Building a budget gaming computer, need help/advice

Turboslag

Hello, im planning on building a budget gaming computer pretty much from scratch and I was wondering if ye could offer some advice.

1. What is your budget? €300-400

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming and college work (Dawn of War 2, Crysis 2)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Possibly the processor (Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q8300, although if ye think its a no go then i will dump it)

5. Do you need a monitor? No.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1280x1024 and no

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Nope

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Doubtful

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] All.

9. When are you purchasing? Whenever I get the money

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Cork

Thank you!

Tij da feen

Processor is fairly decent, especially at that resolution. What are the other specs of the old computer, do you have a motherboard to go with the CPU?

Turboslag

The other speccs of my current computer are:
Nvidia Geforce 7100/ nforce 630i
2x290GB hard drives
And I have the motherboard that came with the cpu yeah ( ECS MCP73PVT-PMif thats useful at all)

BloodBath

Tbh I'd hold off doing a full upgrade until you can increase your budget. You won't be getting much of an upgrade over your current system at that budget.

I'd spend that current budget buying a better monitor and a graphics card update + some extra ram if you need it.

Item|Price
LG Flatron IPS234V|€144.56
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 2GB GDDR5, lite retail|€161.28
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€324.83

theidiots

The copy of windows is really taking most of the budget away. Any friends who can get it at a "discount" for you.

Item|Price
HGST Travelstar Z5K500 250GB 7mm|€34.90
4GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€19.66
Super-Flower ATLAS Design 450W|€32.62
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.96
MSI R7770-PMD1GD5, 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€99.74
ASRock N68-VS3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€35.35
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€83.75
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€356.97

Add a 1080P monitor for 100 quid and a copy of windows is 85 quid. If you plan at staying at that resolution then its probably overkill. Would a graphics card do on its own for you have currently?

Turboslag

Is a better monitor important? Im not very experienced in these things

theidiots

Turboslag wrote: »

Is a better monitor important? Im not very experienced in these things

Yea the resolution is like 1920x1080 on a 1080P monitor and will look pretty terrible on the monitor you currently have. You could always upgrade the monitor down the line anway. The 7770 will run all new games on pretty much max settings at 1080P but for how long I don't know. It would be really overkill for the resolution you plan to game at.

Tij da feen

theidiots wrote: »

The copy of windows is really taking most of the budget away. Any friends who can get it at a "discount" for you.

Item|Price
HGST Travelstar Z5K500 250GB 7mm|€34.90
4GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€19.66
Super-Flower ATLAS Design 450W|€32.62
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.96
MSI R7770-PMD1GD5, 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€99.74
ASRock N68-VS3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€35.35
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€83.75
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€356.97

Add a 1080P monitor for 100 quid and a copy of windows is 85 quid. If you plan at staying at that resolution then its probably overkill. Would a graphics card do on its own for you have currently?

That's a Laptop HDD and I wouldn't choose that PSU either as it's not great quality. Also the chipset on that motherboard isn't great and would spend a bit more on the motherboard.

That said I wouldn't bother going from a Q6300 to an X4 as you're unlikely to get much benefit from it. I would go with Bloodbath's suggestion but also add in this PSU if the one you currently have isn't up to scratch.

BloodBath

The Phenom 2 x4 965 is only slightly better than your current processor. It's really not worth upgrading to this.

The monitor will make a huge difference to the visual quality of your games. It's like having a great sound system but with crappy speakers otherwise.

How much ram is in the current system? What is the power supply?

You could squeeze more ram and a good cpu cooler into the budget with the 2 items above and overclock the processor.

Turboslag

I have 4GBs of RAM at the moment and I'm fairly happy with that, I'm pretty sure its the graphics card thats really dragging me down. Not entirely sure how to check my power supply to be honest, i think its 2.50 Ghz

BloodBath

You should get another 4gb's of ram that matches your current ram as closely as possible too then. Alternatively you could sell it and just get an 8gb kit. Is there slots free to add ram?

Check the side of your power supply. There should be a sticker or metal plate with details on it. Specifically the exact make and model or at the very least how many watts and how many amps on the 12v line/s.

Was that thing a Dell? You may need to get a psu upgrade and possibly even a case upgrade knowing them.

Turboslag

It's a packard bell, it says its 220-240W, im able to fit in another 4gbs if that would be cheaper, im guessing it is.

BloodBath

Thats 220-240volts not watts.

Going to need more info on this to help further.

What model of computer was it exactly?

If you don't know that then I need to know what model of psu it is.

Turboslag

it's an ixtreme m3720, tis fairly dated at this stage, getting info on it is difficult

BloodBath

Hmm I think it's a 250w and most likely has terrible 12v rails. Using a 7850 with it would be risky. You would probably get away with a 7770 with the current psu. Still dodgy though.

Now you just need to find out what ram it has and try and match it.

It's ddr-2 anyway. Download cpu-z and check the ram tab to see what the ram is and what speed it's running at. I think it's DDR2 PC2-5300.


Item|Price
LG Flatron IPS234V|€144.56
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850, 2GB GDDR5, lite retail|€161.28
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€45.57
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€370.40

I'd say keep the rest of your old parts to put the pc back together when you fully upgrade this system. These newer parts can be used for a full upgrade in future.

Tij da feen

I'd say there's no point in investing in new RAM tbh, I rarely use more than 4GB. The PSU and Graphics Card can be carried over into a new build but the RAM won't be. There's only 2 DIMM slots on that motherboard as well so 2x4GB sticks would be needed and that'll work out very expensive.

Turboslag

Yeah it's DDR-2, i doubt i'll need much more RAM, it doesnt seem to be a huge issue at the moment, cheers for all the help by the way!

Edit: Would a cheaper monitor be acceptable?

BloodBath

How many slots are on the board and how many are free? You could pick up some additional ddr-2 second hand here on adverts.ie pretty cheap. You will need more ram going to 1080p.

You could get a cheaper monitor but you're still looking at least €100 for a smaller TN panel with worse clarity and picture.

That lg monitor is great value for money.

BloodBath

2x4gb of ddr-2 going cheap atm on ebay from an Irish seller.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/G-Skill-F2-6400CL6D-8GBMQ-2x4GB-8GB-2x4-DDR2-/300864410426?pt=UK_Computing_ComputerComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item460cea933a#ht_500wt_1415

Turboslag

two of the slots are free, yeah i may as well get the lg one, save me from having to upgrade again later down the line

Turboslag

So I went to Maplins today, they had an asus nvidia geforce gt640 for €104 and a G7 560w power supply for €35, think its worth it?

BloodBath

No those 640 cards are all but useless. You won't even get 30fps on low settings at 1080p. A 7750 hammers it. A 7850 would be more than double the performance even before you take overclocking into the equation. Over triple the performance with overclocking.

Turboslag

Yeah i looked up some reviews and you're dead right, the 640 is terrible in comparison. Was considering getting this as its quite cheap seemingly http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Sapphire-AMD-HD-7750-1GB-GDDR5-HDMI-Graphics-Card-PCI-E-3-0-/150885944489?pt=UK_Computing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item232180cca9#ht_1762wt_1026

EDIT: Turns out getting them both on hardwareversand was cheaper, gonna get the sapphire 7750 and the super-flower 450W.