Another Gaming PC Build Thread

[Matta_88]

Right ok sorry to start another on of these badboys but im trying to set about building a new pc, a gaming pc.

Ive been speaking to a few mates about it and surfing about getting prices, and as anyone would i want a high performance spec for the littlest money being a student and all!

Id love some suggestions and guidance as its the first time ive built a pc although ive fitted graphics cards, ram and sounds cards before.

heres my poor draft shopping list from excel lol

Part​

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Price​

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Antec 900 Case​

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£72.84​

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Q6600 Quad​

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£162.14​

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GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB​

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£176.24​

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OCZ 4GB (2x2GB)​

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£76.36​

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Asus P5N-E SLi​

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£76.36​

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Hitachi 250gb​

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£44.64​

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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi​

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£29.36​

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Vista Home 64bit​

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£56.39​

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Sony DVD+RW​

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£16.44​

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OCZ StealthXStream 600w​

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£46.99​

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Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler​

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£39.94​

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Arctic Silver Thermal​

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£7.04​

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Total​

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£804.74​

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(most prices taken from overclockers.)

Cheers

 

[David]

very similar build to me. however i'd mention the following...

you can't get 2g sticks of pc8500 i imagine you're getting slower memory, so don't bother with that, get the fastest you can if i were you. sli ram is handy if you're not a experienced tuner... what motherboard chip is it? 680i or 780i?

a better cooler for your cpu is the tuniq tower if it fits your mobo.

erm...vista home!? !?

xi-fi what?

i personally went for the 8800gts 512mb, it's better than the one you mentioned £50 more or go for the GT, they both have newer chipsets than that 640mb

i personally wouldn't toucha hitachi hard drive either, wd all the way. had hitachi'sfail on me before same with ibm deskstar. samsung are good too though.

oh and for the same money, get the corsair 625w psu, it's better.

 

[Matta_88]

Ok cheers mate,
Ive changed the hardrive and graphics card (didnt realise the chipsets)
The mother board is 650i and the tuniq dosent fit it.

What do you mean about vista?
What ram would you suggest? 2or4gb? and what type?
also where did you see the 625psu?

 

[David]

hmm can you not get the 680i? i got the EVGA one, it's very good. the 780i has limited support for quad core 6600's though. i've got a zalman 9700 on there and it's fits nicely.

vista home mate? can you not just get ultimate off the interweb to evaulate it etc?

if u want vista i'd recommend 4gig. i used up all my slots getting x4 1g PC8500 ocz ram and i'm v happy with it. tomshardware recommends geil black dragon ram, also v good.

go to overclockers and check out corsair psu, same price and corsair are very good.


I guess i'm a bit bias in this situation as my pc spec is so similar and i'm nothing but happy with it. runs so fast. overclocked my chip to 3.03ghz ina matter of seconds. higher is defo possible with good cooling.

i'm running q6600, evga 680i mobo, 4g sli ocz pc8500 ram, bfg 8800gts 512mb oc, x2 500g wd hdd's RAID 0, corsair 625w.


don't get me wrong yours is still a good spec and it'll still run nicely, overall i'd change the gcard, hdd and probably the ram to a faster type, but the rest is all good tbh. noticed the mobo is very cheap..

 

[JackoR26]

X-Fi sound card sucks with vista BTW

Ive got one that was spot on with XP but its not the same at all in vista

 

[David]

not anymore mate, i've got two runningon 64bit and 32bit, just get the latest drivers and it works nicely.

 

[JackoR26]

not anymore mate, i've got two runningon 64bit and 32bit, just get the latest drivers and it works nicely.

Thought i did have them but will have another look tonight

 

[Mike_182]

Creative X-Fi boards are s**t. 650i Chipset is s**t. Vista Home is s**t.

Dare I say if that is what your imagination is giving you as a gaming rig buy a prebuild.

 

[David]

even thogh i don't agree with what he said about the xi-fi boards, some prebuilds especially the overclockers one can be quite reasonable mate. Ave a look at them

 

[Matta_88]

Creative X-Fi boards are s**t. 650i Chipset is s**t. Vista Home is s**t.

Dare I say if that is what your imagination is giving you as a gaming rig buy a prebuild.

Its my first build, im no IT genius, and i asked for help not sarcastic remarks so if your guna say anything try not to be a complete r****d about it mate?.

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Yeah cheers david, ive looked at the overclockers prebuilds but generally speaking they are completely over priced tbh and im trying to save cash.
general consensus seems to be Xfi are shabaz on vista lol so obviously ill steer clear of those badboys.
i ddnt realise how much morre the premium vista was! awesome ill grab that i think.
And as for the motherboard im unsure still have to have a word with some mates cockhead has made his opinions spoken up there ^ lol

 

[Mike_182]

If you want a gaming rig, minimum chipset is X38 or 680i, depending on whether you want BSODs every five minutes or an ATI board. Creative X-Fi boards are pretty gank, the Auzen board is 1000x superior.

As for cockhead, I gave you opinions and a valid suggestion. If you can't design, you buy ready made... I build and test systems for a living, so you can either f**k me off and have the advice (which tends to be ok/good) on here or you could stop being so arrogant and take it in the manner it was intended and open your ears instead of your gums.

 

[mintsauce5]

have a browse through the ocuk forums , some good advice on there , just for your info i use an asus p5k-e p35 board , e6750 cpu , ocz pc2-6400 memory , not much difference performance wise between p35 and x38 chipsets , this is confirmed if you read through the forums , at the end of the day read alot browse through the various forums available , then make ya choices , then practice alot on your game of choice , practice is the key....lol....happy gaming

 

[Greeny.]

wait and get a x48 board mate

 

[Matta_88]

If you want a gaming rig, minimum chipset is X38 or 680i, depending on whether you want BSODs every five minutes or an ATI board. Creative X-Fi boards are pretty gank, the Auzen board is 1000x superior.

As for c**khead, I gave you opinions and a valid suggestion. If you can't design, you buy ready made... I build and test systems for a living, so you can either f**k me off and have the advice (which tends to be ok/good) on here or you could stop being so arrogant and take it in the manner it was intended and open your ears instead of your gums.

lol must be quite unprofessional then tbh mate, im in no way arrogant i just dont see the need for uneccesary sarcasm directed at people like myself that are quite obviously trying to learn. if anything matey you came accross arogant. you notice how your first paragraph was more constructive? its not difficult mate everyone else manages it.

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thanks alot peoples muchly appreciated.

 

[Darren S]

Have you built a PC for yourself before? It's really not hard these days - but if you get stuck, make sure you ask us!

Good choice of case too - I love the Antec stuff.

D.

 

[Greeny.]

I was gunna get that Antec case before I wanted to go water, nice case for the doe!

 

[Mikey23]

if you want to save yourself a bit of cash - you can get a 8800GT 512MB (which is faster than the 640MB one) from www.scan.co.uk for £150 all in.

I'm going for a slightly lower spec PC, still quad core, Asus p35 M/B, just 2GB ram (only running 32bit), 512MB 8800GT, 500GB HDD, case, 500w PSU for around the £500 mark

 

[Matta_88]

that looks good mikey how about sound card and cooling and OS though? that will hike the price up surely?

 

[Mike_182]

that looks good mikey how about sound card and cooling and OS though? that will hike the price up surely?

Unless you're running a fairly old processor then the Onboard sound is more than adequate for most - use the £100 to get the second GT and SLI them. And unless you're pushing past 3Ghz the stock Intel cooler is fine.

 

[JayGTT]

Ive had a lot of problems with OCZ ram, i've changed to GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz only £40 and it loves to be overclocked.

i order most my parts from www.microdirect.co.uk very cheap

Good luck with the build

 

[Greeny.]

I love OCZ ram, best ive ever owned. Stuck with Corsair for the moment though

 

[Darren S]

OCZ in mine too - seems fine, but I am on standard clocks for now.

D.

 

[Keydogg]

I just got my Ballistix Trater PC2-8500, which are great but not for overclocking unfortunately. I have the new sticks which are one sided and because they are 1gb chips they arent anywhere near as overclockable as the older double sided PC2-8500s. Some people have taken the older sticks to 1200 5-5-5-15 or about 1080 4-4-4-12 on standard volts and cooling, but I can only take mine to 1100mhz 5-5-5-15 or about 980 4-4-4-12.

 

[David]

well as i said black dragon geil is recommened on tomshardware. Other good ram is corsair dominator, ocz sli stuff is also good but tbh most of them are v similar, you just get bad sticks every now and then.

good luck witht he build and don't forget to add pics when it's done!