€800-900 gaming build

civis_liberalis

EDIT: To clarify, I'm looking for a desktop.

I was going to get a decent laptop, but the amount of money I would have needed to spend to get decent gaming out of it was heartbreaking.

No monitor or OS required. Will be installing Windows 7 Home Premium. Don't really need a keyboard, mouse, speakers or wireless card, well maybe a wireless card.

Unsure of what there is out there, as I've been out of the loop for a good few years now as regards hardware. I see a Dell XPS coming in under €950.

AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1045T (2.70GHz, 512kx6) (Haven't a fúcking clue if this is any good?)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English (Don't need)
8192MB (2x4GB) 1333MHz DDR3 (I have no idea what the actual gains would be between 4, 8 and 12Gb)
1TB Serial ATA (7200RPM) (Don't need a huge HDD)
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5670

Suggestions on what I should be able to get for my money are welcome.

Say the budget is €800 but if there are vast gains to be had in stretching that slightly, do tell.

Jonny7

Jesus thats a weak graphics card for that money

Gaming laptops are overly expensive, look for Dell alienwares and MSI GT gaming models.. will be hard on that budget

Don't take any risks, read reviews and check here if you decide on something, a lot of lemons out there and thats a lot of money

5uspect

Well the mobile Sandy Bridge parts are out soonish so I would suggest you look at them.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4084/intels-sandy-bridge-upheaval-in-the-mobile-landscape

It has a graphics processor on the die but can also be paired with a discrete GPU. No word on Optimus type hybrid graphics yet tho.

Solitaire

What is the maximum resolution of your monitor(s)?

Jonny7

Dude, you want a laptop or a desktop?

Solitaire

I think he wants a laptop but its sadly obvious that €900 won't get him squat - particularly painful when you think about what kind of desktop €900 could get you...

5uspect

I just read the latest Anandtech article on desktop Sandy Bridge.



That i5 2500K is throwing out amazing performance for $219. For that budget...

civis_liberalis

Sorry for the confusion lads, maybe I wasn't very clear. I'm looking for a desktop.

I thought the following made it fairly self explanatory.

No monitor or OS required. Will be installing Windows 7 Home Premium. Don't really need a keyboard, mouse, speakers or wireless card, well maybe a wireless card.

So just the tower needs to be bought.

5uspect

You never explicitly said so there was some confusion.

Anyhoo, as Solitaire has already asked, what resolution are you wanting to drive?

civis_liberalis

5uspect wrote: »

Anyhoo, as Solitaire has already asked, what resolution are you wanting to drive?

1440×900

It's a 19" Acer AL1916W that's a few years old. I assume it isn't a handicap. Seems like an ok monitor, but again, I wouldn't know.

civis_liberalis

I would be willing to undershoot the max performance for the money if it meant making the machine easier to upgrade in the future.

Also, if it makes a difference, it will be the end of the month before I'm in a position to buy.

visco

For 800-900 quid you will be able to build a monster machine that will eat up anything on 1440x900 on max settings.

Solitaire

The question is whether you even should!

€900 is enough for a high-end machine, but IMHO you might be better off paying €750 for an upper-mid-range rig and the other €150 on a modern 22" screen. Of course, if you need workstation-level computing strength for non-gaming apps then you might as well spend the €900 on an i7 rig and upgrade the monitor at a later date

Jonny7

You have a great budget there, you'll be able to spec a machine that'll run every game out there perfectly on that monitor

The new sandy bridge processors are out and fast as hell, they should be in the shops soon, so I'd say repost in a week or two

We mainly recommend a german site, very good prices and they build the PC for you for a small fee.

For now it should probably be along the lines of
Sandy bridge 2500k processor - 200 euros
motherboard - 120 euros
Ram - 60 euros for 4 gigs
harddrive - 50 euros for 1 terrabyte

Power supply - get a good quality one to last, Corsair 70 euros
decent case with good airflow - 60+ euros
Graphics card - 200 euros
build + delivery - 50 euros

with change left over

civis_liberalis

Solitaire wrote: »

IMHO you might be better off paying €750 for an upper-mid-range rig and the other €150 on a modern 22" screen. Of course, if you need workstation-level computing strength for non-gaming apps then you might as well spend the €900 on an i7 rig and upgrade the monitor at a later date

I'd be more inclined to do the latter. I can get by with my "small" 19" monitor for now. I'd rather not skimp on other things in favour of something I can pick up a month down the line when I have the cash to spare. I'd like to get as good a machine as I can. I would be using Photoshop and Indesign on a regular basis. You'd be amazed what I'm managing to use them on right now, although I am quite limited.

Jonny7 wrote: »

You have a great budget there, you'll be able to spec a machine that'll run every game out there perfectly on that monitor

Good to know. I'm doing my best to get a handle on what's out there.

Jonny7 wrote: »

The new sandy bridge processors are out and fast as hell, they should be in the shops soon, so I'd say repost in a week or two

Will do.

Jonny7 wrote: »

We mainly recommend a german site, very good prices and they build the PC for you for a small fee.

Care to share the name of the site? Anyone else have any opinions on the site, if they know which one he's talking about?

Jonny7 wrote: »

For now it should probably be along the lines of
Sandy bridge 2500k processor - 200 euros
motherboard - 120 euros
Ram - 60 euros for 4 gigs
harddrive - 50 euros for 1 terrabyte

Power supply - get a good quality one to last, Corsair 70 euros
decent case with good airflow - 60+ euros
Graphics card - 200 euros
build + delivery - 50 euros

with change left over

I wonder what the actual gain in performance would be if you say, added another 2 gigs of ram or even doubled it?

marco_polo

civis_liberalis wrote: »

I wonder what the actual gain in performance would be if you say, added another 2 gigs of ram or even doubled it?

More RAM doesn't make a PC faster, it simply allows it to do more things at once, so you would only see a performance boost if the programs you are using need more than 4Gb, which is more than enough for tasks like gaming, photoshop etc.

Not sure exactly what you will be doing with the PC, but I reckon it is most unlikely you would need more than the 4GB unless you are using it for memory intensive tasks such as editing very large video files, or running a few virtual machines for example.

I would go with 4GB initially and only get more down the line if you need down the line.

Jonny7

civis_liberalis wrote: »

Care to share the name of the site? Anyone else have any opinions on the site, if they know which one he's talking about?


I wonder what the actual gain in performance would be if you say, added another 2 gigs of ram or even doubled it?

hardwareversand.de, choose English, then choose pc configurator to build one up

Ram is very cheap right now and why not, 4 is optimal, you won't really "feel" any difference with 8, but theres no reason not to if you have the cash.

You could possibly add an SSD. Solid state drive, much faster than harddrives, but obviously cost per gigabyte much higher, a decent 60 gig will set you back about 120 euros. Great to use as your c drive with operating system, and then all your films and games on a normal 1 tb d drive.

the_syco

civis_liberalis wrote: »

Will be installing Windows 7 Home Premium.

32biot or 64bit? The former supports 4GB, the later supports 16GB.

civis_liberalis

marco_polo wrote: »

More RAM doesn't make a PC faster, it simply allows it to do more things at once, so you would only see a performance boost if the programs you are using need more than 4Gb, which is more than enough for tasks like gaming, photoshop etc.

Not sure exactly what you will be doing with the PC, but I reckon it is most unlikely you would need more than the 4GB unless you are using it for memory intensive tasks such as editing very large video files, or running a few virtual machines for example.

I would go with 4GB initially and only get more down the line if you need down the line.

Thanks. I understand the concept, but I had no idea if 4 gig was at a level that would be enough for gaming. I have a small addiction to FM2011 so I might add some ram to the 4 gig at some point in the future.

Jonny7 wrote: »

hardwareversand.de, choose English, then choose pc configurator to build one up

Ram is very cheap right now and why not, 4 is optimal, you won't really "feel" any difference with 8, but theres no reason not to if you have the cash.

I assume it will make significant difference when playing FM?

You could possibly add an SSD. Solid state drive, much faster than harddrives, but obviously cost per gigabyte much higher, a decent 60 gig will set you back about 120 euros. Great to use as your c drive with operating system, and then all your films and games on a normal 1 tb d drive.[/QUOTE]SSD is an option. Wouldn't need a big second hard drive as I have a new 1Tb external already.

civis_liberalis

the_syco wrote: »

32biot or 64bit? The former supports 4GB, the later supports 16GB.

I have both disks, so 64bit. I assumed that Home Premium always comes with both versions.

5uspect

civis_liberalis wrote: »

I have both disks, so 64bit. I assumed that Home Premium always comes with both versions.

Yup, There's been a big shift to 64bit with Windows 7 as seen in the Steam Hardware Survey.