Buying a Gaming Pc

[ClioRT88]

I've searched on here a lot and also had a look around on places like overclockers but I just can't seem to make my mind up, or even make sence of the differences between all these systems

I want to buy a PC purely for gaming and browsing the internet and so far I've resorted to ebay

Some opinions on these bundles would be great, or even suggestions on other bundles from elsewhere for a similar price.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gaming-Desktop-Computer-PC-22-TFT-Phenom-9750-HD-4850_W0QQitemZ400052712393QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item5d24fff3c9&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A9|294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INTEL-6-3GHz-RADEON-4650-2GB-1TB-VISTA-GAMING-PC-1334_W0QQitemZ130294114374QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item1e56226846&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A9|294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gaming-Quad-Core-PC-Computer-Q8400-Desktop-GTS-250-SLI_W0QQitemZ360162968686QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item53db62c46e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A3|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A10|294%3A50

 

[5parky]

Graphics card is your priority! Would be a good idea checking out some reviews for each card..

 

[Andy.]

None of those graphics cards are really that great for gaming and the packages seem pricey for what you get. IMHO.

Build your own, piss easy to do, fun and you can get everything exactly as you want it.

 

[Josh]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-062-OE&groupid=43&catid=1445&subcat=

Something like that if you don't want to build one.


or make your own this way: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon_class.php?groupid=43&catid=1053

 

[Jason_E]

Okay well i built one when i was 12 so its not hard to do. The site i got components from was www.ebuyer.com.

Basically, heres the components you need:

Motherboard, (i would recommend an asus one)
Processoror CPU (intel core 2 is a good bet)
Memory (something in 4gb for gaming, corsair do a nice set of 2gbs)
Hard Drive (go for a "SATA" drive. The key thing you need to know, its faster)
Graphics Card (nVidia is imo the best out there, ati have problems. go for a decent one as its for gaming, read reviews do research etc.)
Case (A cheap case is fine, but for quality go for a decent one antec/coolermaster/thermaltake etc)
PSU or power supply (this is the more complex shiz, go for 500w+ to be safe)
CD/DVD drive (the higher the read speed the better really)

The rest, e.g monitors keyboards mouse etc. You can pic and choose, but Viewsonic are a manufacturer of fantastic monitors (you pay for it though)

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions either on here or PM, theres a lot of geeks like us out there to help you

Out of those ebay links, the last one is probably the best value if you really want to go for one off there.

 

[minismithy90]

I bought one from MESH last November for £2000 its the biggest mistake i ever did.

 

[Jason_E]

I bought one from MESH last November for £2000 its the biggest mistake i ever did.

You bought a Corsa C remember

lol yeh Dell was my biggest mistake

 

[ClioRT88]

Thanks for the advice guys, really interested in the idea of building my own so think i'll be going down that route. And thankyou WirelessMonkey for the breakdown of bits I need, makes it a lot simpler for me.

I'll keep you updated and im sure i'll be asking lots of questions about which parts to go for

 

[Stevo_Nimbus_R27]

Spend more on a graphics card and less on a CPU. Get a decent ASUS motherboard that can overclock the ram and CPU.

I'm running an Asus P5Q Pro board with a Dual Core E8400 overclocked with a tower cooler @ 3.62Ghz per core. I have a 4870 1Gig DDR5 Gainward card which also overclocks nicely.

Crysis runs mint at max settings and resolution BUT with no aliasing.

Build it yourself and get parts that can overclock well. It's fun to do and means you'll have the coolest, quietest and fastest PC for the money.

With the O/S, 1TB drive, 4 gigs 1066 ram etc mine cost £700. I can still go further with the overclocking (prob 4.2 Gigs per core).

Don't buy the crap on eBay.

 

[ClioRT88]

Well I thought i'd do a little run through of possible parts, any bits which could be improved? Not sure whats going on with the fonts but hey :rasp:


EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Digital Socket 775 7.1 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz Socket 775 (1066FSB) 3MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 XMS2 Memory CL5 2.1V

Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM

OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm Fan

LG GH22NS40 22X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM Black Bare Drive - OEM

BFG GTX260 OC Maxcore Edition 896MB Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card

 

[Danny Lee]

why not get a clearance pc from currys and slap in a decent graphcs card

£320 gets u

Processor Type Intel. Core 2 Quad Q8200
Clock-Speed 2.33GHz
Front Side BUS 1333MHz
Cache 4 MB
Operating-System Windows Vista Home Premium
RAM Memory 4096 MB
Hard Disk Capacity 640 GB
Optical Drive 1 Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
Graphics Description NVIDIA. GeForce. 7100 (shared)
Media Card Reader 18-In-1 Allows the computer to read and transfer files onto a digital media card often found in digital cameras
No of USB connections 6

link http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...category_oid=-26387#productInformationSection


thats what i do

 

[ClioRT88]

I guess that makes sense actually, would the processor be good enough and would it be simple to change that along with the graphics card?

 

[Danny Lee]

its a quad core already mate, waht wud u wanna change i for?

i slapped a x1950 pro (oldie i know but works so well i see no need for a new one) and it was fine on the standard power supply

a more modern card may need a meatier psu as the ones supplied are only 250w i think but there cheap enough

 

[Mike_182]

I'm running an Asus P5Q Pro board with a Dual Core E8400 overclocked with a tower cooler @ 3.62Ghz per core. I have a 4870 1Gig DDR5 Gainward card which also overclocks nicely.

Crysis runs mint at max settings and resolution BUT with no aliasing.

There's another thread here somewhere I'll dig up for you, but TBH there's far too much claim of 'plays Crysis at max settings and resolution' going on in this forum nowadays, when even nVidia's cream of the crop s***s itself. Feel free to add your benches to it

 

[Mike_182]

Well I thought i'd do a little run through of possible parts, any bits which could be improved? Not sure whats going on with the fonts but hey :rasp:


EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Digital Socket 775 7.1 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz Socket 775 (1066FSB) 3MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 XMS2 Memory CL5 2.1V

Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM

OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU - SLI Ready ATX2.2 12cm Fan

LG GH22NS40 22X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM Black Bare Drive - OEM

BFG GTX260 OC Maxcore Edition 896MB Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card

If you're doing that you might as well buy my big rig.

 

[Adam]

There's another thread here somewhere I'll dig up for you, but TBH there's far too much claim of 'plays Crysis at max settings and resolution' going on in this forum nowadays, when even nVidia's cream of the crop s**ts itself. Feel free to add your benches to it

Contributions here...

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=428687&page=6

 

[Mike_182]

Ta muchly.

And Darren's openly admitted that his 4870 could do Crysis at maximum settings... At 2fps. It's a well-known fact that Crysis seems to prefer nVidia boards, although Warhead seems to be fine on both.

 

[Mike_182]

its a quad core already mate, waht wud u wanna change i for?

i slapped a x1950 pro (oldie i know but works so well i see no need for a new one) and it was fine on the standard power supply

a more modern card may need a meatier psu as the ones supplied are only 250w i think but there cheap enough

X1950 is very, very substandard nowadays. I've got one, it makes a good paperweight. That's about it!

 

[Darren S]

why not get a clearance pc from currys and slap in a decent graphcs card

£320 gets u

Processor Type Intel. Core 2 Quad Q8200
Clock-Speed 2.33GHz
Front Side BUS 1333MHz
Cache 4 MB
Operating-System Windows Vista Home Premium
RAM Memory 4096 MB
Hard Disk Capacity 640 GB
Optical Drive 1 Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
Graphics Description NVIDIA. GeForce. 7100 (shared)
Media Card Reader 18-In-1 Allows the computer to read and transfer files onto a digital media card often found in digital cameras
No of USB connections 6

link http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/sto...category_oid=-26387#productInformationSection


thats what i do

The trouble with those types of PCs though is that the motherboard tends to be the absolute bare minimum to get the job done. Ideally on building your own, you should be looking to spend half that budget above on the motherboard alone........ at the very least.

The motherboard is the corner-stone of everything that the PC is. You can get the best in CPUs, memory and graphics cards, but you will be limited and hampered by a poor performing motherboard. It's the one area that you shouldn't really compromise on. Get the absolute best that you can afford, imo.

D.

 

[minismithy90]

You bought a Corsa C remember

lol yeh Dell was my biggest mistake

True but i could not get insurance on a PH1 172. Also i thought dell pc would be pretty good.

 

[momo]

I bought one from MESH last November for £2000 its the biggest mistake i ever did.

im waiting for my mesh pc to arrive :S why was it a mistake?

 

[Mike_182]

They're shoite.

 

[Stevo_Nimbus_R27]

Ta muchly.

And Darren's openly admitted that his 4870 could do Crysis at maximum settings... At 2fps. It's a well-known fact that Crysis seems to prefer nVidia boards, although Warhead seems to be fine on both.

I appreciate what you're saying fella but which 4870 is he running? The ATI stock card is not as good as the one I have.

My Gainward 4870 has dual BIOS and is overclocked at 775/1000Mhz with 1Gig of DDR5 ram.

Currently I'm running with DX10, 1660 x 1000 with all settings (bar motion blur) maxed and no aliaising. I still drop frames when there's tons of stuff going on but the game is most definately playable and is pretty damn smooth

 

[Danny Lee]

X1950 is very, very substandard nowadays. I've got one, it makes a good paperweight. That's about it!

do u want to sell it to me?

 

[Stevo_Nimbus_R27]

The trouble with those types of PCs though is that the motherboard tends to be the absolute bare minimum to get the job done. Ideally on building your own, you should be looking to spend half that budget above on the motherboard alone........ at the very least.

The motherboard is the corner-stone of everything that the PC is. You can get the best in CPUs, memory and graphics cards, but you will be limited and hampered by a poor performing motherboard. It's the one area that you shouldn't really compromise on. Get the absolute best that you can afford, imo.

D.

Very true.

The cache on that CPU is small aswell. If you're on a budget you'd be better off buying a good motherboard that can overclock well. You could get away nicely with a high end Dual Core with a 6MB L2 Cache/1333 FSB. The Intel Dual's overclock so well it just has to be considered! Fast O/C ram is a must to!

If money is no object wait till the end of the year and go for DX11.

 

[Mike_182]

do u want to sell it to me?

My bad, it's an X1900.

 

[minismithy90]

im waiting for my mesh pc to arrive :S why was it a mistake?

Its a good solid and stable pc, its just that i never go on anymore.Also i realised that my old pc which cost £500 could play the same games including crysis at high settings.

 

[Mike_182]

Its a good solid and stable pc, its just that i never go on anymore.Also i realised that my old pc which cost £500 could play the same games including crysis at high settings.

Another comedian!

Jesus, we should have nominations for best comedy act.

 

[Adam]

Another comedian!

Jesus, we should have nominations for best comedy act.

LOL Approve!!! :approve:

 

[Darren S]

I appreciate what you're saying fella but which 4870 is he running? The ATI stock card is not as good as the one I have.

My Gainward 4870 has dual BIOS and is overclocked at 775/1000Mhz with 1Gig of DDR5 ram.

Currently I'm running with DX10, 1660 x 1000 with all settings (bar motion blur) maxed and no aliaising. I still drop frames when there's tons of stuff going on but the game is most definately playable and is pretty damn smooth

Mine's the Sapphire version with 512MB of GDDR5. I did notice on the Crysis benchmark that the GFX memory in use stopped at around 510MB. Whether or not it detects the cards' memory and max's it out accordingly, I don't know.

Oh, and that's only running at 1280x1024 as well! If you check the 'Crysis Revisited' thread, I've placed a few screenshots on there from the benchmarks.

D.

 

[Danny Lee]

My bad, it's an X1900.

if its pci-e im still interested

for what i do with em its fine, my 1950 runs crysis at 1280 x 1026 at medium settings really welll, which is far from how its meant to be played but im happy with it

 

[minismithy90]

Another comedian!

Jesus, we should have nominations for best comedy act.

Its true thou use a over clocked nividia 8800GTS and i could play Crysis at higt settings woop

 

[Stevo_Nimbus_R27]

Mine's the Sapphire version with 512MB of GDDR5. I did notice on the Crysis benchmark that the GFX memory in use stopped at around 510MB. Whether or not it detects the cards' memory and max's it out accordingly, I don't know.

Oh, and that's only running at 1280x1024 as well! If you check the 'Crysis Revisited' thread, I've placed a few screenshots on there from the benchmarks.

D.

Ok I will check out that thread.

What GPU and memory clock are you running your card at? Also what RAM speed and CPU? Gainwards are good for OC'ing and mine GPU is currently at 775/1000.

I would have to say that if Crysis does not grab the extra RAM it would be ridiculous. If the game supports the card then I'm pretty convinced it will use the RAM if it needs it.

There's been alot of updates to ATI's drivers and a few Crysis updates aswell. If my card wasn't doing a good job on Crysis I think I'd have to step up to Crossfire or go for a £400 NVIDIA setup!!

 

[Mike_182]

if its pci-e im still interested

for what i do with em its fine, my 1950 runs crysis at 1280 x 1026 at medium settings really welll, which is far from how its meant to be played but im happy with it

Even better then.

X1900 AIW PCI-E, still works (as of last week when I pulled it in favour of onboard as it's in an internet browsing computer!)

Little excessive for those duties.

 

[Mike_182]

Its true thou use a over clocked nividia 8800GTS and i could play Crysis at higt settings woop

Overclocked 8800GTS, Crysis, High.

P.S. - I've got a watercooled 8800GTX running at Ultra clocks. So unless you've got it drowned in nitrogen, I call for screenies or thread exit.

 

[Griff]

Overclocked 8800GTS, Crysis, High.

P.S. - I've got a watercooled 8800GTX running at Ultra clocks. So unless you've got it drowned in nitrogen, I call for screenies or thread exit.

He's probably running it at 800*600 and thinks it looks the dogs b****cks..

 

[minismithy90]

He's probably running it at 800*600 and thinks it looks the dogs b****cks..

nope i had it running in 1680x1050 :lolup: with high settings running dx9
thats the truth but it got really hot thou.

 

[Mike_182]

Rofl. 1680x1050 at anything above 'medium' with no AA and my GTX s***s a brick.

'Got really hot'? FLOL. Things don't just go as fast as they can until they overheat - there's just only so much a GTS chip can handle - and it's about half of what my GTX can.

 

[Cookie]

I'm still running an OC'd GTS, and confirm it doesn't really like Crysis, even at 1360x768

 

[ClioRT88]

Ok well it seems Crysis is the benchmark, so if it can run that, it can run anything right? I've had a look through ebuyer again and got some bits together within my price range.

Would I be disappointed with this lot & is there potential to overclock with good gains?

*Also, is there anywhere I could cut down costs without sacrificing anything drastically?