New Build for gaming

jhud

I have been asked to build a new computer for a friend just need some advice. He has a price rang of €700 to €800 in mind.

He will need to be able to run world of warcraft as this is the main game he plays so i want to ge the best performance graphic card for that. I am looking to put windows 7 on it too.

He wants the lot new monitor, keyboard, mouse box everything.

Any advice would be welcomed.

These are the sites i would probable use to buy use.

www.komplett.ie
www.dabs.ie
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.hardwareversand.de


Thanks
John

Venom

jhud wrote: »

I have been asked to build a new computer for a friend just need some advice. He has a price rang of €700 to €800 in mind.

He will need to be able to run world of warcraft as this is the main game he plays so i want to ge the best performance graphic card for that. I am looking to put windows 7 on it too.

He wants the lot new monitor, keyboard, mouse box everything.

Any advice would be welcomed.

These are the sites i would probable use to buy use.

www.komplett.ie
www.dabs.ie
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.hardwareversand.de


Thanks
John

Thats a very low budget for a complete gaming rig tbh but the good news is WoW has very low system specs. Taking into account the low budget and the request for a entire system I would suggest some along the lines of a Dell XPS 8000 series pc.

http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Desktops/studio-xps-8000/pd.aspx?refid=studio-xps-8000&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

Might need to upgrade the gfx card in the customise section but overall I think it will fit the bill. But like everything in this world you get what you pay for so dont go expecting uber specs for that price plan.

swirlser

What Venom said minus the upgrade to the gpu, WoW needs bugger all to run. Just to reinforce the you get what you pay for bit tho...

(As an idea, my old rig has a 7800GTX in it from about '06 and that ran WoW at 2560*1600 res with everything set to high)

Venom

swirlser wrote: »

What Venom said minus the upgrade to the gpu, WoW needs bugger all to run. Just to reinforce the you get what you pay for bit tho...

(As an idea, my old rig has a 7800GTX in it from about '06 and that ran WoW at 2560*1600 res with everything set to high)

Well yeah WoW needs bugger all GPU wise but sticking in a 4890 will allow the guy to play other games pretty well.

darealtulip

he better buy's a GPU lose and chuck it in since Dell will rob you senseless. I would build myself if it was for me, but when it is for someone else I would let them buy one coz it will be you who plays helpdesk!

Effluo

The xps has no monitor included in the price... Which would put it overbudget!(not great option for what the op wants it to do anyway)

tri-core 2.8ghz which will do perfect for games for years to come!
I went with a 4850 rather than the 4770, but feel free to change that around. If you want better economy or slightly better graphical power.

Either way you will not need it when playing WOW

The 19" screen has a dvi port and the case a window and led fan...

1 terrabyte hard-drive.

I've actually priced the two on hrws.de and ebuyer.com and mad as it sounds i think ebuyer may well be better value.

Slightly better psu, and better case(if you like the way it looks)
Anyway i'll leave you at it to decide where to buy it from and also what to buy.
It comes well under budget though and with ebuyer you can get your peripherals too. Nice new keyboard and that...
If i were you i'd also look at getting a non-hd(gpu is not recommended for hd gaming) 22" screen. It is certainly achievable on your budget.

Also what seems uber odd, is that on both hrws.de and ebuyer if you get 2 separate packs of 2 gig's of ram it is cheaper than buyer the 1 4gig pack! Like wtf is goin on there?

swirlser

I was only backing up the dell option since his requirements seem minimal, but hes on such a tight budget that even the xps 8000's starting point eats that up and doesnt incl a monitor :S plus since it only has a 320GB HD I figured if hes gonna up anything it would be that.... it sure as hell wont the ram ->



lol, the ram upgrade costs more than the entire machine... the real funny part is im not sure its a mistake lol.... gg Dell....

Hmmm...

Effluo

darealtulip wrote: »

when it is for someone else I would let them buy one coz it will be you who plays helpdesk!

That is very true
There is a good reason why people get paid for this.
B4 you know it you'll be sour and own a t-shirt like this

jhud

Thanks for the inputs guys.

I have check out his old computer and it was running world of warcraft

Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
75Gig hard drive
1536md of ram
256 Ati graphic card
17" monitor


So he said to me if i double up the specs that would do him.

Also i do have the company discount will Dell but would not like to use them as there computers are breaking down all over the place on us.

swirlser

jhud wrote: »

Also i do have the company discount will Dell but would not like to use them as there computers are breaking down all over the place on us.

*Ouch*

(I feel I should include something semi useful in my posting.... Id say just check thru the numerous recent i5 builds, it'll be a fine upgrade)

Effluo

An i5 would also be a complete waste...
If all he wants to do is play WOW we could max that out on a €500 machine

Leman_Russ

Effluo wrote: »

An i5 would also be a complete waste...
If all he wants to do is play WOW we could max that out on a €500 machine

AMD Dual Core with the 2 Faulty Cores unlocked? :P

swirlser

If all he wants to do is play WoW then why is he upgrading at all? stick in another HD if its filling up and hes on his way....

Im suggesting an i5 setup as it can be done within his budget and despite it being more than he needs at present, why save ur self 50 quid going down a dead socket route :S

Effluo

50 quid?

It's quite a bit more than 50 quid.

Why spend more on something that you'll get no benefits from?

Woden

In the heavy ae situations in wow, raids with many addons or in the cities fps can really go to ****.

I was playing at 1920*1200 on an i7 at 3.2 with a 1gb 4870 and their are situations where you will still experience poor fps particularly with heavy shadows on.

Leman_Russ

Woden wrote: »

In the heavy ae situations in wow, raids with many addons or in the cities fps can really go to ****.

I was playing at 1920*1200 on an i7 at 3.2 with a 1gb 4870 and their are situations where you will still experience poor fps particularly with heavy shadows on.

Well, that's because you had an i7. HT gums up games.

And at 3.2? Why only 3.2??? And Only a Single GPU? No wonder! :pac::pac::pac::pac:

Jock Strap

Woden wrote: »

In the heavy ae situations in wow, raids with many addons or in the cities fps can really go to ****.

I was playing at 1920*1200 on an i7 at 3.2 with a 1gb 4870 and their are situations where you will still experience poor fps particularly with heavy shadows on.

Well that's exactly Effluo's point. You have an i7 machine and it's still not 100% perfect. So why spend so much on a high end machine like that when a serious gfx card upgrade will do the job just fine?

swirlser

Effluo wrote: »

50 quid?

It's quite a bit more than 50 quid.

Why spend more on something that you'll get no benefits from?

Its not really for you or I to decide what he'll benefit from

He gave a budget, some fine builds have been posted recently based around an i5 which is why I mentioned it - which is achievable within his budget. Its a great lil chip and should he wake up tomorrow and decide to play something a bit more recent he wont be looking to upgrade his brand new machine...

Effluo

swirlser wrote: »

Its not really for you or I to decide what he'll benefit from

Well it's not for us to decide, but we do know...

We know performance wise there would be no benefit going with an i5 over a fast dualie when playing WOW.

Do you think he'd benefit from knowing/saying that he has an i5 cpu and ddr3 ram?
I suppose he could tell all his mates, they might like him better knowing that he has a needlessly expensive pc? lol

Maybe he'd benefit most of all from having a pc that suits his needs, does everything he wants it to do and then spending the rest of his budget on fine wines and facial treatments...

Effluo

Jock Strap wrote: »

Well that's exactly Effluo's point. You have an i7 machine and it's still not 100% perfect. So why spend so much on a high end machine like that when a serious gfx card upgrade will do the job just fine?

I don't think he should upgrade his pc.

He prob should get a new pc... A single core pentium and we don't know how much ram he has!
It probably is time for a new pc

Venom

swirlser wrote: »

Its not really for you or I to decide what he'll benefit from

He gave a budget, some fine builds have been posted recently based around an i5 which is why I mentioned it - which is achievable within his budget. Its a great lil chip and should he wake up tomorrow and decide to play something a bit more recent he wont be looking to upgrade his brand new machine...

+1

Paying €500 for a dead end spec instead of using the full budget for a PC that will last longer and offers the option to play other games should the need arise is just stupid.

Effluo

:rolleyes:

Venom wrote: »

+1

Paying €500 for a dead end spec instead of using the full budget for a PC that will last longer and offers the option to play other games should the need arise is just stupid.

What exactly is dead end spec?
Could you explain with examples

cheers

jonny72

Guys,

I don't think he will be looking to max out games on high res monitors.. just wants something more capable..

For that money he can get a nice little machine..

AMD fast dual, tricore or budget Quad core
4 gigs ram with am3 board
decent case, psu
1 tb samsung F3
4770
22 inch monitor
windows 7, keyboard and mouse
built and delivered from hardwareversand for 750 euros.

Will be 3 times as fast in games, and twice as fast just navigating around windows etc, lots of space and can upgrade the chip, ram, graphics card later on.

For someone who is used to a single core machine with god knows what graphics card it will seem so much faster.. which will make them happy..

Leman_Russ

AM3? So much for Budget
Why not a Cheaper AM2+ with DDR2 memory, since the AM3's fit in them and have a DDR2 mem controler?

Jock Strap

jonny72 wrote: »

Will be 3 times as fast in games, and twice as fast just navigating around windows etc...

jonny72

Heh navigating windows.. booting up, unzipping files, copying, loading programs/games etc, etc, etc.. fired up my old p4 the other day, felt so painstakingly slow to do anything

Jock Strap

jonny72 wrote: »

Heh navigating windows.. booting up, unzipping files, copying, loading programs/games etc, etc, etc.. fired up my old p4 the other day, felt so painstakingly slow to do anything

I was in confusion over the figures.....

jonny72

Well I went from single core p4 with 256 nvidia card chugging along on 20 to 30 fps in most games, up to a core2duo and 8800GTS and started getting 60 to 100 in most games on same res or better, difference was huge.. so nearly a 4fold increase in fps in some cases.

Solitaire

Leman_Russ wrote: »

AMD Dual Core with the 2 Faulty Cores unlocked? :P

STOP IT!!1!

On that note, if the 2.9GHz Athlon tricore (X3-405?) is out and about (and cheap) yet a fine budget system can be made from the union of that and an AM2 mobo... get a good sub-1080p monitor instead of a mediocre 1080p+ one and a HD4770 to run it and you're nearly done

EDIT: 'Tis called the X3-435. And already under €70 on some sites. Hmm...

Leman_Russ

Solitaire wrote: »

STOP IT!!1!

On that note, if the 2.9GHz Athlon tricore (X3-405?) is out and about (and cheap) yet a fine budget system can be made from the union of that and an AM2 mobo... get a good sub-1080p monitor instead of a mediocre 1080p+ one and a HD4770 to run it and you're nearly done

EDIT: 'Tis called the X3-435. And already under €70 on some sites. Hmm...

AND IT CAN HAVE THE FAULTY CORE UNLOCKED! :pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

Sorry, couldn't resist :P

But yeah, it certainly seems that AMD have cornered the Budget CPU and High End GPU markets recently. While Intel CPUs might be a little better, unless you are an enthusiast, it's not much difference

Deano12345

Solitaire wrote: »

STOP IT!!1!

On that note, if the 2.9GHz Athlon tricore (X3-405?) is out and about (and cheap) yet a fine budget system can be made from the union of that and an AM2 mobo... get a good sub-1080p monitor instead of a mediocre 1080p+ one and a HD4770 to run it and you're nearly done

EDIT: 'Tis called the X3-435. And already under €70 on some sites. Hmm...

Oh,good deal ! :P

*Thinks about building another PC*

OT : Everyone here is right,go AMD if your on a sub €800 budget...no where is that build I did a few days ago...

jhud

Thanks all for your inputs. I will be putting together two draft one of AMD machine and one of Intel and tell him to decide. I will tell him all the good things about AMD though. Lets hope he is happy with one the of machines.

Solitaire

Here's an example of a budget AMD machine including 19" monitor for €550 shipped:



Dead-end build how? :P

swirlser

Solitaire wrote: »

Here's an example of a budget AMD machine including 19" monitor for €550 shipped:



Dead-end build how? :P

Wouldnt call it a dead-end build. But it does show how tight the budget is, even with what uve listed above at 550eur (which is missing kb/mouse and not sure if he has the OS sorted), uve cut things to the near bone and only just got in under budget from our german friends

jonny72

I think sometimes builders and upgraders don't understand that some people are happy with something under an i5..

For us we'll pay hundreds and hundreds just to get an extra 20% performance.. but for a budget user the PC above will be comparatively a much larger improvement over his current setup. I've seen people play warcraft night after night on a radeon x1300 on a slow cpu, its just woeful. 700 to 800 euros is sufficient to get them a machine (including OS and monitor) that will triple their fps, speed everything up and be able to play most modern games at nice FPS.

Effluo

jonny72 wrote: »

For us we'll pay hundreds and hundreds just to get an extra 20% performance..

That's optimistic!

swirlser

jonny72 wrote: »

I think sometimes builders and upgraders don't understand that some people are happy with something under an i5..

For us we'll pay hundreds and hundreds just to get an extra 20% performance.. but for a budget user the PC above will be comparatively a much larger improvement over his current setup. I've seen people play warcraft night after night on a radeon x1300 on a slow cpu, its just woeful. 700 to 800 euros is sufficient to get them a machine (including OS and monitor) that will triple their fps, speed everything up and be able to play most modern games at nice FPS.

That is very true.

With regards to the OP (/OP's mate), his machine looks just shy of half a decade old. With that in mind, not shaving the new build down to 500eur means a bit more lastability... the above AMD build is about doable, Id suggest going "wild" and springing for a 22'' tho

Leman_Russ

jonny72 wrote: »

I think sometimes builders and upgraders don't understand that some people are happy with something under an i5..

Lies and Heresy! Anything under an i5 is a dead end waste of money! :pac::pac::pac:

Solitaire

swirlser wrote: »

That is very true.

the above AMD build is about doable, Id suggest going "wild" and springing for a 22'' tho

+1. I was just keeping the core build under €550 for the example. Any decent-sized monitor under 1080p will do.

As for the core build: a fast, triple-core CPU is almost as good as a fast dualie on 1/2-thread apps and almost as good as a mid-speed quad on multithreaded apps. The trick is that they don't go down like a lead balloon when you hit them with the "other" type of app threading. And yeah, its cheap Fast CL5 DDR2 isn't far behind 1333/1600MHz DDR3 owing to the severe latency issues (CL9!) and is still a bit cheaper for the moment. And the HD4770 is fine under 1080p while gobbling up all of about 50W of juice. And the mobo was a homage to Leman and his antics

Leman_Russ wrote:

Lies and Heresy! Anything under an i5 is a dead end waste of money!

*smacks Leman over the head* :P