Gaming pc...

dazftw

I reckon its been asked a million times but when I get a job this summer after I finish school im going to save up and build my own pc to replace my old one ! I have a pretty good knowledge of pc's just some stuf to do with building pcs confuses me (but im getting there.. mainly its compatability issues)

So my questions is could someone here (mainly people who play games like BF2 HL2 CS:S all the latest games) give me a example of a pretty good high end gaming/multimedia pc please in the region of €2000 - €3000

If Im not being specific enough just ask...

Cheers

Alkers

You won't need to spend that much. If your unsure about compatibility a good way to do is it is first of all to deceide on AMD vs Intel. As you want to game you will choose AMD. Next choose a decent Socket 939 motherboard. Then komplett will have a list of compatible products under this to help you choose the rest of your system. Your probably gonna be looking at at least a 3700+, 7800GT, 2gigs pc3200, circa 500W decent PSU, then depending on what you have in mind along the lines of a case, monitor, drives etc. You can get a very decent machine for 1800, no need to spend 3k - keep your money for the rest of the year, it will come in handy! The rig in my sig is what I build at the end of last summer with the money I had from working then. Update us as you make some choices and we'll be glad to offer any advice or particular reccomendations.

f1refox

I would go with dual core cpu. 7800GTX 256 G/C. 2GIG of ram 400mhz 3200. would do. Lanparty motherboard handy if you want to do some overclocking.Check out http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ http://www.komplett.ie/k/k.asp for prices.

dazftw

Yea that was the graphics card i was looking at it ! The ram yea im going for two gigs aswell.. yea i forgot to add i dont know about cooling system things either...

Em do you use and programs like photoshop on that rig.. I know intel is better for that sort of stuf but im wondering will AMD work aswell ?

Yea em whats psu lol ?

Thanks for the quick reply too !

dazftw

Power supply unit ?

Alkers

You don't really need to know anything about cooling systems. Choose a case with the largest fans (120m) to keep a good airflow without being loud. Other than that just try everything with their stock coolers, if they're loud or you want to overclock you can replace them. I don't really use photoshop no but I'm sure it would run fine. PSU - Power Supply Unit, get a decent one, they're often overlooked and can cause all sorts of hassle when they act up.

Nukem

Tell ya the truth im never gonna blow a load of cash on the latest and greatest parts out there again - waste of cash. Dual core is wasted at the mo IMO,get a normal 939 cpu like a 3800+ or a 4000+ and a good gfx. the 7800GTX and the x1900 are monsters and you'll very rarely need all that power. Id check around and see what you like first.

Spending and extra 200quid for the latest gfx/cpu card when you get bout 15% increase in performance is not worth it. For that extra bit of cash you could by a nicer LCD and some class speakers and other bits.

Check the stickies for sites with comparasion graphs on GPU's and CPU's and you'll see what i mean

Nukem

mordeith

I've got Photoshop CS running on a P4 3.0Ghz with a Sapphire Radeon 9600SE at work. It runs perfectly. The main issue is when using large files and there is a RAM shortage. I'm pretty sure that's as a result of sytem memory as opposed to GFX memory.

dazftw

Ok heres what I came up with which all adds up too €1960. Thats not including a sound card(which I need help on) mouse and keyboard and speakers !

(Case) Antec Performance One P180 Miditower, Silver Aluminum €141.00

(PSU) Seasonic S12 Powersupply 500W, 120mm Fan, 4xSATA, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin €135.00

(Mother Board) MSI K8N Diamond Plus, nForce4 SLI X16, Socket-939, SB Audigy, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16 €219.00

(Processor) AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4GHz Socket 939, 1MB, BOXED w/fan €360.00

(Graphics Card) Gainward GeForce 7800GT 512MB,1,4ns DDR3 ,PCI-Express, "BP7800GT-512-GS-GLH-DD" €439.00

(Memory) 2 Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB CL3 5ns Unbuffered, Non-parity, 2.5V,128Meg x 64 €95.00 (X2)

(Hard Drive) Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM €108.00

(DVD Drive) Sony DVD±RW burner, DRU-810A, 16x, Dual, Retail, Black & White/Silver frontcover €59.00

(Monitior) Samsung 17" LCD Syncmaster 730BF TCO-99 Monitor, DVI-D, D-sub, 4ms €309.00

Does all this look ok ? Is there anything I can change to make it better or cheaper ?

What kind of sound card should I get ?

What kind of speakers ? Baiscally I want speakers that make playing music sound good I mainly use headphones playing games unless theres no one else in the house nothing to fancy I would pay like €150 maybe.

Mouse and keyboard doesn't really bother me aslong as there good any suggestions on this ?

Anyone who replys to this post thanks (I think im asking too much lol)

Cheers !

conzy

If you arent buying till after the summer I wouldnt even think about current parts.

Socket AM2 will be released so you will need DDR2, 65nm production, and the Geforce 7900 series will be out and maybe Vista, maybe even DX10...........

My point is, so much new tech will come out in the next 5 months that you should wait until then to pick parts;)

*EDIT* will you be overclocking??? If so get a X2 3800 or a opteron 165 and OC it. Becasue more and more Dualcore applications/games will be out by then, and if you use photoshop dual core is a big advantage

dazftw

Yeah I was thinking the same thing while I was making up that list But that means prices may rise ?

Does pc look like it could handle all new games and upcoming ones for the next year or so ?

Would it handle Progs like photoshop ?

Ive found a mouse and keyboard

(Mouse) Logitech MX518 Optical Mouse, USB, PS/2 €47.95

(Keyboard) Microsoft Digital Media PRO Keyboard, USB, PS/2, Zoom, Retail UK €33.00

conzy

That is an excellent PC and will be as good as the upcoming AM2 platform, but its not future proof,

Are you going to overclock?

Laguna

DeafVision wrote:

(Mouse) Logitech MX518 Optical Mouse, USB, PS/2 €47.95

(Keyboard) Microsoft Digital Media PRO Keyboard, USB, PS/2, Zoom, Retail UK €33.00

IMO that is crazy money to spend on a mouse and keyboard, especially when the mouse is USB!, not even wireless!. ****, I use a €15 mouse and a €15 keyboard!.. then again it's up to yourself!..

mp3guy

Whatever you do, make sure you buy a NEC DVD-RW drive

Peteee

Laguna wrote:

IMO that is crazy money to spend on a mouse and keyboard, especially when the mouse is USB!, not even wireless!. ****, I use a €15 mouse and a €15 keyboard!.. then again it's up to yourself!..

Not crazy at all. Its how you interact with your computer, thus you should spend a bit to get good ones.

IMO You should get a 19" monitor at least, and if your budget cant go higher skimp on other components.

Maybe consider a dual core processor too. A big screen and a dual core will make a bigger difference, experience wise, then an extra 200mhz of cpu power or a 77800GT Vs 7800GTX or whatever

Endurance Man

It's madness planning out parts for a pc that you will only be buying in 5months :eek: . Sooo much could/will change in 5months, wait till the day you have the cash in hand and then start shopping.

KdjaCL

DeafVision wrote:

Ok heres what I came up with which all adds up too €1960.

Thats a nice list but in 6 months the prices will have dropped a lot.
Go for a bundle Mobo cpu and ram then work from there work out cheaper then.


kdjac

dazftw

I suppose that makes sense really to wait

Can anyone tell me is there a big difference between AMD and Pentium in regards to running programs like photoshop ?

8T8

Not really they tend to be mixed in that they do better at slightly different things in Photoshop so there is no clear winner or loser.

dazftw

Can anyone tell me where I can learn about all cooling stuf because it seems important especially with high end pcs ! Or if someone could give me a brief explanation here would be great

Alkers

Basically:
Buy a nice case with decent airflow (big 120mm fans).
Then you will need a GFX and a CPU cooler. The stock ones are good enough untill you intend to overclock although they can be noisy. CPU ones aren't too bad as you can use cool and quiet or the likes to keep the fans slow when the CPU is cool. GFX ones can be noisy all the time so it's probably a good idea to get an aftermarket cooler. It's not complicated at all really, better coolers tend to be quiter and will let you overclock higher.

TheDoc

looked up at your products with prices and tbh your paying a bit more the nyou shuld.

Acer sell a proper good 19" LCD screen that i have had nothing but priase for, not crappy images, side on can be viewed perfect. I bought for 190€ from argos.

Your dvd drive, 60 euro, check again i got a liteon one for 25€

Mouse is a good choice its great, but you can buy for 35€ , on ebay anyways.

And id reccomend the logitech media elite keyboard, 29€ for a quality device.

And if you can try get two sticks of 1 gb, its must better then 4 512mb sticks, and tbh defies the point of dual channel memory. 4 sticsk wud perform significantly less then 2 sticks.

You defo wont need to be splashin out over 2000 yoyo's to be honest, Custom build it from scratch. Theres PC that alienware sell for like 3k yoyo's and you could build the same thing for 800 yoyo's yourself

dazftw

Deleted User wrote:

You defo wont need to be splashin out over 2000 yoyo's to be honest, Custom build it from scratch. Theres PC that alienware sell for like 3k yoyo's and you could build the same thing for 800 yoyo's yourself

Know of any good/cheap/reliable places to buy the stuf ? I already have komplett !

bullhammer

you can buy mine if you want...................................
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57, 2800 MHz (14 x 200)
Alias San Diego S939
Motherboard Name :Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard ChipsnForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
Video Adapter 2xNVIDIA GeForce 6800 Series GPU (256 mb)
Monitor ViewSonic VX912 [19" LCD] (PPE054100517)
Drive #1 - Maxtor 6L300S0 (279 GB)
and lots of bells and whistles
1900 ono
This rig plays any game on full with ease..........................................

TheDoc

Just in relation to the poster slandering him splashing out on the mosue and keyboard.

First of all, if you play games and have wirless, hard luck your at a loss already. Everyone knows wireless mice have a terrible dpi and respsone time and tend to go mad and crazy from time to time.

First things first, get a wired mouse.

Secondly the mx518 mouse is probably in the top 3 mice available, with the razer copperhead and mx510. I dont care what you say or any arguement you make, if i have a mx518 playing an fps and you have your 15 euro mouse, im gna rape your head, its a proven fact go google it.

A good keyboard and a god mouse is essential, a mouse thats comfortable i nyour hand for the legnth you spend o nthem, thats reliable and best of all statistically will improve your gaming skills FACT!

but again you can get the mouse and keyobard cheaper. Stop shopping form komplett they are a rip look on ebay for god sakes mx518 for 30 euro.

dazftw

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

First things first, get a wired mouse.

Yea I never wanted a wireless mouse Seem dodgy and they have to take batteries :rolleyes: Is there anywhere you suggest to buy parts besides ebay.. you have to have a constant credit card if you get me to hav an account... I have one of those 3v voucher card thingys !

To the guy who wants me to sell me his pc.. No thanks.. I wana build my own