€800 Gaming Build

Tusky

Was hoping someone could help me. In the market for a new pc. I'd be using it for games and also general web/various software use.

Budget is about 800 euro - I'm gonna buy monitor and other bits separately, so they are not included in budget. I dont want to have to build it myself so will have to buy pre-built, or use a website that builds if for you, like HWVS.

Can anyone help me out ?

Solitaire

I'll throw up a build later, suffice to say that €800 isn't exactly a "budget" rig! Post split from thread.

Tusky

Solitaire wrote: »

I'll throw up a build later, suffice to say that €800 isn't exactly a "budget" rig! Post split from thread.

Yeah - was considering making a second thread but didnt want to clog the forum. If its not necessary to spend 800, then I can spend less....but I would like to have a powerful machine!

Appreciate any help.

[edit]
Also, which one of these monitors would you recommend ?

http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3613396/art/samsung/syncmaster-p2450h-24-wide.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-G2420HDBL-Widescreen-Back-Light-5million/dp/B002XNOJMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=computers&qid=1292243995&sr=8-1

Dubba

I'd recommend going through the last few pages (say 5) on the
Sticky: Guide - the Budget Gaming PC
and get somewhat familiar with the components people list as builds, through other posters recommendations & a bit of web research.
Worked for me anyway.

Tusky

Found this in that thread:



Could just get this but double the harddrive size and maybe add more ram or a better graphics card ?

dottsie

I'm building a pc too and I've the same budget as you tusky I want it for gaming, video editing, web design etc I found this but I'n not sure if all my components are compatible so any help would be appreciated!

My damn laptop wont let me do screenshots for some reason so I had to add them as attachments sorry.
I want to keep it around 700 so it'll end up at around 800 inc delivery and os.
I decided they're the components i need but just not sure if they work together. I'm not too fond of the case either.
Any suggestions?

Monotype

Tusky wrote: »

Found this in that thread:



Could just get this but double the harddrive size and maybe add more ram or a better graphics card ?

Maybe pick other ram other than OCZ; I'm not sure that that heatsink would be better than the "free" one.

dottsie wrote: »

I'm building a pc too and I've the same budget as you tusky I want it for gaming, video editing, web design etc I found this but I'n not sure if all my components are compatible so any help would be appreciated!
My damn laptop wont let me do screenshots for some reason so I had to add them as attachments sorry.
I want to keep it around 700 so it'll end up at around 800 inc delivery and os.
I decided they're the components i need but just not sure if they work together. I'm not too fond of the case either.
Any suggestions?

• If you want to be gaming at HD resolutions, you'll want to allocate more of your budget towards a more powerful card - a 5570 isn't really enough.
• Is that a wired LAN card? You don't need it.
• You don't really need a sound card in general, although you might need it with that board since it has a via soundchip. Still, it might be money better spent if you did not buy the sound card and chose a different board.
• That's a low power harddrive - energy saving, lower speeds - is that what you want?
• Get a better PSU. Looks at superflower's amazon range for good value.
• Are you aware that socket 1156 is to be succeeded next month?

dottsie

I'm just not good at this pc building stuff ha. i changed my build to an amd phenom 2 x4 965 black edition with a ASUS M4A79T Deluxe/U3S6 - motherboard.

I can only spend around 800/850 and i was using the pc configurator on the hardwareversand site to build it which only seems to give me 5000 series cards.I want it all built and sent out to me.I have built before but i'm not great at it so i'd just rather have it ready to use
whats succeeding it?Oh and i just picked a xilence power 550w. i plan on ordering sometime next month so if you could give me a build based around the phenom2 x 965 I'd really appreciate it!

Jonny7

dottsie wrote: »

I'm just not good at this pc building stuff ha. i changed my build to an amd phenom 2 x4 965 black edition with a ASUS M4A79T Deluxe/U3S6 - motherboard.

I can only spend around 800/850 and i was using the pc configurator on the hardwareversand site to build it which only seems to give me 5000 series cards.I want it all built and sent out to me.I have built before but i'm not great at it so i'd just rather have it ready to use
whats succeeding it?Oh and i just picked a xilence power 550w. i plan on ordering sometime next month so if you could give me a build based around the phenom2 x 965 I'd really appreciate it!

easy there.. you can easily spec all the wrong stuff

don't buy the cheapest case, bad airflow

you don't need a soundcard, the onboard sound is more than enough

AMD 965? - big hot processor, honestly the i5 760 outperforms this processor and is well within an 800 euro budget

Ram + motherboard must be compatible

PSUs - get a quality one, Corsair or super flower 80+, the xilence are cheapy units generally

If you spec a PSU below 700 or so watts then hardwareversand won't let you spec a power hungry graphics card - stupid I know, you can buy the graphics card separately

Right now the ATI 6850 and 460GTX are great bang for buck and will run on a quality 550 watt PSU

Are you including the monitor in the price? if not then you can build a very nice machine for 850

Tusky

Would someone who whos their stuff throw together a build around the 800 euro mark ? I dont want to do any of it myself because I'm afraid I'll **** up. Would be much appreciated.

Tusky

Bump - Looking to order this over next couple of days. Would really appreciate if someone would throw together a build for me.

Gaw_

Tusky wrote: »

Bump - Looking to order this over next couple of days. Would really appreciate if someone would throw together a build for me.

Would advise you wait until early January. Intel's new range of CPU's 'Sandy Bridge' is being released on January 9th, offering more value and performance for money.

Tusky

Gaw_ wrote: »

Would advise you wait until early January. Intel's new range of CPU's 'Sandy Bridge' is being released on January 9th, offering more value and performance for money.

Hmm - suppose I may as well wait another week or two. Will still need help with the build though!

Tusky

Looking to order a pc next week. This is my last attempt to get someone to help me out with a build. Would really appreciate it!

Want to hook it up to a 5.1 surround sound system so decent sound card possibly required ?

Monotype

What about something like this as I was recommending in another thread?
I was aiming for €750 but with the extra money, you could get a nice heatsink and a better case. Mugen 2 perhaps?

Including delivery, but excluding case, that's €700.



The board has a realtek ALC 892 soundchip. It should be fine for games/films with 5.1.

Monotype

Tusky wrote: »

I dont want to have to build it myself so will have to buy pre-built, or use a website that builds if for you, like HWVS.

Tusky wrote: »

Need a wifi card, decent soundcard (well one thats 5.1 compatible). Pc will be used for gaming and general web/video. Keyboard, Mouse, monitor, operating system, speakers etc, not necessary.

Some upgrades. Dunno if you like the case.



Delivery & assembly = €50.
Total = €800.

dwighet

Monotype wrote: »

What about something like this as I was recommending in another thread?
I was aiming for €750 but with the extra money, you could get a nice heatsink and a better case. Mugen 2 perhaps?

Including delivery, but excluding case, that's €700.



The board has a realtek ALC 892 soundchip. It should be fine for games/films with 5.1.

May I recommend and fractal r3 case
And a nh-d14 cpu cooler to go with that build...

Im using both the case and cooler and found them both to be extreamly good..
The case has provisions for 7 fans which you will need if your thinking of overclocking your cpu and gpu and the cooler is expensive but there is not much better on the market(air cooling that is)... its keeping my I5 760 clocked @4.2 to 62c @100% cpu usage on prime...

Also the case has sound dampening and the cooler is very quiet... take a look at you tube on some reveiws on the nh-d14 cooler...you will be impressed..

Tusky

Cheers for the replies guys, much appreciated. Ive no idea about overclocking so probably wont be doing that. Is the cooler still necessary? If not, would the cooler replace the one in the other post or go alongside it ?

Also - if I wanted to spend an extra 100 euro to bring the total to 900/950, what should I upgrade?

Thanks for the help!

Monotype

€100? I think the next best thing would be an SSD for your OS.

C300 64GB.

Tusky

Monotype wrote: »

€100? I think the next best thing would be an SSD for your OS.

C300 64GB.

That would improve boot speed/general performance ? (not too knowledgeable on ssd benefits, but have done a bit of reading). No point upgrading graphics card or processor instead ?

Monotype

The SSD will give you faster boot and a general snapier performance when using your OS. Basically, when you get into windows, your desktop is there instantly and you can have your web browser open in about a second.
If you do game a lot, you could get the graphics card upgrade, although the 6870 is capable of handling most things at 1920x1080. The 6950 would be the next step up.

Dublin_Gunner

Tusky wrote: »

That would improve boot speed/general performance ? (not too knowledgeable on ssd benefits, but have done a bit of reading). No point upgrading graphics card or processor instead ?

Personally I'd recommend Core i5 2500, p67 board and GTX 560ti and cool the CPU with a corsair H50 water cooler.

You should easily be able to build a rig based on those components for around €900.

Plus, don't 'waste' the extra 100 now on an SSD. WHile yes, they can offer a bit more performance booting up etc. I find that booting up isn;t where I need the performance. Its a gaming rig, put the 100 towards gaming - the GFX card.

560Ti comes in around €230.

I'd put a build together for you, but I bloody hate that hardwareversand site.

Buit thats my 2c on the matter.

Oh, and 2x4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR-3 1600Mhz ram is about €90~ around the net, so thats deffo the ram I'd go with. Unless you need the extra €50 for something (then go with 4GB).


I'd even offer to build it for you if it meant you could afford better components!

Tusky

Hmm, decisions decisions! Appreciate the input.

Dublin_Gunner

Tusky wrote: »

Hmm, decisions decisions! Appreciate the input.

Hey Tusky,

Here it goes



AS I said, you could drop to 4GB ram, which is still enough for gaming (you can always add more later on) which will drop the price by about €40 to fit in building & shipping.

I purposely did not incluide Windows, as I'm not sure whether you alread have a copy or not.

This build does have quality throughout, nothing really skimped on.

Good case, excellent PSU, good ram, excellent CPU & GPU and a solid motherboard.

Monotype

I agree that the the 2500k is definitely the better system, but I wouldn't go near them until Intel have sorted out the problem with the P67 platform.

Dublin_Gunner

Monotype wrote: »

I agree that the the 2500k is definitely the better system, but I wouldn't go near them until Intel have sorted out the problem with the P67 platform.

Why? Just use the new, faster sata-600 ports, hence I even picked a sata-600 drive (though an sata300 drive would work just fine)

Will have 0 issues.

Monotype

But there's only two of them! That leaves no room for upgrade.

Dublin_Gunner

Monotype wrote: »

But there's only two of them! That leaves no room for upgrade.

There's the marvell also (another 2). Plus, if you like, you can always swap it for a new board when they're shipping again.

For the build there, I've chosen a 1TB HDD, and an SATA DVD RW drive (plug both into the Intel SATA 600 ports).

Tusky will not need another internal HDD for quite some time, even if he did, there's the 2 Marvell ports that can be used.

Monotype

The marvell ones are at the back, so not much good for new internal drives. It seems a bit messy to be switching the board out later, especially if Tusky doesn't want to be doing the work but it's up to him/her.


Edit: BTW Tusky, I forgot to mention - you should look into homeplugs as opposed to wireless. Generally more reliable but also more expensive.

Dublin_Gunner

Monotype wrote: »

The marvell ones are at the back, so not much good for new internal drives. It seems a bit messy to be switching the board out later, especially if Tusky doesn't want to be doing the work but it's up to him/her.


Edit: BTW Tusky, I forgot to mention - you should look into homeplugs as opposed to wireless. Generally more reliable but also more expensive.

True, but for this build, it really doesn't matter.

Plus, if needed, the mobo could be swapped for an Asus P8P67 which does indeed have the marvell beside thew other internals.

You're really making a mountain out of a molehill here regarding the SATA issue.

With regard to switching out the board later - I'd rather that than build a below par machine with Sandy Bridge on the market.

In fact, if the issue was that much of a concern, I'd recommend NOT building now, and waiting for the new boards.

For his budget, there is no reason whatsoever to have to purchase slower, older, more outdated tech.

Monotype

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Plus, if needed, the mobo could be swapped for an Asus P8P67 which does indeed have the marvell beside thew other internals.

You're really making a mountain out of a molehill here regarding the SATA issue.

Yeah, you're probably right, it's just that I would find it quite an annoying limitation myself. I still think that all the ports should have been 6Gbps.

One problem with the Asus board is that it doesn't have that cool black-grey look. :cool:

Dublin_Gunner

Monotype wrote: »

Yeah, you're probably right, it's just that I would find it quite an annoying limitation myself. I still think that all the ports should have been 6Gbps.

One problem with the Asus board is that it doesn't have that cool black-grey look. :cool:

That I definitely agree with. There is no reason to have the SATA 300 ports. None.

Seems very silly.

Monotype

Well there's always the reason of, "Hey look we have new boards with all 6Gbps ports, you need to upgrade!", in six months time.

Dublin_Gunner

Monotype wrote: »

Well there's always the reason of, "Hey look we have new boards with all 6Gbps ports, you need to upgrade!", in six months time.

Well, they're backwards compatible, so I don't know whether that would work!

Tusky

I have an external 1TB Hd so dont see that being an issue. Most of what you guys were saying went right over my head though!

Monotype

Basically we're saying that the new intel processors are the best for that kind of money.

However, Intel messed up in their design meaning that most of the hard drive ports are flawed. This would leave 2 good internal ones, 2 good external and 4 dodgy internal ones.
You'd need one for a hard drive and one for a DVD drive, meaning the two on the inside are gone, so no room for more hard drives in the future.

Options if you think you'll be needing more internal drives in the future:
As said, the Asus board has 4 internal good ones (haven't looked at the eSATA ports on the back with this board).
You can exchange your board back when the replacements come.

Tusky

Ok, cool. Think I'm leaning towards the second build in that case. The lack of slots shouldnt be a problem.

Dublin_Gunner

Tusky wrote: »

Ok, cool. Think I'm leaning towards the second build in that case. The lack of slots shouldnt be a problem.

You wont regret it. I've put together a couple of Sandy Bridge based machines now (none for myself yet though ) and they are very quick.

Tusky

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

You wont regret it. I've put together a couple of Sandy Bridge based machines now (none for myself yet though ) and they are very quick.

savage. Wasn't there problems with sandy bridge? Being recalled or something.

Dublin_Gunner

Tusky wrote: »

savage. Wasn't there problems with sandy bridge? Being recalled or something.

Thats what myself and Monotype were talking about.

It only affects the SATA 300 ports on the motherbaords, not the CPU's.

You can get around this by using the faster, newer SATA 600 ports though.

Its really no big deal, but Intel are recalling all their chipsets, and anyone who bought one can get it replaced.

You'll be using 1 x SATA Hard Drive, and 1 x SATA DVD RW drive.

You don't need any more!

Tusky

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Thats what myself and Monotype were talking about.

Jeez - I am slow on the uptake! I blame my hangover. Cheers!

Tusky

Ordered. Thanks for the help guys.