Advice on building a cheap gaming PC?

Sarky

Hi there.

I have a Medion PC I got in Aldi about 4 years ago, but recently the memory became horribly faulty and screwed the system up. I'm using it as an excuse to justify getting my hands on a new machine, and I understand that building it yourself usually results in much better value for money. I haven't really had a chance to pay attention to technology in the last few years though and don't really know where to start, so I was hoping you folks could help out.

Anyone who can help me out here, thanks very much.

1. What is your budget?
Around €600. Maybe €700 if there it could make a significant difference.


2. What will be the main purpose of the computer?
Gaming, if I can run Arkham City/ Arma 2/ Shogun 2 at a half decent resolution with most of the bells and whistles turned on I'll be happy.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows?
No. The hard disk on my old computer still works so I should be able to sort myself out there. However I do still need more storage space so I wouldn't factor it into the below questions.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
Yes. I can definitely keep the DVD drive and the WiFi card. I have a decent mouse, monitor and keyboard. I have a Creative sound card (Audigy 2, I believe, maybe 5-6 years old), but I don't know if that's worth holding on to these days. The old computer had a nVidea GeForce 9700 GS graphics card which served me well, but I've no idea if it's useful here or not.

5. Do you need a monitor?
No.

5a. If yes, what size do you need.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals?
No.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking?
No.

8. How can you pay?
Any way should be fine.

9. When are you purchasing?
I would like to be able to buy what I need within the next 2-3 weeks.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based?
I should be ok putting things together, thanks.

U_Fig

for €600 i'd go for something like this below

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€28.65
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.69
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€56.69
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 2GB GDDR5, lite retail|€188.03
ASRock B75 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€68.24
Intel Core i5-3450 Box, LGA1155|€169.20
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€42.14
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€604.63

this will play all the above games prob a highest settings

for an extra €90 you could add an SSD which would dramatically speed up boot times aplication launching and generally everthing i'd recommend it highly

Item|Price
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's Paper Box|€90.20
Total|€694.83

Sarky

That looks to tick all the boxes, but one question: the power supply claims 450W, while the graphics card claims it requires a 500W supply. Is this expected or will I need a beefier PSU?

spix

That psu is more than enough, my system with a more power hungry graphics card uses only 250w playing bf3.

Sarky

That's good to know. All going well I'll be able to order all this stuff tonight or tomorrow. Thanks, you guys!

Sarky

So all the bits arrived today, and I'm sure it's assembled correctly. Problem is that it keeps powering off unpredictably. Sometimes it'll stay on for 10 minutes, other times it'll last less than 5 seconds before it just switches itself off.

Any ideas what might be causing that? The graphics card seemed to be working fine last time the machine stayed on long enough to check it out. I have 3 HDDs in there as well as the SSD, but I've tried unplugging them to see if they were taking up too much power and there's no real difference. I'm kinda stumped.

ED E

Sounds like your CPU might not be being cooled properly or the RAM is faulting. Install Speccy to check CPU temp, then get a disk with memtest and test your RAM.


Also, OEM Win7 wont work on a new mobo.

glynf

Not sure from above your exact config, did you go with the SSD, also did you reinstall windows or just move your HDD?

Couple of things to check/try:

1) Check the Crash dumps-any errors?

2) Monitor & log your temps, especially when it shuts down maybe the CPU is not seated correctly/not enough compound causing a shutdown due to high temp?

3) Double check all PSU connections-8 pin power connector to the motherboard, GPU etc. Does the GPU require/have a 6pin and 6/8 pin connector?

4) Make sure the motherboard is not touching the case, are all stand off's fitted?

5) Disconnect everything except the RAM, C drive and use the on board Intel HD Graphics and see if it runs. If its stable try reconnecting the other components one at a time. If not, do you have a spare PSU to test?

Sarky

I think I found the problem. When it was closed up, some wiring shifted and it looks like it was jamming the heat sink fan. Been good for 20 minutes and counting, anyway. Here's hoping.

uncle_sam_ie

ED E wrote: »

Also, OEM Win7 wont work on a new mobo.

Legally no, but it it will work. I went from AMD to intel.

Sarky

Ok, that was definitely the problem, it's running fine now, defragging away at two old HDDs I wasn't able to fit in my last machine. All I need to do now is sort out moving the OS to the SSD and I'm set.

Thanks for all your help folks, you made this much easier than it would have been otherwise.