Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

TerrorFirmer

As above, this is only several quid more, twice the size and a better drive.

This ram kit is cheaper again but preferable; this one is the same price and definitely preferable.

This PSU is cheaper and way more reliable, as well as more efficient etc.

For a euro extra you might as well get a Sata DVD-RW rather then an IDE which is unnecessary untidy.

TerrorFirmer

Not a bad build for 407 euro I think. NOTE: I picked the wrong case, it was meant to be the GZ-X1 as per your post, not the M. But they are the same price anyway.

Solitaire

Nice catch Terror, didn't know the price of the CX400 had bombed to that extent

Shryke

To tie up the last few loose ends, these are all of the parts I have ordered or am waiting to order.

Case: Antec Three Hundred Black
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=354717

Power Supply: Corsair Powersupply 450W, 120mm Vifte
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338686

Graphics Card: Gigabyte Geforce GTX 285
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=427002

Motherboard: Asus P5QL PRO
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=361780

RAM: Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338074

Monitor: Samsung T240
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=347597

Processor: Intel Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=344772

Harddrive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA2
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343054

I'm pretty sure that's all ok, and compatable. I think all I need after that is a disc drive and an OS. Am I missing anything?

As far as an OS goes, it's pretty much going to be Vista as that's going to be the norm for a while now, but should I go 32 or 64 bit? I understand that the main problem with 64 bit is getting drivers to support the hardware. Would that be much of an issue with my build and what is the consencus on Vista 64? Also looking at buying one, I see you can buy a cheap OEM version which is simply the disc. Are there any problems with buying the OEM version?

DanishGuy

Hi all,

Last January I bought the system below from CyberPower in England. At the time it cost me a cool €1250.

Unfortunately the motherboard has now gone on the blink and taken the CPU and the PSU with it. I'm not sure if the graphics card survived.

Anyway, I was looking at the suggestions here and was impressed. I think I'd prefer to start over with a new system (keeping my old monitor, a HP2207h, keyboard, mouse). I have around €500 to spend.

Would I be able to get relatively the same performance out of say TerrorFirmer's €407 build (2 posts up) or how much more would I have to spend?

Relatively clueless about new PCs (more of a DOS man myself and using it for office work mostly - but I would like to run Lord of the Rings Online at max. resolution.

Any suggestions welcome.

---

My old system:

CASE: Xion III Gaming Mid-Tower 420W Case with Side Window

CS_FAN: Extra Case Cooling Fan

CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® CoreT 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit

CD: SONY DUAL FORMAT 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER

FAN: Thermaltake Big Typhoon CPU Cooler

HDD: Single Hard Drive (320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

MOTHERBOARD: (QX9650 Supports) Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP Intel P35 CrossFire Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, Internal RAID, USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio

MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard) 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory

NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD

OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2

POWERSUPPLY: 630 Watts Power Supplies (Hiper 630W Type-M SLI/CrossFire Ready Power Supply (85% Efficiency))

SOUND: Creative Labs SB Audigy SE

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card

david p

Thanks Solitaire and Terror!

edit: Would it be worth the extra €10 for the 4670 ultimate edition? The only difference that I can tell between them is that the ultimate edition doesn't support OpenGL, which I guess would mean the normal version is better, or am I missing something?

Also, if I were to get a PSU with a higher wattage (like this one for example), would that make much of a difference in terms of being able to play games? I don't mind if I have to buy a new part or two in a years time, but is this better value?

BeciMester

daverage wrote: »

edit: Would it be worth the extra €10 for the 4670 ultimate edition? The only difference that I can tell between them is that the ultimate edition doesn't support OpenGL, which I guess would mean the normal version is better, or am I missing something?

The Ultimate edition will of course support OpenGL. It's the exact same card as the normal edition, but the Ultimate is passively cooled, i.e. there is no spinning fan (thus no fan noise), just a heatsink. If noise matters to you go for it, but if you do, you may want to double check if the ventilation is good enough inside your case.

Amalgam

Could TerrorFirmer or another member throw up another '350-370 special' upgrade kit, it is more or less 1 year since TerrorFirmer put up the following post: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55712707&postcount=3

---

I am using a Barton 2500 on a MSI KT6 Delta FISR, with some nice Corsair DDR. Nothing wrong with the set up, but encoding video and audio, along with the lack of compatability with recent Adobe products means I'm finally being pushed into using new technology.

I already have a 37GB Raptor and and secondary 500GB SATA and various optical drives.

Any advice welcome.

TerrorFirmer

• Assuming you already have those mentioned drives (storage and optical)
• Assuming you already have an OS
• Assuming you'll play the odd game or two (if not, take away the video card completely, as the mobo has onboard video capable of HD playback with HDMI output; money could then be put into 3rd party cooling for CPU/case fans etc)

Amalgam

Excellent TerrorFirmer, thanking you. Has the ATI driver and settings UI got any better in the last few years?

Strange, I looked at that very case this morning, spooky..

I'm using this case at the moment: http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NjY5

Could I put the above motherboard\CPU\PSU in it, or does the set up need a little more room\air around it?

TerrorFirmer

Yes it would be fine, even though it looks a little....dated.

But yes, you could re-use it without any issue, in fact, you could also use the existing power supply (assuming you have the SmartPower 2 that comes with it) without any issue either - its a rock solid supply.

Solitaire

Amalgam: Alternative build via HWVS:

Intel E5200 - €59.77
MSI G41M-FD - €59.86
GeIL Value 4GB PC6400 CL5 - €38.52
Sapphire HD4670 - €63.54
Coolermaster Elite RC330 - €30.05
Corsair CX400 PSU - €43.98

Total - €295.72 (€265.67 without case, €221.69 without PSU)

All items in stock and equivalent to Terror's build

Even with the delivery figured in there's a deal to be done

Solitaire

TerrorFirmer wrote:

SmartPower 2 that comes with it

... Hang on a second...

its a rock solid supply

OH NO HE DIDN'T!!!1! :eek:

Channel Well reminds me of Skoda... and Antec's PSUs.

New = EPIC WIN
Old = EPIC FAIL

Smart- and TruePower v1/2 were made by CWT (later ones are Seasonics) during The Bad Old Days. They became infamous for the funny habit of taking out entire PCs when they blew. Which they did. The dual fans and their speed controller tended to screw up and allow hot air to pool around the heatsinks. Not a problem for a sound if otherwise mediocre PSU but CWT decided to cheap out on dodgy Fuhjyyu caps that were only rated for 50C!

The result was that if temps got too high for any reason during operation the inside of the PSU would cook off like an ammo dump :eek: Theatrics aren't the problem though - when those PSUs let the magic smoke out they surged all the logic and took most of the components in the PC with them

I'm guessing a lack of overwhelming oven heat in your PC has saved you thus far, but as some have found using newer, hotter components combined with their increased 12V load (that will give the SmartPower350 a pretty rough workout) could be terminally risky

Amalgam

Cheers Solitaire, those are nice prices. I'm quite giddy at the thought of upgrading for the first time in about six years +..

TerrorFirmer

Solitaire wrote: »

... Hang on a second...



OH NO HE DIDN'T!!!1! :eek:

Channel Well reminds me of Skoda... and Antec's PSUs.

New = EPIC WIN
Old = EPIC FAIL

Smart- and TruePower v1/2 were made by CWT (later ones are Seasonics) during The Bad Old Days. They became infamous for the funny habit of taking out entire PCs when they blew. Which they did. The dual fans and their speed controller tended to screw up and allow hot air to pool around the heatsinks. Not a problem for a sound if otherwise mediocre PSU but CWT decided to cheap out on dodgy Fuhjyyu caps that were only rated for 50C!

The result was that if temps got too high for any reason during operation the inside of the PSU would cook off like an ammo dump :eek: Theatrics aren't the problem though - when those PSUs let the magic smoke out they surged all the logic and took most of the components in the PC with them

I'm guessing a lack of overwhelming oven heat in your PC has saved you thus far, but as some have found using newer, hotter components combined with their increased 12V load (that will give the SmartPower350 a pretty rough workout) could be terminally risky

Are you sure you're thinking of the Smartpower 2.0 and not the first version? The 1st one was a bit notoriously flakey alright but the 2nd revision is known as a good quality PSU.

Here's a few reviews to back that up from professional sites:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=455012

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article260-page4.html

http://reviews.pcapex.com/power_supply/antec_smartpower_sl350_psu.php?page=2

Now those are just for the lower rated model, there are endless positive reviews from pro-sites as well on the 450/500w models. I've read quite a few because they were a pretty popular bundle choice. The only cons I've read about the unit are cables that are a bit short, and slightly unstable rails at very high load. True, I wouldn't advise trying to get an 8800GTX in there; and most reviews to your credit do mention that it wouldn't be advisable for extreme rigs relative to their time, but a low power rig up to a 4670 should be absolutely no problem even for a 350w Smartpower.

TerrorFirmer

Just to mention you could cut down on Kompletts prices a bit further by using a cheaper MSI or Asus mobo, the MSI P43 Neo in particular would knock the price down to about 350, the case could also be changed for something like a Gigabyte X1 to knock it down to about 340. I've not used the RC330 personally but I've heard a few people moan about flimsy metal and sharp edges. That said though, it seems to be a good case for the money. I often find that what most people complain about in any given component, I don't even notice! I was using a cheap iCute case before and I thought it was brilliant, out of curiosity one day I looked at a few reviews and they were all saying 'Dreadful', 'shoddy', 'Disasterous'....and worse.

I would definitely go for a new case though. I think it'd be a same to put a new machine into that old case, which just looks so incredibly 90's to me.

thanks solitaire for all that info, I'm going to look more into it now.

david p

BeciMester wrote: »

The Ultimate edition will of course support OpenGL. It's the exact same card as the normal edition, but the Ultimate is passively cooled, i.e. there is no spinning fan (thus no fan noise), just a heatsink. If noise matters to you go for it, but if you do, you may want to double check if the ventilation is good enough inside your case.

Ah okay, for some reason it doesn't say that the ultimate edition supports OpenGL on komplett, but I didn't think that'd make much sense. Thanks!

elazar55

if i order fromhttp://www.hardwareversand.de will everything be in German when it comes here

brianon

Solitaire wrote: »

Amalgam: Alternative build via HWVS:

Intel E5200 - €59.77
MSI G41M-FD - €59.86
GeIL Value 4GB PC6400 CL5 - €38.52
Sapphire HD4670 - €63.54
Coolermaster Elite RC330 - €30.05
Corsair CX400 PSU - €43.98

Total - €295.72 (€265.67 without case, €221.69 without PSU)

All items in stock and equivalent to Terror's build

Even with the delivery figured in there's a deal to be done

I am trying to piece together a pc for an arcade cab converted to MAME and some other more intensive emulators. No movies. But maybe used as a jukebix of sorts.

I have PSU, Case, HDD, OS.

Looking at ...
AMD Athlon64 X2 7750+ "Black Edition" AM2+
54,70 €

2048MB-Kit GEIL Black Dragon PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL5
23,21 €

MSI K9N Neo-F V2, Sockel AM2 NVIDIA Nforce520, ATX, PCIe
44,95 €

MSI N9500GT MD1G-OC, NVIDIA 9500GT, 1024MB, PCI-Express
55,72 €

So thats a Total (before postage) : €179

Does this look ok ? Any better .. or cheaper options.

I know that everything I would want this setup to run DOES RUN on my work laptop which has... Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz, 2G RAM, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M.

So I only need this setup to at least match that. Monitor is on 17" (could be 19" down the road) so don't need high resolutions.

Also, its not something that I need to 'future proof'.

I want to get this as cheap as possible as I'm also looking at building a HTPC.

Cheers.

Effluo

elazar55 wrote: »

if i order fromhttp://www.hardwareversand.de will everything be in German when it comes here

no. Unless you're buying a keyboard(unless it says otherwise)
if you're buying an OS make sure you get the englisch version. (it says it on it)

Solitaire

How did I miss that entire post?

TerrorFirmer wrote:

Are you sure you're thinking of the Smartpower 2.0 and not the first version? The 1st one was a bit notoriously flakey alright but the 2nd revision is known as a good quality PSU.

Yup, the 2.0 was a much better PSU at the time, but it is more likely to exhibit flakey behavior nowadays as it lacks the passion for endless amounts of 12V power that modern hardware likes. And while much better cooled than its quieter predecessors the higher-rated versions were still pretty flakey when heavily loaded as they still got pretty hot under the collar and there were still loads of Fuhjyyu's in there waiting to detonate... it hadn't changed that much internally since the original TruePower (1.0). Its just the best of a bad bunch (and the 350W the best of all).

Nowadays it barely compares to a knockoff OCZ (Sirtec/Fortron ) with the addition of an explosion risk...

Must wait and see what price the HD4770 stabilizes at after the usual Retailer Inventory Dumping Phail. :rolleyes: Could be some latitude in there for some toasty budget builds real soon

elgan

I'm just finishing 2nd year- 2 years to finish college. My present system is a P4. I'm using Vm for networking PCs. OS XP & Suse Linux. Down the road i'm hoping to use VMware as part of my project.
I ruled out Dell because a laptop we 3 years old - faulty keypad - Dell are presently out of stock, I want to be able to upgrade in the wider market.
I read up on these parts, but there are so many opinions it gets very confusing. I'm thinking of e-sata for external HD for backups.
Any advisr or suggestions would be great. If I left some part out let me know.
Antec Nine Hundred
Corsair Memory 620 Watt, ATX, EPS12V, PS/2,
Asus GeForce 8500GT 1GB DDR2 PCIE DVI 459/800
LG Electronics Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM COMBO 16x DVD+/-RW Retail BLK
Seagate Barracuda 7200.1 500GB 7200RPM S300 32MB
Asus S775 INTEL P45 ATX DDR2 AUDIO LAN P5Q
Intel Q8200 Core 2 Quad S775 4MB 2.33GHz 1333FSB
Corsair Dominator TWIN2X8500C5DF 4096MB,DDR2, 2x2GB(KIT), DHX, E.P.P, with FAN
Akasa 3.5" bay Internal card reader

Gigabyte EP45-UD3P paired with a Q9650 and 4GB of DDR2 1000MHz s
CPU Fan and Cooler Akasa AK-965 CPU Cooler

Motherboard MSI P7N SLI Platinum, nForce-750i SLI,
Memory OCZ nVIDIA SLI DDR2 PC6400 2048MB KIT,
Power Supply AXP Powersupply ATX 630W Retail SLI

Molex Connector- if needed
Graphics Card Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512MB DDR2

elgan

Solitaire wrote: »

How did I miss that entire post?
Yup, the 2.0 was a much better PSU at the time, but it is more likely to exhibit flakey behavior nowadays as it lacks the passion for endless amounts of 12V power that modern hardware likes. And while much better cooled than its quieter predecessors the higher-rated versions were still pretty flakey when heavily loaded as they still got pretty hot under the collar and there were still loads of Fuhjyyu's in there waiting to detonate... it hadn't changed that much internally since the original TruePower (1.0). Its just the best of a bad bunch (and the 350W the best of all).

Nowadays it barely compares to a knockoff OCZ (Sirtec/Fortron ) with the addition of an explosion risk...

Must wait and see what price the HD4770 stabilizes at after the usual Retailer Inventory Dumping Phail. :rolleyes: Could be some latitude in there for some toasty budget builds real soon

Hi I'm next door - have you any suggestions on this build. Its going to swallow most of my grant so I don't want to get it wrong.
I'd appreciate the input.

elgan

elgan

Hi I'm next door - have you any suggestions on this build. Its going to swallow most of my grant so I don't to get it wrong.
I'd appreciate the input.

elgan

david p

Okay, I was looking at my build from a page or two back, and I decided I can splash out a bit more (less than €550), so I was trying to future-proof it a little by changing the motherboard to one that was Crossfire compatible so I have the option of adding in another GPU at a later stage. I also swapped the 4GB RAM for 2GB to save about €20 (although I might change it back, depending on what the final price is). Here's what it looks like now:



I'm having a bit of trouble picking a PSU as I don't really know, aside from having 2 6-pin PCI-E connectors, which ones would allow me to use Crossfire (some of them have detachable pin sections, like this one) and yet still be fairly cheap at the same time.
As before, any help is appreciated.

Solitaire

daverage: There's no point whatsoever in going CrossFire with HD4670s - a single HD4850 should outperform the pair while being cheaper and you could save more money on a non-CF mobo. Plus you wouldn't even need a PSU with any PCIe plugs for the build you listed, as the HD4670s don't use them :P

Komplett seems to be having issues with stock and their internal database - lots of stock options not showing and Komplett haven't said whether its an issue with an old database showing incorrect search options or whether their website is generally borked (again!). The non-appearance of any new stock like any HD4770s showing up might be tied to this, and seeing as the HD4770 is so crucial to gaming Budget Builds (they beat the HD4830 and that's as powerful as dual HD4670s; they beat that with iron flippin' bars!) you might want to hold off ordering from Komplett until they get their act sorted :mad:

Otherwise I'd suggest going for the HD4770 and either a TX550 or cut back on the CrossFire idea and get the CX400 and a cheaper mobo.

elgan: I'm not the biggest VMWare expert but I'd really need to know the budget for your build before I can give any firm recommendations.

david p

Sorry, I completely neglected to mention that I planned on getting a single HD4770 (with the intention of getting another one a few months down the line) as opposed to the HD 4670, which I forgot to take off the quickbuy list of the older build. My bad

Also, dabs.ie already seem to have the HD 4770s in stock, although I was going to wait until they appear on Komplett as things seem to be significantly cheaper there. I shouldn't be ordering the parts until late June anyways, so I figure they'll probably have them by then.

I'd like the build to be cheap enough, but if I want to upgrade it somewhere in the near future, it'd probably make more sense to pay a bit more now and get a mobo and PSU that support Crossfire instead of having to pay a lot more than I would have at a later stage.

Solitaire

Wow... Dabs must have updated their stock this evening cuz I checked for one on their site about an hour ago while posting on the Komplett board and saw nothing! That said HWVS and OCUK have had stock since last week. I said as much over on the other forum :P

Not sure how much power you'll need for CrossFire'd HD4770s; probably the cheapest "reputable" PSU with two PCIe connectors, unless it turns out that HD4770s don't "check" the PCIe connector to make sure its attached in which case you could get away with the CX400. Guess how much 12V juice a stock HD4770 needs? That's right, a whopping 4 amps :P Add the mobo's CrossFire bridge (which takes up a fair whack of juice) and you have CrossFire'd HD4770s for less power than a single HD4850 (>9A) :P

david p

Hexus seem to have gotten some high-ish power usage results for 2 HD 4770s. I'll only be using one GPU initially though, so I'd probably be alright with the CX400, at least for the time being. Not much point spending 20 or 30 euro more on power or PCIe connectors I'm not even going to need, although if I did have to buy another PSU with a higher wattage to run a second HD 4770 it might be worth spending the extra money in the first place...

Solitaire

Sorry daverage, had a look-see and I'm not the only person to think about this, sadly, the other guy was AMD Looks like the HD4770 uses a split power plane like the 9600GT (which is why that card needs a PCIe connector as well :rolleyes: ) and thus enforces the use of the extra cable. You're stuck with at least a CWT-based 550W PSU (TX550 or Odin or similar) to get the two PCIe connectors off it

I also heard that despite the fact it'll probably max out at 35-40W TDP the HD4750 will also be stuck with needing a PCIe connector, not for power but due to design phail. Nice one AMD, alienate half your target audience why doncha? :mad: People with old comps just won't buy them as the needed connector will make them panic over non-existant power usage issues! :rolleyes: