Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

Brian · 19-10-2009 3:17pm

Came up with this. You'd have to check with someone more clued in than me if it actually all played nice together.

+ 30 delivery + 20 assembly

jonny72 · 19-10-2009 3:29pm

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Yikes, a grand so? Looks like I won't get any RPG goodness for a long while!

You can do it for alot less if you are willing to put some effort in.

Monitor
New 22 inch - 140 euros
Second hand flatscreen - sub 100 euros
19 inch CRT (perfect for gaming) - next to nothing these days

Operating system
Windows XP (in English with key) from German ebay - 45 euros

Keyboard and mouse and speakers
Shop around and you will find good deals

Box
Chip 50 - 100 euros
Motherboard 45 euros
Ram (expensive now - 60 euros)
PSU - 50 euros
Graphics - 100 euros
Harddrive - 50 euros
Case - 50 euros
That comes to just over 400 euros

Or you can perhaps buy an outlet bargain dell or good ebay PC with all the bits then put a good graphics card in it for decent gaming performance.

Or you can go check adverts.ie

It all depends on how much power you want for gaming and how much looking around you are willing to do. It is possible to get a crysis playing machine with operating system and CRT monitor and all the bits for 500 euros if you really push it.

Effluo · 19-10-2009 5:22pm

On this build you can still cheap out more with the case, (it's fancy with a window) and maybe even knock off a bit from the cpu!!! Nearly every game out there just does not need much cpu power. And you could prob even go a bit lower on it!

The gpu would handle pretty much any game at the screens resolution.

Beak careful(as my penguin bar told me), ordering from un german site! If it doesn't say the keyboard/operating system is in English then it's not in English...

btw, I'd recommend getting windows 7! It's beautiful

Either way the system i just put up for you there, is quite the awesome game player. In fact depending on what you're actually planning to play you might be able to drop the price even further!

Write back and tell us exactly what you'll be doing/playing on it!

Zapp Brannigan · 19-10-2009 6:10pm

I'd like to be able to play Dragon Age, and then other games like the Total war series that I've missed out on! So not really top of the line!
Ideally I'd like to be spending around 600 euro.

Solitaire · 19-10-2009 7:09pm

jonny72 wrote: »

19 inch CRT (perfect for gaming) - next to nothing these days

So long as you have a reinforced titanium desk to take the collosal weight!

If you played it safe and got the OS, keyboard and mouse somewhere closer to home to avoid region/language issues then €500 gets you this:

CPU is just basic stuff, but its still a modern 45nm dual-core that could be OCd later. Mobo is a good AM2 budget yokey, RAM is now stupidly expensive everywhere (WTF?!), graphics are a fantastic deal for the price and a low-energy 40nm card to boot! And a 1440*900 monitor won't tax it too much either, even at really high settings. If you wanted to spend the extra a 22" screen wouldn't pose it much of an issue either (only 1080p+ resolutions make the HD4770 start to cry

)

sham69 · 30-10-2009 2:20pm

Possible strange request.
I want to build a pc to run my arcade cab for me.
I am currently using a compaq evo d510, 2ghz, 512 ram , 128mb pci radeon 9250 card.
Its pretty old but has served me well.
I want something that will run all the games on the cab, mainly mame, c64, nintendo etc nothing too graphically demanding.
I am willing to spend up to 350 euro or so.
Note I use a philips tv for my display so need a card with vga out.
Hope this is not too vague.
Thanks
Sham.

norrie rugger · 17-11-2009 4:04pm

Solitaire wrote: »

So long as you have a reinforced titanium desk to take the collosal weight!

If you played it safe and got the OS, keyboard and mouse somewhere closer to home to avoid region/language issues then €500 gets you this:

CPU is just basic stuff, but its still a modern 45nm dual-core that could be OCd later. Mobo is a good AM2 budget yokey, RAM is now stupidly expensive everywhere (WTF?!), graphics are a fantastic deal for the price and a low-energy 40nm card to boot! And a 1440*900 monitor won't tax it too much either, even at really high settings. If you wanted to spend the extra a 22" screen wouldn't pose it much of an issue either (only 1080p+ resolutions make the HD4770 start to cry )

Would it not be a good idea to pump this through a HD 42" telly then?

Solitaire · 17-11-2009 4:41pm

HD 720p, easy. But not if its a proper 1080p Full HD telly, which all the newer 42"ers are!

For €540 this could keep a 1080p screen filled with gaming goodness for a good while...

norrie rugger · 17-11-2009 5:45pm

Solitaire wrote: »

HD 720p, easy. But not if its a proper 1080p Full HD telly, which all the newer 42"ers are!

For €540 this could keep a 1080p screen filled with gaming goodness for a good while...

Very interesting, very interesting.

Now all I need to learn is how to put it together. Thank you, you have given me something to think about now

rockmongrel · 29-11-2009 8:03pm

Hey all, been using a PC a friend built for me for years and now I feel its finally kicked the bucket and I need an upgrade. I have absolutely no build experience, the only thing I've ever done being installing some RAM

Anyway, I've got a budget of around 500-600 and already have a monitor/keyboard/etc. so any help would be great

Not looking to back flip my way through Crysis, just play games like Empire:Total War and the likes comfortably, thanks

Solitaire · 30-11-2009 12:10am

What monitor resolution? Although its not that big an issue given that HD4890/HD57770 prices are dropping yet again

I was going to put up a HD5770 build but HWVS has zero stock. Methinks we'll be having big 40nm stock issues this Xmas... :rolleyes:

smithy1981 · 01-12-2009 3:53pm

Hey,
i'm looking to build a gaming computer for a friend with a budget of 550-600. This has to include a os, keyboard and mouse and delivery.

I already have a 22" 1280*780 lcd to use with it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated , thanks.

Effluo · 01-12-2009 4:17pm

Unfortunately ebuyer must have sold out of the 4870's 512mb that i had been thumbing for months.
What is good though is that a 4890 can be stuck in the build easily.
The price of ddr2 ram has decreased slightly and ddr3 has pretty much stayed the same

You know all about this already though.
I figure ebuyer will be the cheapest place to get it all. Enough room in your budget to get a quad core too! Seems pretty good value to me

smithy1981 · 01-12-2009 4:31pm

Effluo wrote: »

Unfortunately ebuyer must have sold out of the 4870's 512mb that i had been thumbing for months.
What is good though is that a 4890 can be stuck in the build easily.
The price of ddr2 ram has decreased slightly and ddr3 has pretty much stayed the same

You know all about this already though.
I figure ebuyer will be the cheapest place to get it all. Enough room in your budget to get a quad core too! Seems pretty good value to me

Cheers, I'll have a look at ebuyer now. Need to order this tonight so ill have to go for a different hard drive, and i presume you meant windows 7 as opposed to vista?

Anti · 01-12-2009 4:33pm

Im pretty sure you could get that build on komplett.ie for the same price. Might save you a few quid if ebuyers shipping is epensive.

Effluo · 01-12-2009 6:27pm

Anti wrote: »

Im pretty sure you could get that build on komplett.ie for the same price. Might save you a few quid if ebuyers shipping is epensive.

Nah in fairness to ebuyer they really seem to have got really competitive on pricing. Cheapest i've seen anyway(on most things)

Delivery charge seems to £12 when you go with googlecheckout

Might be more but it won't be by that much

Effluo · 01-12-2009 6:40pm

smithy1981 wrote: »

and i presume you meant windows 7 as opposed to vista?

Whoopsies, in fairness there's absolutely nothing wrong with vista when you have enough ram for it...
Although i'd still go for Windows 7

Here's a very similar build from komplett.

You'd be saving around 50+euro going with ebuyer. Not to mention getting a coolermaster case.

If you plan to overclock then a new cpu cooler would be a good idea.

smithy1981 · 02-12-2009 9:13pm

I've no plans to overclock. I'm going with your system except for one or two items which weren't in stock. I'm hoping all this will work together fine, You think i'm good to go with this??

Thanks again for the help.

EDIT: I'm going to get the os through a student to save a few bob, is it the 64bit i should get?

Effluo · 02-12-2009 9:51pm

Well you've got a problem there with the mobo and the ram.
You picked an AM3 board with ddr2 ram

This is an am2 board which i think looks pretty good
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159073

I really don't know what is better price performance right now if it's ddr2 or ddr3.

Also something for you to consider is if you have some left over monies then a quad core will not give you any performance boost for now(except a couple of games really need it), but it may in the future.

All you need to do then is listen to this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44tsxKH-Eo

smithy1981 · 02-12-2009 10:11pm

Effluo wrote: »

Well you've got a problem there with the mobo and the ram.
You picked an AM3 board with ddr2 ram

This is an am2 board which i think looks pretty good
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159073

I really don't know what is better price performance right now if it's ddr2 or ddr3.

Also something for you to consider is if you have some left over monies then a quad core will not give you any performance boost for now(except a couple of games really need it), but it may in the future.

All you need to do then is listen to this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44tsxKH-Eo

Thanks for the heads up, i'll change the mobo for the one you suggested. Are we talking much more money for a quad core? I'll prob have to leave it if we are.

Effluo · 03-12-2009 2:40pm

it's be around 40 euro more.

Might be worth it...

neilk32 · 07-12-2009 5:55pm

Looking to buy a cpu, motherboard, case and psu. Anyone got cheap suggestions and also how long does hardwareversand take to deliver? Want to try have it as soon as possible.

Effluo · 07-12-2009 5:58pm

Takes em about three weeks...

What exactly will you be doing on it?

If gaming what resolution is your screen

Do you already have a gpu?

neilk32 · 07-12-2009 6:55pm

I won't be playing any heavy duty games, just want to improve fps on what i'm currently playing. Ya i have a nvidia geforce 8600 and 4gb of ram will be upgrading these at a later date when i get the money. My screen is 1680 x 1050 that i use most the time.

Effluo · 07-12-2009 7:19pm

Ok....

So what exactly do you have right now?

Speed of ram, your current proc and motherboard

Just list everything you currently have
Brands, speeds n' all

Solitaire · 07-12-2009 8:13pm

Odds are that going up to a HD4770 or HD5750 will be the single biggest improvement. The 8600GT is a joke on most games above 1024*768.

neilk32 · 09-12-2009 4:10am

thats what im thinking of getting thoughts? do i need to get a cpu cooler with that also?

Solitaire · 09-12-2009 4:54am

CPU: Nice
Mobo: Old
Case: Is a desktop :P
PSU: Is naff. Seriously. No need for anything other than a CX400 for your build anyway

CPU Cooler: Isn't vital unless you're into overclocking; the AMD stock cooler should keep you going a good while.
Graphics card: Is what? And where? You do know that its your graphics card that's holding you back at this point? The CPU upgrade won't help improve games unless you're running them all at 640*480!

Bed: Is a good idea for me at this point...

neilk32 · 09-12-2009 2:33pm

Solitaire wrote: »

CPU: Nice
Mobo: Old
Case: Is a desktop :P
PSU: Is naff. Seriously. No need for anything other than a CX400 for your build anyway
CPU Cooler: Isn't vital unless you're into overclocking; the AMD stock cooler should keep you going a good while.
Graphics card: Is what? And where? You do know that its your graphics card that's holding you back at this point? The CPU upgrade won't help improve games unless you're running them all at 640*480!
Bed: Is a good idea for me at this point...

I really think its my cpu thats the most problem i'm on a pentium 4 3.0ghz since my laptop broke xD I was aable to run the games that I play fine on it previously but I'll prob be getting a 4870 after christmas when i get some more money. What mobo would you suggest for what me? I choose that psu also because I thought I would need more power after I upgrade my graphics

Solitaire · 09-12-2009 10:09pm

Don't get a HD4870; get a HD5770 or at least a HD5750 (the latter can still beat out the HD4870 if OCd

) And that answers the power problem; a stock HD5770 consumes less half the juice a HD4870 would!

Hell, if you already have an okayish PSU it might do, but odds are you'll need to upgrade to a Corsair CX400. Not likely to break the bank yet rated for 30A on the 12V rail. The X3-435 at stock can take up to 8A on a very bad day but will most likely hit 6-7A at full tilt; a HD5770 would need about 5A while gaming, hitting nearly 7A under extraordinary pressure *cough*FurMark*cough*. Throw in the HDD, DVD, some case fans and any 12V power the mobo will need (and the current 55nm AMD chipsets are pretty frugal) and you'll struggle to go much over the halfway mark on the CX400 during intense gaming sessions. Even if you measured memory bandwidth while running Prime95 and FurMark simultaneously you'll have a mighty hard time getting much past the two-thirds point

The only possible fly in the ointment is if you intend on heavy overclocking, or running ten HDDs, or a fair bit of both. Moderate OCing isn't an issue but overvolting the CPU or graphics card by miles is another matter :P If so think about spending a bit more money on a decent 450-550W PSU. That Axpertec you put up should work in theory, but its not the best quality (old Superflower) and being an older topology a lot of the rated wattage covers the minor rails, unlike newer designs where almost all the wattage can be sourced on the 12V rail.

As for mobo... do you need a mATX? Or can your case fit a full ATX? And not going into specifics I'd recommend one of the newer chipsets like 760, 770 or 785. 780 is also acceptable, if a bit old. 790 is probably a bit out of your price range

740 and older aren't so good but should do if neccessary - and if so, check the intended model's CPU Compatibility listings to make sure there's a BIOS update for the newer Athlon2s!

Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

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