one or two minor upgrades.

Thanks!

tatsumaru · 10-25-2007, 11:23 AM

I didn't notice the "READ BEFORE POSTING" thread. So here goes!

1. Budget: How much money are you willing to spend on the new build?
£700 (Maybe more, but it would have to be in January, if you think it would be worth the wait, then my budget is £1000)

2. Brands: Are there any brands of components you want or don't want?
I'm open to suggestions, I've had AMD for 5 years, but I'm not going by brand, I'm going by quality and performance.

3. Multitasking: Will you be multitasking with this computer and if so, how much?
Yeah, I usually like to have several (like 7) IE windows open at the same time, with a program and a game even sometimes media player too, but of course, I can't do that all on this machine.

4. Gaming: Will you be gaming and if so, how much and how new are the games?
Yeah I mainly game on my pc, and I like to play old games as well as the new ones... Looking forward to Crysis and UT and games like Assassins Creed, which will probably get released on pc eventually.

5. Calculations: Will you be doing any intense calculations or media encoding?
I do like to work with audio and video, converting formats when I need to.

6. Overclocking: Do you plan on overclocking and if so, how much?
If I can, I will... I want to have a computer which can keep up a bit.

7. Storage: How much storage will you need and what will you be storing?
Large preferably, 500gb would be great.

8. Legacy Support: Will you need support for older hardware like parallel, serial, or PS/2 devices?
Nah. I do have a PS/2 mouse at the moment, but I will most likely get a new one.

9. Operating System: Do you want Windows XP or Vista, or Linux compatibility?
I wouldn't mind XP and Vista, incase I wish to go to vista at a later date.

10. Case: Do you want help selecting a case and if so, how big do you want it?
Big enough to fit all my stuff :P with good airflow

11. Accessories: Do you want a keyboard, mouse, or other items included?
Nope.

12. Recycled Components: Will you be reusing any components you already have?
Keyboard, DVD-RW, Monitor.

13. Monitor: If you want a monitor, what size do you want and should it be widescreen?
N/A

14. Stores: Do you have any online stores that you prefer to purchase from?
Ebuyer.com Microdirect.co.uk

15. Location: What country do you live in?
United Kingdom

tatsumaru · 10-25-2007, 11:28 AM

oops double post.

**tosh9i** · 10-25-2007, 11:53 AM

If you want a gaming PC you should get 3 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB

**tosh9i** · 10-25-2007, 11:54 AM

Do you have Black Friday over there?

tatsumaru · 10-25-2007, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosh9i

Do you have Black Friday over there?

Nope :( But the closest to it are the January sales.

tatsumaru · 10-25-2007, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosh9i

If you want a gaming PC you should get 3 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB

That's exactly what I was thinking, but someone insisted that I only needed 2GB, so I thought I'd follow along with that, but I still had my doubts. Now you've backed up my thoughts!

**tosh9i** · 10-25-2007, 12:37 PM

Well, nowadays, it's not just about what you need when it comes to RAM. Prices have dropped dramatically, an extra GB of RAM would cost you around $10-$15 after rebate. In other words, what's the big deal if it's only cost an extra $10-$15. LOL

**TheMatt** · 10-25-2007, 12:39 PM

Take a look at this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £97
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130484

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £63
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131173

Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4(4-4-4-12) E.P.P. Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty - £47
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111439

Seagate ST3250410AS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache x 2 - £74
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131301

Video card - Pending 8800GT release.

Thermaltake Toughpower Modular 850W PSU 14cm Fan 12v ATX 8x SATA 24pin - £84
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133811

----

Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU - £60
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268

The extra 3 GB of RAM in Windows will likely go unnoticed, and a video card upgrade is the better way to go about improving gaming performance.

**tosh9i** · 10-25-2007, 12:43 PM

Are you planning on purchasing new system

or

are you planning on building a new system

tatsumaru · 10-25-2007, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tosh9i

Are you planning on purchasing new system

or

are you planning on building a new system

Building. I love building pc's, this would be my 4th one so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMatt

Take a look at this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £97
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130484

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £63
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131173

Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4(4-4-4-12) E.P.P. Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty - £47
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111439

Seagate ST3250410AS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache x 2 - £74
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131301

Video card - Pending 8800GT release.

Thermaltake Toughpower Modular 850W PSU 14cm Fan 12v ATX 8x SATA 24pin - £84
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133811

----

Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU - £60
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268

The extra 3 GB of RAM in Windows will likely go unnoticed, and a video card upgrade is the better way to go about improving gaming performance.

Okay, hmm, a few questions... I like the hardware you've specified. The motherboard leaves for upgrades to the Quad, and there's room for DDR3. but one question about the motherboard. If I get that one, which has 1 PCI Express x16 slot, I'm not going to be able to go SLi, am I?

Also, the 2x 250GB hard drives, would it be possible to set them up in RAID, and would this be a better option than getting a 500GB one?

I know you might not know all of this, but could you try to explain what you would consider the pros and cons of this system setup? Also, how well could I overclock the hardware?

The case is great, I had it in my 1st choice for cases. And I had looked at the RAM before also as an option!

Thanks

**TheMatt** · 10-25-2007, 04:08 PM

No, however with today's GPUs you really won't need to go SLi because by the time you need to upgrade or replace the video card you will be better off with a new one. If you do want an SLi board I would look at something like this:

MSI P6N Diamond Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX - £145
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129036

As for RAID, what I would personally do is setup the two disks in RAID 1. You will only have 250GB of storage, but if one disk does fail then you won't loose your data.

The main pro of this system is that it is very high quality. The con of course is that you pay a premium for high quality parts.

For overclocking, it really ranges. It depends on what products you get. Some E6750 processors overclock better than others. You will have to play around, but on the P35 board you should be able to get at least 366 MHz FSB stably without changing any of the voltage settings.

tatsumaru · 10-26-2007, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMatt

No, however with today's GPUs you really won't need to go SLi because by the time you need to upgrade or replace the video card you will be better off with a new one. If you do want an SLi board I would look at something like this:

MSI P6N Diamond Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX - £145
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129036

As for RAID, what I would personally do is setup the two disks in RAID 1. You will only have 250GB of storage, but if one disk does fail then you won't loose your data.

The main pro of this system is that it is very high quality. The con of course is that you pay a premium for high quality parts.

For overclocking, it really ranges. It depends on what products you get. Some E6750 processors overclock better than others. You will have to play around, but on the P35 board you should be able to get at least 366 MHz FSB stably without changing any of the voltage settings.

How much will the 8800GT cost roughly? I done a google and someone said $230-$250 for the 512 one, is this about right? If so, I estimate about £140-£150. If this is the cost, (which would take the total cost to £648) what do you think the other £50 should go towards? And if I had another £50 (making my total £750) what would you add/change?

What's the next best CPU new to the E670?

How long would the processor and the GPU last? (I tend to take my computer to the point where I can only play the latest games on the lowest settings)

Which CPU cooler would you recommend?

Sorry if I'm asking a lot!!! And thanks for your time! Once I've got all this sorted out, I'll definitely donate! because this site has helped so much in the past! :)

**TheMatt** · 10-26-2007, 11:10 AM

1. It was expected to go for about £100 for the 256MB version and £125 for the 512 MB version, but I have seen some sites have it for lower.

2. The next best CPU is the E6850. The thing is you probably won't notice a difference between that and the E6750. I would spend the extra money on a better motherboard.

3. All of this should last a long time, definitely at least 3 years before any of the hardware starts to degrade (assuming you got all good parts and have not done any overclocking). With the P6N you can even take another 8800GT and run the two in SLi.

For the CPU cooler, take a look at the Zalman 7700 as a starter but you can bump up to the Zalman 9500 for ultimate cooling performance.

Keep the questions coming.

**tosh9i** · 10-26-2007, 11:23 AM

Maybe when the 8900GT comes out, the price for the 8800GT will drop

10-25-2007, 09:53 AM	#1 (permalink)
tatsumaru Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: England, Bristol Posts: 70 OS: XP Home SP2 My System	Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) Hi, Okay so I'm sorting myself out with a new pc because my old one is on its way and I can hardly play games from 2005 with the lowest settings, let alone play any new ones. So, I already have a DVD-RW and a monitor, and now I'm looking to get the rest. 1: A case with good airflow. I've been looking at several cases, but can't decide. 2: A hard drive (500gb would be good, as I'm a bit of a media freak, Sata II looks nice also.) 3: A motherboard. 4: A CPU (mainly for games and media programs such as Adobe Audition, and Photoshop... I multi task a lot on the pc) 5: AT LEAST 2gb of RAM 6: A new power supply which will be capable of powering 2x graphics cards in SLi, 7: A single PCI-e graphics card. (When the games get more demanding, I'll buy a second and SLi.) So I'm wondering what you guys recommend... I have a budget of £700, that works out as $1,428, but I've found that the prices in the UK tend to be higher than that of the US, so it realistically works out as about $1,200. I want this pc to last me a long-ish time, because I'm not likely to come into any money to buy a new one in the coming years. The one I have now has lasted me roughly 5 years, and has only had one or two minor upgrades. Thanks!

10-25-2007, 11:23 AM	#2 (permalink)
tatsumaru Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: England, Bristol Posts: 70 OS: XP Home SP2 My System	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) I didn't notice the "READ BEFORE POSTING" thread. So here goes! 1. Budget: How much money are you willing to spend on the new build? £700 (Maybe more, but it would have to be in January, if you think it would be worth the wait, then my budget is £1000) 2. Brands: Are there any brands of components you want or don't want? I'm open to suggestions, I've had AMD for 5 years, but I'm not going by brand, I'm going by quality and performance. 3. Multitasking: Will you be multitasking with this computer and if so, how much? Yeah, I usually like to have several (like 7) IE windows open at the same time, with a program and a game even sometimes media player too, but of course, I can't do that all on this machine. 4. Gaming: Will you be gaming and if so, how much and how new are the games? Yeah I mainly game on my pc, and I like to play old games as well as the new ones... Looking forward to Crysis and UT and games like Assassins Creed, which will probably get released on pc eventually. 5. Calculations: Will you be doing any intense calculations or media encoding? I do like to work with audio and video, converting formats when I need to. 6. Overclocking: Do you plan on overclocking and if so, how much? If I can, I will... I want to have a computer which can keep up a bit. 7. Storage: How much storage will you need and what will you be storing? Large preferably, 500gb would be great. 8. Legacy Support: Will you need support for older hardware like parallel, serial, or PS/2 devices? Nah. I do have a PS/2 mouse at the moment, but I will most likely get a new one. 9. Operating System: Do you want Windows XP or Vista, or Linux compatibility? I wouldn't mind XP and Vista, incase I wish to go to vista at a later date. 10. Case: Do you want help selecting a case and if so, how big do you want it? Big enough to fit all my stuff :P with good airflow 11. Accessories: Do you want a keyboard, mouse, or other items included? Nope. 12. Recycled Components: Will you be reusing any components you already have? Keyboard, DVD-RW, Monitor. 13. Monitor: If you want a monitor, what size do you want and should it be widescreen? N/A 14. Stores: Do you have any online stores that you prefer to purchase from? Ebuyer.com Microdirect.co.uk 15. Location: What country do you live in? United Kingdom Last edited by tatsumaru : 10-25-2007 at 11:24 AM.

10-25-2007, 11:28 AM	#3 (permalink)
tatsumaru Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: England, Bristol Posts: 70 OS: XP Home SP2 My System	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) oops double post.

10-25-2007, 11:53 AM	#4 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,680 OS: Windows XP	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) If you want a gaming PC you should get 3 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB

10-25-2007, 11:54 AM	#5 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,680 OS: Windows XP	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) Do you have Black Friday over there?

10-25-2007, 12:37 PM	#8 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,680 OS: Windows XP	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) Well, nowadays, it's not just about what you need when it comes to RAM. Prices have dropped dramatically, an extra GB of RAM would cost you around $10-$15 after rebate. In other words, what's the big deal if it's only cost an extra $10-$15. LOL

10-25-2007, 12:39 PM	#9 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,695 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) Take a look at this: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £97 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130484 Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £63 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131173 Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL4(4-4-4-12) E.P.P. Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty - £47 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111439 Seagate ST3250410AS 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache x 2 - £74 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131301 Video card - Pending 8800GT release. Thermaltake Toughpower Modular 850W PSU 14cm Fan 12v ATX 8x SATA 24pin - £84 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133811 ---- Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU - £60 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268 The extra 3 GB of RAM in Windows will likely go unnoticed, and a video card upgrade is the better way to go about improving gaming performance. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides Last edited by TheMatt : 10-25-2007 at 12:41 PM.

10-25-2007, 12:43 PM	#10 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,680 OS: Windows XP	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) Are you planning on purchasing new system or are you planning on building a new system

10-25-2007, 04:08 PM	#12 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,695 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) No, however with today's GPUs you really won't need to go SLi because by the time you need to upgrade or replace the video card you will be better off with a new one. If you do want an SLi board I would look at something like this: MSI P6N Diamond Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX - £145 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129036 As for RAID, what I would personally do is setup the two disks in RAID 1. You will only have 250GB of storage, but if one disk does fail then you won't loose your data. The main pro of this system is that it is very high quality. The con of course is that you pay a premium for high quality parts. For overclocking, it really ranges. It depends on what products you get. Some E6750 processors overclock better than others. You will have to play around, but on the P35 board you should be able to get at least 366 MHz FSB stably without changing any of the voltage settings. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides Last edited by TheMatt : 10-25-2007 at 04:14 PM.

10-26-2007, 11:10 AM	#14 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,695 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) 1. It was expected to go for about £100 for the 256MB version and £125 for the 512 MB version, but I have seen some sites have it for lower. 2. The next best CPU is the E6850. The thing is you probably won't notice a difference between that and the E6750. I would spend the extra money on a better motherboard. 3. All of this should last a long time, definitely at least 3 years before any of the hardware starts to degrade (assuming you got all good parts and have not done any overclocking). With the P6N you can even take another 8800GT and run the two in SLi. For the CPU cooler, take a look at the Zalman 7700 as a starter but you can bump up to the Zalman 9500 for ultimate cooling performance. Keep the questions coming. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

10-26-2007, 11:23 AM	#15 (permalink)
tosh9i TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,680 OS: Windows XP	Re: Building Gaming PC (Any Suggestions?) Maybe when the 8900GT comes out, the price for the 8800GT will drop