New gaming build

roledog

Hey,

I'm about to order a pc from www.cougar-extreme.co.uk and I thought I'd post the specs here first to see what you guys think.
Also, have any of ye used cougar before?

• AMD PHENOM II X4 925 2.8GHz AM3
• 4GB Corsair Memory DDR3 1333 (2 x 2gb)
• 160GB SATA Hard Drive
• AM3 MSI 770-C45 - DDR3 1600x4 770-C45 chipset
• ATI 5850 1024MB PCI Express DDR DVI :cool:
• ASUS TA-M21 Black Midi Tower Case No PSU
• CiT 500W Black Edition PSU
• 19 Inch AOC MONITOR 916SWA

With shipping to Ireland, it comes to £773, which is about €895.

I think it's a pretty decent gaming build, let me know what you guys think :)

roledog

Solitaire

Hmm... €900 for that is only a 50% markup :eek: Parts would come to €600-ish in the retail channel. A "real" gaming build of similar spec would be a bit pricier as a few of the components used in the Cougar are total and utter junk

Monitor is mediocre and unfitting given the quality of the GPU. HDD is a joke, case is rubbish and I wouldn't let a PSU like that near a gaming rig. CPU and mobo are really quite cheap for what they are (€100 and €60-ish respectively) and are good albeit inexpensive mid-range parts. Graphics card is the one unashamedly high-end part in there and would cost €250+ in retail.

daboymolly

leaving yourself a bit light on the hard drive for gaming youd be surprised how fast it fills up for gaming. I just built myself a gaming computer over the long weekend, installed about 15 games already and ive filled up about 200-300 gigs (with OS) already. Id suggest an aftermarket cooler and larger hard drive (min 300gb) if your willing to push ur budget by another €50-70 other than that looks pretty good. what OS are you gonna use? 64 bit windows 7 is a dream

roledog

Solitaire, are you saying the hdd is a joke because of it's capacity because I only ever use up about 30gb in my previous hdd's so I thought I'd cut corner's pricewise by getting a small one.

Also, regarding the PSU would you recommend a larger one or just one made by someone reputable?

I'll have a look at some other cases so if this one isnt good.
I'm guessing the mobo, gpu and cpu are good also.

On a sidenote, Im not looking for a really powerful gaming pc, just trying to get as much as I can for about €900. What would you change with that budget in mind?

Thanks again,
roledog

Solitaire

roledog wrote: »

Solitaire, are you saying the hdd is a joke because of it's capacity because I only ever use up about 30gb in my previous hdd's so I thought I'd cut corner's pricewise by getting a small one.

Are you even gaming?! Even older games typically take 2-5GB per installation, and modern games take 3-20GB a pop! :eek:

If you're playing current games you will need a modern HDD, not only for capacity but also for superior performance and reliability. Storage has moved on, so any 160GB drive on the market is almost always going to be old and cack. If you're not gaming, you do not neeed this kind of PC at all. You'll still benefit from a cheap, modern HDD like a Samsung F3 though!

Also, regarding the PSU would you recommend a larger one or just one made by someone reputable?

Reputable. Few systems really need high-capacity PSUs to power them; even €800-1200 rigs only need to go up to a decent mid-range PSU, and typically only €1500+ PCs need mad powerful PSUs. The kind of rig above would run far more happily (and reliably!) on nothing more than a Corsair VX450, although a VX550 would give slightly more headroom.

I'll have a look at some other cases so if this one isnt good.
I'm guessing the mobo, gpu and cpu are good also.

Rule of thumb: if you want a decent case (indeed, decent gaming PC, period.) you either pay one squillionty quid at a boutique builder, or you build it yourself. Both big and budget system builders typically use naff cases. A few (such as OCUK) are a bit more realistic but for the most part an "OEM" case is going to have horrid cooling.

CPU and mobo are good though. And GPU is one of the best on the market; you don't even need a card this powerful unless you're playing above 1080p resolution, or you need DX11 and/or perfect image fidelity at 1080p.

On a sidenote, Im not looking for a really powerful gaming pc, just trying to get as much as I can for about €900. What would you change with that budget in mind?

I really do need an answer to the old question of "Are you even going to be playing games on this build?!" before anyone here can help you I'm afraid.

roledog

That's what I'm goin to go for I think.
The 5830 works out about €70 euro less than the 5850 :eek:

I forgot to include a network card there, but in total this build comes to €865 not including the price of a network card.

Any final suggestions, besides asking me if Ill be gaming or not? :pac::pac:

Jonny7

roledog wrote: »

That's what I'm goin to go for I think.
The 5830 works out about €70 euro less than the 5850 :eek:

I forgot to include a network card there, but in total this build comes to €865 not including the price of a network card.

Any final suggestions, besides asking me if Ill be gaming or not? :pac::pac:

Better than the last PC but..

Unless you are an audiophile cut out the sound card, the onboard should be more than good enough.

The 5830 is the worst of the 5 series in terms of performance/value/energy, if you are getting that size monitor go with the 5770, which are about 130 euro new.

I'd say you could easily build around these parts..

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3 133,74 €

Gigabyte GA-790XT-USB3, AMD 790X, AM3 ATX 93,25 €

4GB-Kit A-DATA Value DDR3 U-DIMM 1333 101,99 €

Which would leave you enough for a 1 tb samsung f3 harddrive, nice case, PSU, 5770, monitor, etc

roledog

Okay, one last question

Is a Corsair 550W psu enough to power these:

AMD Phenom II X4 955
5850
4gb a-data 1333 ram
Samsung 320gb hdd

along with the other usual stuff(monitor etc..)


Thanks again

Solitaire

Get a Samsung F3 500GB, they're much better than the older types!

And a VX550 would be fine unless you were going to overclock it heavily, given the CPU starts life with a hefty 125W TDP

Effluo

roledog wrote: »

Also, have any of ye used cougar before?

What a freaky Deaky thread :pac:

Op the best way we can help you is if you tell us exactly what you plan on doing on the pc. Otherwise you might end up buying something you do not need or spending way too much money.

Also with the hard-drive I have 320gig hard-drive and it's nearly full with games, with the relatively small price differential a terrabyte hd is a good investment.

There's a perfect pc for everyone, until you tell us your uses we will not be able to help you

roledog

Effluo wrote: »

What a freaky Deaky thread :pac:

Op the best way we can help you is if you tell us exactly what you plan on doing on the pc. Otherwise you might end up buying something you do not need or spending way too much money.

Also with the hard-drive I have 320gig hard-drive and it's nearly full with games, with the relatively small price differential a terrabyte hd is a good investment.

There's a perfect pc for everyone, until you tell us your uses we will not be able to help you

I thought it was clear enough I'm looking for a decent gaming build for around about €900..

Basically the hdd issue isnt a problem because I'm the type that only ever has a few games installed on my pc at a time so the need for a bigger hdd isnt neccessary.

The psu is the only thing I'm not sure about at the moment. Im thinking of going with a 650W instead of the 550W just to be safe.

Ill be ordering from hardwareversand.de isntead of cougar also.