Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

nenil

Hi,

My Dell machine below is almost 5 years old and recently took to dying on a regular basis, it seemed to be linked to the video card and a wiggle or refit seemed to fix it temporarily, to perma-fix I upgraded it to the Dell recommended 512MB Radeon HD 4670 (probably not my finest moment)......... But alas tonight it died completely (initial error was not video card related I assume) so I am thinking about doing a fuller upgrade for the first time and any help and pointers would be very welcome, I could add another 150-300 to the total below if the expense was justified or for further future-proofing.

Am I right in presuming I can continue with the Dell 8400 case and drives?
Any other suggested upgrades? Would I expect to see much of an improvement on my old machine? Are any of the components below close to the end of their life-cycle?

I am not a hardcore gamer (any longer) but would like to be able to have the option.

Firstly I believe the problem must be linked to the motherboard so I would plan changing this along with the power-supply and perhaps the processor to the following:

Ebuyer.com:

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 770 Socket AM2+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 159073 @ £53.42
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 3.1GHz 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 Retail Boxed Processor @ £73.63
Corsair 450W VX Series PSU - ATX12V v2.2 @ £52.41

Cart total inc vat: £179.4

EXISTING SYSTEM: Dell Dimension 8400

Processor type: Intel® Pentium® 4 with HT Technology
RAM Memory: 4 * 1 GB
Chipset: Intel 925XE Express
NIC: Integrated capable of 1000 communication.
System clock: 800- or 1066-MHz data rate
Video PCI Express: Asus 512MB Radeon HD4670
PCI connector * 3
PCI Express * 1
Raid Drive 360 Gb
Power 350 W

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Paul

IrishGrimReaper

nenil wrote: »

Hi,

My Dell machine below is almost 5 years old and recently took to dying on a regular basis, it seemed to be linked to the video card and a wiggle or refit seemed to fix it temporarily, to perma-fix I upgraded it to the Dell recommended 512MB Radeon HD 4670 (probably not my finest moment)......... But alas tonight it died completely (initial error was not video card related I assume) so I am thinking about doing a fuller upgrade for the first time and any help and pointers would be very welcome, I could add another 150-300 to the total below if the expense was justified or for further future-proofing.

Am I right in presuming I can continue with the Dell 8400 case and drives?
Any other suggested upgrades? Would I expect to see much of an improvement on my old machine? Are any of the components below close to the end of their life-cycle?

Ebuyer.com:

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 770 Socket AM2+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 159073 @ £53.42
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 3.1GHz 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 Retail Boxed Processor @ £73.63
Corsair 450W VX Series PSU - ATX12V v2.2 @ £52.41

Cart total inc vat: £179.4

If you're willing to put more into it to future proof it then you should.

£433 on OCUK, try a few uk sites to see if any are cheaper.

CPU
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM

Mobo
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-168-GI

Ram
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-224-CS

PSU
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-CS

Case
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-101-AN

Trust me, in the end you'll be saving money! As with that Quad core you have more "future proofness". I don't know if you can use the Dell case tbh. but if it was me I'd change the case too! If you can get the motherboard out of that Dell case you could probably get the new one back in there.

If you want you can change the Mobo to something cheaper, but that UD4P is great really, and there's plenty of expansion slots for future upgrades.

UD3P.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-198-GI

nenil

Thanks IGR, I went with your suggestions except for the case and RAM.

It looks like the Dell board is easily removable so if I can continue to use the case it will make my upgrade easier (I expect). It is both spacious and stylish so lets hope it works.

Would the 4 Gb of new RAM make a huge difference to my older 4Gb 800Mhz version do you think?

Solitaire

Random post: Now that the offer on the XFX HD5750 is gone...

Strong gaming budget build (1080p-happy if OCd) for under €475 shipped:

No shortcuts (except arguably the PSU, but its got excellent 12V output compared to anything south of €70 anyway!). Decent tri-core CPU, 4GB low-latency DDR3, a graphics card that can handle Full HD, 500GB HDD, 80Plus PSU with 30A on the 12V rail and a modern case with an upward exhaust fan. What more do you want? :P

Leman_Russ

Solitaire wrote: »

What more do you want? :P

A processor without a dodgy core? :pac::pac::pac:

Sorry, couldn't help myself :P

Solitaire

shanous wrote: »

Building a new rig in the very close future, budget of €850 to spend but I need help and suggestions badly! Any input is appreciated, if you've got any information that can help, pop over to http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055776366
Regards,
Shanous

€850 is not a tight budget by any stretch of the imagination. And you already have a thread going. So why go around poisoning stickies? :rolleyes:

Leman_Russ wrote: »

A processor without a dodgy core? :pac::pac::pac:

Sorry, couldn't help myself :P

A processor that anyone and their cat can afford? :P

shanous

Don't think I "poisoned" the thread, just thought it might bring a little more attention to my thread, in any case, I apologise if thats what i've done. Just looking for some suggestions as I'm pretty new to this! Anybody?

slowlydownwards

Three core Athlon 2 435 seems to be champion of the "budget" builds lately, and deservedly so. However, for approx 20eur more you can get Phenom 2 X2 550
Black Edition. This baby will get you 7mb of cache, will zip up to 3.7GHz easily on air (unlocked multiplier), and with the right board (and a bit of luck) two more cores can be unlocked!!! So that's a quad core modern AMD CPU for well below 100eur. Now I know this is a budget GAMING thread and four cores can be a bit of hindrance when gaming, but still... seems like a good deal if one can bump up the budget just a bit.

<edit> Yes, this is far from news (6 months out there already), but just felt it deserved a reminder.

Leman_Russ

slowlydownwards wrote: »

(and a bit of luck) two more cores can be unlocked!!!

"A bit of luck" is not the same as "Luck required to win the lottery 7 times in a row followed by being hit by 4 meteors and struck by lightning 3 times"

mp5sd5

Just came into Christmas cash Thinking of buying a new PC, my old HP has been killing itself these last few months, and I tried upgrading it with a new 5770 which the mobo didn't wanna agree with. Thinking of going for this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-008-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=, or should I save up the extra money for this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-010-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=? I'm also gonna need a new HDD cause my current one is killing itself too, and probably a new case on the cheap if I can, any suggestions? I've got a decent PSU and that graphics card is sitting, taunting me, so I just wanna get an OCd bundle or maybe set up my own, but I've no experience OCing :S Anyone got any ideas? Budget for mobo, CPU, RAM, CPU HS, case and HDD is just under €500 ish before VAT, but I can save and save and save for more. Any help'd be great, thanks

Solitaire

You could probably squeeze a very basic (yet powerful) i5 build out of €500 on eBuyer or HWVS if you already have the HD5770 sitting there

Both the bundles you linked will easily push you past €500... and you still need a case and HDD after that! And what's that PSU of yours like? A HD5770 doesn't eat much juice but a heavily OCd LGA1156 CPU is another matter...

mp5sd5

Yeah I was thinking I'd love an i5, wasn't too sure on the mobo prices for LGA1156. It's a fairly generic PSU, a 650W 80+ ATRIX something or other, the best I could find in PC World when I needed a quick repair :P I'm only looking to game, I don't really care too much about super graphics but it needs to be better than the old HP PC, an old Core 2 Duo and a Radeon x1650. Would ya have any suggestions on stuff to buy? A mobo with easy overclocking would be great I'm set for an OS for now, still have a Windows 7 RC disk laying around, I'll splurge on the real thing whenever I can afford it <EDIT> I just realised I only have the 32-bit Windows 7, would it be worth torrenting the 64-bit and using the same key? Or just trying to gather the extra for the full Windows 7?

Solitaire

ATRIX?

Oh hell, add a PSU to your "need" list

mp5sd5

Really that bad? Crap, PSUs are expensive that's gonna drive up the price a good bit I take it

Brian

PSUs aren't expensive. 50 euro or so.

mp5sd5

Really? I thought something decent would be more than that, especially if I was gonna overclock the i5

Brian

Bit more than 50 euro, but this would probably be enough http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-CS

5770s are low power and the ratings on PSUs are generally pretty conservative, so I'd say that would be enough. Cross check that with Solitaire though.

Solitaire

Yup, should be fine in an OCd i5/HD5770 build. Annoying how big the price gap is from a PSU with 30A of 12V output to 40A+ :rolleyes:

Mesoscopic

So with any luck, I will be buying the parts for a new computer from HWS next week. I have decided upon a build very similar to what I have seen elsewhere on boards but not in this thread. I have opted to keep as close to 500 euro as possible. I have concerns about the cheapness of the motherboard? Does anyone see any issues? I will be playing games and doing some photoshop does anyone have any suggestions for improvement without pushing the budget up significantly?

dkmedia

I wouldnt go for that motherboard, I have built a computer for a friend using this one: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=27427&agid=1232

its €15.71 dearer but the gigabyte motherboard is excellent from my experience.
I would also replace the corsair vx550w for the corsair vx450w:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articlesearch.jsp

this saves €11.67.

the 450 watt power supply is more than enough for this build.

So if you took my suggestions you would get a better motherboard and the net cost is just €4.04

Effluo

The motherboard you've chosen is fine and I don't really see any benefits from going with the gigabyte.
While saying that, you do have options!
The psu you have chosen is a bit more than you need, but a more powerful psu could in turn be used in your next build too.
The VX series is not ideal as there are HX models which are modular for very little more money.(although not in stock on hrdw.de)

The better psu also gives you the option of xfire setup in the future(getting a second 5770), but because of the motherboard you have chosen you cannot get a xfire setup

You have decisions to make. I think I would spend the little bit more today and have the option of getting the second 5770 in the future.(it's what I did when I built mine a year ago and I still figure it to be a good decision, although i'm yet to go xfire as I just don't need it)

Hardwareversand.de by the looks of things, have not been giving as good value of late. Although they are now building pc's for a euro supposedly?.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=64116128&postcount=5

Swirlser did the rounds here http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=64116128&postcount=5 to see which company offered the best prices on an i5 build. I'd be wary of pixmania's delivery charge.

Other notes about your build would be the hard-drive should be updated to a samsung f3 and if I were to take some moeny away from any component on the list i'd choose the cpu.

P.s. just noticed you have a AMD build there and you want to use photoshop with it That's not a good thing. Hard to know what to do, How much photoshopping will you be doing?

dkmedia

Effluo wrote: »

P.s. just noticed you have a AMD build there and you want to use photoshop with it That's not a good thing. Hard to know what to do, How much photoshopping will you be doing?

The Phenom will be fine for Photoshop.

I checked prices on Pixmania and the total including delivery came to €591.64.

• Amd Phenom II x4 945 @ €119
• Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P @ €71.90
• Coolmaster Elite 360 pc tower case @ €29.78
• Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X @ €134
• OCZ Gold Low voltage 2 x 2gb ddr3 1333mhz @ €89.53
• Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 500gb hard drive @ €41
• Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD+-RW rewriter drive @ €17.83
• Corsair vx550w psu @ €72.70
• Delivery @ €15.90

I'd agree with going for the Spinpoint F3 but that'll push you over your budget.
A plus with going with pixmania is that you can use a laser card to purchase if you have one.

Isn't delivery from hardwareversand €30? If so, pixmania is cheaper albeit less than €3, although you do get the hd 5770 vapor-x. i have 2 vapor-x 5770's & they run nice and cool.

Effluo

Of course an AMD build would be fine for photoshop, but it would be fine and slow or at least slower than the Intel Alternative at the same price range.


The ram you were looking at on pixmania is an i5 kit.
Good to see pixmania's delivery rate is reasonable though!
Had a bit of a browse for the hx power supplies and it seems as though corsair are only selling hx620watts or over Not to worry though as really the only difference is the "modularness".

Was on ebuyer there and, I really don't know what's goin on. Not great prices at all. What I find particularly disappointing is the cost of the graphics cards. But then I guess that's cause of Nvidia being no-shows at the moment!

I'd almost recommend pixmania Even with their foreverly crap website and dubious customer service.
Look around at all the different websites and see if you can make any savings

dkmedia

The core i5 ram kit should work fine though.

Pixmania's prices are gone quite good recently. I only paid €23 next day delivery when I bought my 2 hd 5770's, keyboard and mouse.

Kompletts delivery charge is ridiculous though if you order a few things from them.

Dabs.ie is quite good too.

Mesoscopic

Thanks guys, pixmania did seem to have some benefits, most of all payment via Laser.
All in under 600 euro, quite pleased

dkmedia

Good luck & enjoy your new build

Solitaire

dkmedia wrote: »

I wouldnt go for that motherboard

Really? Reviews said its pretty good...

dkmedia wrote: »

The core i5 ram kit should work fine though.

Dead right there

If you really want a budget rig that handles Photoshop a wee i3 rig is also pretty good.

Basic mid-range gaming rig for €575:



Check out the price of RAM! Its gone up again! :eek:

Brian

Solitaire wrote: »

If you really want a rig that handles Photoshop there's little reason to get a Phenom2 rig for the same price as a wee i3 rig that's twice as fast

What do you mean by this? Would an X4 945 not be faster than an i3 530?

Solitaire

Actually... I'm no longer that sure. Until recently everyone used a special benchtest made by DriverHeaven... but now there's a new one called Retouch Artists. The former puts Intel CPUs an almost ludicrous distance ahead of AMD chips. But the new Retouch puts Phenom and even Athlon2s on an almost equal footing with high-end i7s and also largely ignores HyperThreading. Naturally, each website is using the benchset that reflects their own bias best And there's nothing out there to give an honest interpretation of the issue

dkmedia

The am3, IN MY OPINION is the way to go, amd's future cpu's will probably use this socket.

I'm not being bias either, I have a Core i7 and x58 mobo.:cool: