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Guide - the Budget Gaming PC
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20-04-2008 2:11am#1There are a lot of threads here looking for advice on building a cheap gaming PC so I thought it would be good to make a series of guide systems with the best bang for buck components available...
So, First up is the 500 euro Gaming PC!
The CPU will reach 3ghz with some very easy overclocking
2gigs of PC2-8000 memory lots of OC headroom and good performance
750i motherboard gives option of SLI
9600gt 512mb Great value and will play every modern game just fine
500gig HDD
DVD-RW drive
Decent 650watt PSU future proof and ready for SLI or upgrade to Quad etc
Shop : www.hardwareversand.de very reliable, shipping to Ireland is 30 euro
I assumed you have an existing case / OS / peripherals
Overall its a great system and seen as it has an SLI motherboard you can add a second 9600gt later for a huge boost in performance (allmost the performance of the flagship 9800GX2 in some cases)
Recommended upgrades:
8800gt Much better graphics card worth the extra 20 euro
Recommended Monitor:
22"
20"
19"
Recommended peripherals:
Razer DeathAdder Mouse
Logitech Slim Keyboard
That's it! You will be owning noobs in no time, have fun
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I'm going to sticky this; people can add their own systems as they see fit to the thread. Building a gaming machine on a budget seems to be one of the most prominent questions on the forum.
Here's another example of a budget build, capable of playing the latest games at high settings on a 17 to 19" monitor with no difficulty....the 8800GTS, especially this OC edition, is more then capable of keeping up with the 9600GT at those resolution. More specifically:
Grand Total: 370 euro.
-User is not concerned with future upgrades and immediately futureproofing, but instead builds a system only once every so often and the power supply is adequate provided it can power your hardware choices with no problems and the machine can play current games at high settings and modest to high resolution.
-User is not concerned with Sli
-User is only concerned in so far as the machine is built with solid, reliable parts
Of course, you would have to overclock to really ramp up performance, but at 2ghz stock, a few extra hundred mhz will see you fine.
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keyboard on HW ...no..no
unless you like UMLAUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i liken das umlauts!
Nice build Terror, Since when is everything so cheap?! Its great
Here is a good build for a slightly higher budget of ~ 700 euro
Some Notes:
Depending on your needs you could swap the Dual Core 3ghz E8400 for the 2.4ghz Quad Core Q6600 for no additional cost
The MSI board is good, but not great and I would recommend the ASUS or eVGA version of the 750i if you want SLI, if you dont think you will need SLI then the ABIT IP35 Pro is very good
Recommended Upgrades:
Samsung 1TB drive for 125 euro0 -
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I will spec a 1k euro machine now but there is nothing like a bit of overclocking to add life and value for money to a PC
I went slightly over budget with this one but it does have TWO! 8800gts 512mb cards One is more than enough but two will kick the crap out of the current Flagship card ( 9800GX2 )
The Q9450 is a great CPU and will reach 3ghz very easy and 3.6ghz with a bit of messing.. It is 100 euro more expensive than the 2.4ghz Quad Core Q6600 but offers SSE4.1 instructions (great performance boost on video encoding) and it runs cooler
So if you dont think you need SSE4.1 you can save yourself 100 euro and get the 2.4ghz Quad Core Q66000 -
Most of the machines will be pretty quiet, the Corsair PSUs are silent and so are the heatsinks I spec'd
Scythe Mugen
Scythe Ninja
Xigmatec HDT-S1283
The Thermalright IFX-14 is probably the best aircooler atm and with a scythe Ultra-Kaze 120*38mm fan it would give great performance and remain very very quiet
Thermalright IFX-14
Scythe Ultra-Kaze
The stock 9600gt / 8800gt coolers are pretty loud (most single slot cards are) so a Zalman VF900-Cu would be ideal for the 9600gt and a Thermalright HR-03 would be ideal for the 8800gt. Harewareversand dont sell the HR-03gt for the g92 cards atm unfortunately..
The 8800gts g92 cards have a decent stock cooler which is very quiet at idle and acceptably quiet under heavy load ( you can use a program like rivatuner to force the fan to 60% constantly which gave me a good mix of performance / noise on my 8800gts g90 )
The HR-03gt fits the 8800gts g92 also if you want a quieter cooler...
Quiet Fans:
Nexus
Scythe S Flex and Ultra-Kaze
Noctua
In General Samsung HDDs are very quiet and the Samsung HD103UJ i spec'd is very quiet
And remember if you are buying a new case, don't buy one that is predominantly mesh! It will be loud...
Some good quiet cases that are also easy on the eye
Antec P180
Lian Li PC7
/inhale
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Great thread, incredible what you can get for so little..
Terror's build for 370 is brillant...
If I was spending 700 on a gaming pc, then I would want Sli, Quad, 600watt + Psu, cool case
Dont think a 30 euro fan is needed for most gamers imo, Q6600 can go plenty high without one..0 -
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This is great, Gaming PCs cheaper than consoles \o/
Just to be safe I would get a decent cheapo psu like the Corsair VX450 and some cheap case,most of those cheap case/psu combos are horrificly bad, a decent PSU is essential especially when overclocking is on the cards
All this specing cheaper machines really put me off spending big bucks on my next rig, a 50 euro CPU @ 3ghz+ is more impressive than an ok overclock on a Q9450 imo
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Looks grand except with the bargain basement PSU and Motherboard you are asking for trouble, because it will either work badly or not at all and then you will say "PCS SUCK!" and go buy that Xbox
So, spend the extra 50 required to get a great PC and dont save 50 euro to have a terrible PC0 -
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here's my best M-ATX build (matx is small form factor. they are much smaller than normal cases.)
20" monitor
125.51 euro
power supply
total for system + monitor = 717.
just need a keyboard and mouse and speaker's now 0 -
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As an alternative to conzymaher's, and if you need a case and OS as part of the 1k, you could go for this:Great thread! I'm considering upgrading my ancient PC within the next 12 months and was hoping to keep the budget fairly tight and hang onto my old monitor mouse keyboard etc.
I'd probably stretch to about €1000 at most if I didn't have to overclock (this machine would have to last a few years!)
Been thinking of going for something similar myself actually to tie me over until Nehalem.0 -
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Those matx's case's are the job...
I must have one...
@ Royal can you recommend any decent motherboards that will overclock?
Would like to get about 2.60ghz out of E2180 with box fan...
Was going to buy a Dell Vostro and use it as it as htpc ( they are so cheap ) and some gaming on a 42" lcd...
This is what I have so far, not sure about the mobo, but its cheap and has decent reviews...
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