Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

david p

God forbid they should make things any easier for their customers :rolleyes:
Ah well, the 550 it is then. It puts the total up to around €510, but it should still be within budget, even after shipping. Cheers Solitaire!

Dunder Mifflin

Hi guys,

I think it's finally time to accept the fact that my current PC is knackered. I built it myself about 5 years ago and it has served me quite well. It's fecked now as it takes an age to anything and frequently freezes when doing the most mundane things (it actually stalls for a few seconds when I receive an IM). It's just been getting worse and worse over the last few months.

My knowledge of PC hardware has dwindled over the last 5 years to the point where I don't really have a clue at all what I'm looking for. A kind soul here in work pointed me to this thread and told me to ask people on here to basically pick one for me, which is great.

What I'm looking for is something cheap and basic enough. Maybe have the odd game of TFC (yes, my current computer struggles to play this game from 1999) or CS Source.

I don't need monitors or a big hard drive (I have 2 monitors and 2 1TB external USB drives). The only stipulation I'll make is that I'd like it to have dual monitor support (does this come as standard now?) and be less than €500. Anything else I'll leave up to you guys.

Thank you

edit: No need for software/OS as I have that all taken care.

Solitaire

I was going to update the thread but the build below is almost overkill for you Dunder



Pretty much a good starting point, no aftermarket cooling or even a "B"-grade PSU plus there's extraordinary stock issues with those HD4770s (haven't seen things this bad since... well, anyone here remember The Christmas Of No 8800GTs? ) but you get the idea. E5X00 (mad overclockers, just jam the bus speed to 266MHz to start with and let the fun begin ), G31/nForce6 chipset or better (try to get 7.1 sound, Realtek if possible), at least 2x1GB 800MHz DDR2 (preferably 2x2GB as above), HD4770 for gaming (seriously powerful stuff for the price), cheap but decent 320GB HDD, DVD, really good case with a 120mm exhaust included (get a 120mm intake with shiny lights for it if you must) and a meh PSU... but seeing as this hardware will have great difficulty drawing much over 150W I don't see that as much of an issue

Solitaire

SO CLOSE! Budget AM3 build, but a fiver over €500 inc. p&p

Dunder Mifflin

Thanks for the builds Solitaire I'll deffo check them out. What do you think of the following: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-147-OK&groupid=43&catid=1184&subcat=

"Primo Extreme" AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ 2.70GHz Black Edition DDR2 System



- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+)
- Asus Vintage V3-M3N8200 Barebones System - AMD64
- Onboard Graphics (Upgrade Options available)
- 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
- LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- 1yr Onsite Collect & Return Warranty (can collect from any address (UK Mainland ONLY) and same day collection possible if requested before 11am)

I'm considering a pre-built PC just for easyness sake.

Blowfish

Dunder Mifflin wrote: »

I'm considering a pre-built PC just for easyness sake.

Hardwareversand will build it for you for €20.

Solitaire

Dunder, avoid it like the plague. No HD4850 or HD4770 options, and the CPU is pretty naff (really power-hungry and unstable for all the processing power... of a much cheaper and cooler E5200. Fail)

Dunder Mifflin

Fair enough. I think I'll go for the first one you posted and just build it myself

Thanks for the help.

Solitaire

If you have trouble building it yourself we're always here to assist

Dunder Mifflin

Ordered the processor from Komplett as Hardwareversand were all out. Neither seem to have the 4770 yet either. Will be keeping an eye out on both the sites and will snap one up as soon as I can.

Solitaire

Be careful of getting hit with multiple delivery charges! Those can really start to nibble away at build budgets! :eek:

Dunder Mifflin

Agreed. Thankfully Komplett have the free pickup option though which saves a good bit.

darealtulip

Dunder Mifflin wrote: »

Agreed. Thankfully Komplett have the free pickup option though which saves a good bit.

The pick up is not free it costs €7.50! and orders over 10 kg €11.50!!!!

http://www.komplett.ie/k/k.asp?action=custserv&topic=pickup

Elera only charges €1.95 so is sometimes the cheaper option because of that.

Dunder Mifflin

darealtulip wrote: »

The pick up is not free it costs €7.50! and orders over 10 kg €11.50!!!!

http://www.komplett.ie/k/k.asp?action=custserv&topic=pickup

Elera only charges €1.95 so is sometimes the cheaper option because of that.

Oh right.. I've put the order through and all - €69 for the processor, 0 for delivery. Option I chose was pickup. What gives?

Solitaire

*sigh* You really should have waited for all the parts to come into stock in HWVS...

Those two builds I put up were examples for everyone, not specifically for you Dunder, cuz some parts were not yet in stock (and they've run out of E5200s - just great! :rolleyes: )

And while Komplett's pick-up "delivery" charge is a joke Elara are usually bad value and I've never even found their pickup point...

Dunder Mifflin

I probably should have but this peice of **** computer is really starting to annoy me. I want to get something up and running asap!

Anyone have any idea when the 4770's should be back in stock or is it just guessing? How accurate are those 10+ day notifications they have on their websites?

darealtulip

Dunder Mifflin wrote: »

Oh right.. I've put the order through and all - €69 for the processor, 0 for delivery. Option I chose was pickup. What gives?

just saw it is free for delivery to the pick up point during the crazy week. normaly you have to pay and for a few euro more the deliver it home, mental!

Solitaire

Ah, that explains it

HD4770 will be the budget gaming GPU of choice. Future tense Eff-all stock anywhere, ATI had difficulty with the hard launch due to massive demand vs. ongoing issues with TSMC's 40nm process and retailers are taking advantage of the lull to offload all the many cards that the HD4770 effectively makes obsolete (like my lil' HD4830 :rolleyes: )

And you should never, ever trust "Back in stock on xx-yy-zzzz" on teh interwebs but HWVS is usually more accurate than most... If you're that desperate for your fix change your build and get a cheap HD4830 or go the distance and get that stupidly cheap Sapphire HD4850 (still a tad pricier than HD4770 but more powerful at stock speeds) I have no idea when they'll have them back in; other sites do have some limited stock but are charging retarded prices (the HD4850 is cheaper!)

david p

Looks like they have HD 4770s some on play.com for roughly the same price as Komplett/dabs/elara, only ever ordered CDs from them though so have no idea how reliable they are for computer hardware.

Dunder Mifflin

daverage wrote: »

Looks like they have HD 4770s some on play.com for roughly the same price as Komplett/dabs/elara, only ever ordered CDs from them though so have no idea how reliable they are for computer hardware.

Feckers only deliver tech stuff to the UK

"Electronic or gadget items valued at £50 or over must be delivered to your credit/debit card billing address, which must be in the UK."

Solitaire

Besides, a HD4770 for >€100 is vastly inferior value to a HD4850 for <€100 - the main advantage was that they were going for ~€85 while the HD4850s were all >€120. While the retailers virtually give away HD4850s the HD4770 can't gain any traction in Europe without further price cuts to or below €80.

david p

Hmm...I'll probably be ordering my build in about a month. Do you reckon there's any reason at all for getting a HD 4770 if it's still more expensive then?

The 1GB HD 4850 is only €13 more than the 512MB model on hardwareversand. Do you think it would make a noticeable difference to have the 1GB version? I'll be using a 19 inch Dell monitor if that helps at all.

Effluo

These guys say they'll have 4770's on Monday....


http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=B229965

who knows if they actually will or not however???

Dunder Mifflin

I'm going to go ahead and order the HD4850 for €99 from Komplett today unless someone cares to say why I shouldn't

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=439020

or would it be more worth my while paying the extra €25 for the 1GB?

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 1GB GDDR3
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=448593

Also, just wondering if those cards will work/fit in this board? They look pretty big in the images Komplett has. Komplett also says the cards are PCI Express 2.0 x16 but I don't see that in the board details, only "1 PCI Express x16 ¦ 1 PCI Express x1"

Solitaire

I don't really think the HD4850 or GTS240/250 are much cop with 1GB; if you need 1GB you're probably gaming at 1080p or up, in which case you'd need a beefier GPU (GTX260 55nm or HD4870 1gb at the very least) anyway.

And that is an old nForce6 mobo and would probably be made before PCIe2.0 even became a standard. Not that PCIe1.0 would even barely marginally affect anything less than a HD4870X2 anyway. Bear in mind this is an older mobo that is only recommended for entry-level rigs - even <€500 budget builds should aspire to something a bit more solid. No FSB1333 (without OC), no PC6400 recognition (at least with stock BIOS), no dual-channel and only mediocre OC options. Its main benefit is solid (albeit old) chipset options - in particular it has much better onboard sound than most things in its price range, which is something you'll not be able to upgrade so readily on a <€400 entry-level budget.

daverage, if you can't get a HD4770 for at least €10 less than a HD4850 it probably isn't worth it. Yes it's fast and uses eff-all juice but the memory bus limits its power at higher resolutions and you need to run the GPU 20% faster than a HD4850 to get the same performance per clock (8 SIMD clusters vs. 10). The power of the HD4770 lies in it being a low-end card with mid-range performance; if it continues to fail to materialize at those low prices it's going to die an ignoble death.

Dunder Mifflin

Solitaire wrote: »

I was going to update the thread but the build below is almost overkill for you Dunder



Pretty much a good starting point, no aftermarket cooling or even a "B"-grade PSU plus there's extraordinary stock issues with those HD4770s (haven't seen things this bad since... well, anyone here remember The Christmas Of No 8800GTs? ) but you get the idea. E5X00 (mad overclockers, just jam the bus speed to 266MHz to start with and let the fun begin ), G31/nForce6 chipset or better (try to get 7.1 sound, Realtek if possible), at least 2x1GB 800MHz DDR2 (preferably 2x2GB as above), HD4770 for gaming (seriously powerful stuff for the price), cheap but decent 320GB HDD, DVD, really good case with a 120mm exhaust included (get a 120mm intake with shiny lights for it if you must) and a meh PSU... but seeing as this hardware will have great difficulty drawing much over 150W I don't see that as much of an issue

Solitaire,
You qouted this motherboard in your post. This doesn't come with PCI-e 2.0 according to the details but the card you quoted is PCI-e 2.0 (http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=26715&agid=717). Will this card work in the board?

If not, can you recommend any decent PCI-e 1.0 cards?

edit: Actually after reading up on PCI on Wikipedia it says: "PCIe 2.0 motherboard slots are backward compatible with PCIe v1.x. PCIe 2.0 cards have good backward compatibility, new PCIe 2.0 graphics cards are compatible with PCIe 1.1 motherboards, meaning that they will run on them using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v 2.0 will be able to work with the other being v 1.1 or v 1.0." - I just want to make doubley sure before I go and order something and then find out it isn't compatible or won't fit

Solitaire

There's no issue with using one on the other, otherwise the issues with putting a new X with an old Y would have been biblical :P

And that's just an example entry-level build I put up. If you need something a bit more specific (and in stock) try this:


I know you just got the E5200 from Komplett, and you already said you don't need tons of storage nor monitors/OS. If you don't need the optical drive (i.e. gonna steal it off your old rig) just remove it from the list

Dunder Mifflin

I already put the order through on HWV too so i'm just in the market for a graphics card now. I think I'll go ahead with the 4850 512mb from Komplett. Thanks for your help btw, I'd still be mulling over what to buy for the next few months otherwise

Solitaire

Can't you change that order? Just because you might get stuck waiting on stock... those parts above are currently in stock and can ship almost immediately

But if you can't change it because the order is already processed then you're fine anyway as the stock must be back in already

Dunder Mifflin

Ordered last Thursday when it was all in stock. Was sent on Friday