Building New Gaming PC, Thoughts + Comments

[Saner]

Haven't had a Gaming PC for about 5 years now which puts me completely out of the loop. My ageing XPS Laptop is dying and I want pretty graphics!

Done little research, come up with:

I have a budget of £1,000, which I know isn't alot, but it's all i've got. If I know it's worth it i'll go a little further.

How can I reduce the price? Any other places offer better deals?

 

[Pedro]

Tried Overclockers or Dabs?

 

[Jason_E]

eBuyer ftw. And that looks a rather good spec! Other than using ATI.... My driver failure sense is tingling....

 

[Saner]

Overclockers don't have much in stock + had bad experience in past. Will try dabs though.

Jason, i've never had ATi before, been an nVidiot all my life, but recently they don't seem to be great performers!

 

[Cookie]

Overclockers don't have much in stock + had bad experience in past. Will try dabs though.

Jason, i've never had ATi before, been an nVidiot all my life, but recently they don't seem to be great performers!

All much of a muchness nowadays, unless you're a benchmark *****

 

[Adam]

Scan for me!

 

[CountryBumpkin.]

Have you tried Novatech? www.novatech.co.uk

 

[Gareth]

I can't help but think is there really much point in making a GAMING pc these days??

 

[Andy.]

I'd still be tempted to make some savings and go for the i5. There is not a huge difference in the benchmarks.

 

[saltyhair81]

tbh I found the 5850 a little gutless at those resolutions. I'd seriously consider the 5870

 

[conneh]

I can't help but think is there really much point in making a GAMING pc these days??

Depends if you want to play games with full AA and all the pretty effects you can't have on a consol as they are shat. Especially when it comes to FPS games, give me a PC anyday.

 

[Brazo]

I may be wrong Saner but an I5 should do nicely as opposed to an I7 on that spec.

Gareth - don't tell that to Royston!

 

[Saner]

Scan for me!

Using a mix of Scan and eBuyber have got the above spec down to £1,060 delivered! woop

Have you tried Novatech? www.novatech.co.uk

Completely forgot about them, will try tomorrow

I can't help but think is there really much point in making a GAMING pc these days??

I know what you mean, but I do like my PC games, haven't got a current gen console!

I'd still be tempted to make some savings and go for the i5. There is not a huge difference in the benchmarks.

Was looking at the i5, most likely wont be in a position to upgrade for a year or so, so didn't want to be shooting myself in the foot.

tbh I found the 5850 a little gutless at those resolutions. I'd seriously consider the 5870

But the monies

 

[wozzaa]

i5 for gaming won't be any slower. The i7 is only really useful if you are compiling, dvd encoding etc. No games are going to make use of the extra 4 threads.

Drop to an i5 and spend the saving on moving to a 5870. You will get an overall better system. GPU is more important and the 5850 is a bit weak.

 

[Munson]

I'm still rolling with a 3.8Ghz QX9650 with DDR2 and a GTX295. It rips silly frames from all currently available games at 1920x1200 with some AA&AF. Only Crysis can make it sweat when pumped up.

However, I am itching for an excuse to upgrade to i7.

 

[David]

I'm similar to Roy, i want an excuse for a 4ghz i7 but my q6600 @ 3,2 is still so fast, windows still loads up instantly with the ssd and 8gig ram, so its just silly. i'm running a 4870x2 and it still eats pretty everything i've thrown at it up.

 

[Darren S]

All much of a muchness nowadays, unless you're a benchmark *****

Yep. I'm preferring ATi at the moment (having used nVidia in the past) and don't really see much point in changing yet. nVidia has pissed me off regarding the Physx drivers recently in being disabled when it detects an ATi gfx card onboard. That's just stupid and borderline illegal, I would have thought?

I've currently got an ATi 4890 in mine. Not on par with a 5870, but definitely more than a match for the 5850. Might be worth picking up instead if you can find one cheap?

I'd still be tempted to make some savings and go for the i5. There is not a huge difference in the benchmarks.

i5's have plenty of umph and as both Andy and wozzaa say, the i7 is really just a 'nice to have' rather than an essential purchase imo.

I can't help but think is there really much point in making a GAMING pc these days??

Tsk! :rasp:

D.

 

[Saner]

Excellent advice guys, just what I needed, will make have alook at i5's and 5870's.

Also David, is a SSD and 8 gig of ram worth it? do you have the OS on teh SSD or your games?

 

[Saner]

Okay, I have looked at Dabs / Scan / Novatech. Over all if i buy everything from ebuyer ther difference is just a few ££.

Here is the current spec i'm thinking of, comments?:

 

[colossuss]

Looks like a good set up to me. Though keyboard wise, you going to stick with a microsoft and not go for a gaming keyboard?

 

[chimpsinties]

Am I being dim but haven't you missed off the power supply?

You're gonna have to add another £80ish for a decent one.

 

[colossuss]

PSU is at the bottom, OCZ 500W

Good that you brought that up actually, would think you'd be looking for at least a 700W PSU as you're going for an i5 and a high end graphics card

 

[Saner]

The sidewinder is sort of a gaming keyboard, i've never used a full on gaming keyboard in the past so think i'll be okay, a it will still be used for word processing.

I'm in 2 minds with teh PSU, origianlly went for 650 but as i've gone for a more powerfull graphics card wanted to save money, so down graeded mobo and psu.

Is it worth getting a different heatsink as well, or will the factory one be okay?

 

[chimpsinties]

I would read up on that PSU and Graphics card combo. They really can be pretty hungry these days on full chat and they last thing you want it that going pop!

 

[saltyhair81]

ssd for boot drive. 6/8gb is the sweet spot imo. Maybe wait a week or so though with the 470 / 480GTX due out the 5870 prices may fall

 

[Longy]

I never advise trying to save money on a PSU - very under estimated piece of kit for a good gaming PC.

 

[David]

ssd was the single greatest upgrade i did for windows performance seconded by RAM

 

[Saner]

ARGH, your all making me want to spend more!

I know a few people with 5850's and an i5 running 500w PSU's

Now SSD's.. 8 gig of ram....

 

[colossuss]

The sidewinder is sort of a gaming keyboard, i've never used a full on gaming keyboard in the past so think i'll be okay, a it will still be used for word processing.

Have you ever seen the Steelseries Merc? I got one a couple of years ago (When the company was called Zboard). Now I cant game without it! Lovely bit of kit

 

[saltyhair81]

PSU is at the bottom, OCZ 500W

Good that you brought that up actually, would think you'd be looking for at least a 700W PSU as you're going for an i5 and a high end graphics card

Overkill. a decent 550/600 is more than sufficient

 

[Andy.]

ARGH, your all making me want to spend more!

I know a few people with 5850's and an i5 running 500w PSU's

Now SSD's.. 8 gig of ram....

I have an i5 with 5 HDD's and a 4870 running off a 500W PSU. It is fine until I try to overclock, then the system called a time out.

I had no problem when it was only the three HDDs though.

 

[Munson]

I would invest good money in a decent PSU. Think of it as an engine. You don't want a shitty 1.5 diesel in a Ferarri.

 

[Saner]

Like the look of that keyboard! But its a bit too specialist for me.

I have ordered the above, and speceed a 550W Antec rather than the 500 OCZ, can't wait till it arrives!

 

[Saner]

Everything else has arrived!

Except the case....

It's all taunting me.

 

[James172Cup]

Turn this into a build thread for sure, pics of everything.

 

[richy22]

I hope your i7 wasn't supplied by new egg

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=636484

 

[Darren S]

Everything else has arrived!

Except the case....

It's all taunting me.

Ah well. Time to get the easy bits done! Get the mobo, CPU and memory all connected.

D.

 

[Saner]

Turn this into a build thread for sure, pics of everything.

Will do! Already decided to take apart my XPS Laptop as well, so there may be a re-build thread for that too.

I hope your i7 wasn't supplied by new egg

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=636484

:dapprove: Heard about that at the time, went for an i5 in the end

Ah well. Time to get the easy bits done! Get the mobo, CPU and memory all connected.

D.

Will be tomorrow night I can start on it, so the case will be here. Unless when i get in at 11 tonight \i can't stop myself!

Just a thought. Will the Artic SIlver stuff or whatever it's called now be the in the Intel i% Retail box, or should I have ordered some?

 

[guysy]

The CPU's heatsink/fank should come with some thermal grease already on the bottom, Just use that for now.. Then replace it with better later..

Or get some if you dont mind waiting for it to be delivered of course..

AS5 is good stuff though !

 

[Pettsi]

Nice one! Haha, the case always arrives later from eBuyer!