Help choosing a Gaming PC

[AirborneForever]

Okay, so I'm fed up with using my laptop now, and I want to buy a gaming PC.

My budget is £500-£650 and must include a monitor and OS.

Any website recommendations, or links to actual PC's would be very much apprepricated

[Jigsaw]

Overclockers UK

Decent site for parts and full builds at pretty good prices. They also deliver very quickly and each system is custom built so you can chop and change parts that you want and they'll do it for you. With that price range including a monitor and OS you're not exactly gonna get a monster but heres some options:

"Primo Gamer" AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750 2.70GHz DDR2 System

"Titan Nero" AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz DDR2 System

"Titan Fusion" AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz @ 3.00GHz DDR2 System

Couple of those come overclocked out of the box to reasonable values so you get some bang for your buck without having to clock it yourself.

[VoXiNaTiOn]

Go for Win7 as the OS to save £90 or so and spend that extra on a nice screen.

[LithiumFox]

o.o can someone convert pounds over to US currency for me? XD i might actually invest in one of those in a year.... =3

and there is a monitor below that o.o 2 ms response time?

Is that even possible?!!?!?!

[AirborneForever]

Thanks for the help guys, VERY interested

Also, I'm by no means a tech guy. But what's the difference between 512mb GFX cards, and 1gig? What does the extra memory contribute to?

[MonkeySoldier]

1GB of RAM is used for larger screens (22'' and up usually), so you get better FPS. 2GB is a waste of money.

[LithiumFox]

I really need to read the above posts XD

=3 yeah.. 2gigs is kinda a waste, but you'll be prepared when the future comes!

[AirborneForever]

Not RAM, I meant for GFX cards, I've obviously used the wrong terminology, I meant what's the difference between an 512mb GFX card and a 1Gig GFX card?

[LithiumFox]

he already said that... XD he knew what you were talking about i didn't...

[AirborneForever]

My bad xD

[05grottim]

hi m8 i just bought a custom build. For £500-£650 you're probably best goin for a 512mb card. A 1 gig gfx card as ppl say is for a 22" screen. Spending £500 on a computer means it's never going to be future proof, so u may aswell go for something that works well now. I would recommend dino PC. I just got a PC from them and it aint bad except 2 buggered RAM sticks- but the deals are great and you will get a decent comp from them. 22-001 Intel Junior Gaming PC - DinoPC.com I fiddled with the config but i dunno if that will be changed however it's a good PC and you'll get a low end quad core 4x2.33Ghz, 4gb RAM, 19"monitor, vista 64, an Asus motherboard and a Radeon HD 4850 512MB all for £600. You could switch the card to a 9800GT for subtracting a fiver- it's ur decision. But i would recommend you buy from them as they give you free delivery aswell.

[Mad-Mike]

Go for Win7 as the OS to save £90 or so and spend that extra on a nice screen.

Agree on both Windows 7 and u defo have to get a good monitor

Heres another webby for comp parts.
Aria PC - Computer Hardware, Components, Monitors.. at lowest prices

[dominator200]

id recomend novatech they have barebones pc in there for like 250 should get u a good one gpu would cost 130-170 harddrive 50 monitor form there is about 70 u will find some good deals on there

[AirborneForever]

This is from Dino PC, what do you think of this?



CPU: Intel® Core 2 Quad Q8200
Included
CPU Cooler: Standard CPU heatsink & fan
Included
Motherboard: Asus P5QL (Intel P43 chipset, 4x DDR2, PCI-E 2.0)
Included
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800mhz (2x 2GB)
£-34.70
Hard Drives: 500GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Included
Optical Drive: 20x DVD±RW DL
Included
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1GB
Included
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Included
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit + Windows 7 Upgrade
£99.59
Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse and speakers
Included
Monitors: 22'' Widescreen LCD
£108.39
PSU: 400W
Included
Case: Asus TA-210
Included
Warranty: 3 Year Bronze Warranty
Included
Priority turnaround: Dispatched in 2 working day

[05grottim]

your PSU might be a bit small maybe you should upgrade and that graphics card aint great but it will play PR on high so it might not be to bad.

[AirborneForever]

your PSU might be a bit small maybe you should upgrade and that graphics card aint great but it will play PR on high so it might not be to bad.

I think I'll get a better PSU, and GFX card then. I want Operation Flashpoint 2 when it comes out.

[AirborneForever]

Sorry to keep bugging guys, how's this set-up?

PC Case: Coolermaster Elite 333 - Included
Case Fan: 1 x Standard Fan - Included
Power Supply: Standard 500W - Included
Processor: AMD Phenom II 940 Black Edition Quad Core 3.0GHz x 4 - Included
Heatsink & CPU Fan: Standard Heatsink & CPU Fan - Included
Motherboard: Asrock K10N78 - Included
Memory: 4GB (2 X 2GB) Kingston PC6400 800Mhz DDR2 - Included
PCI-E Graphics: 1GB ATI HD4670 - Included
Sound Card: Integrated 7.1 Channel - Included
Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm SATA II - Included
Secondary Hard Drive: Not Included
Hard Drive Noise Dampener: Not Included
External Hard Drive: Not Included
USB Flash Drive: Not Included
Main Optical Drive: 24x Dual Layer DVD +/- Rewriter - Included
Secondary Optical Drive: Not Included
Floppy Drive: Not Included
Memory Card Reader: Not Included
Dial-Up Modem: Not Included
Network Adapter: Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps - Included
Bluetooth: Not Included
TV Tuner: Not Included
Front USB Ports: 2 Front USB Ports - Included
Back USB Ports: 4 Back USB Ports - Included
Firewire: Not Included
TFT Monitor: 19" Hyundai H95W Widescreen (18.5" Viewable) VGA/DVI, 1000:1, 5ms - Included
TFT Dead Pixel Check: Not Included
Monitor Cable: VGA To VGA - Included
Keyboard & Mouse Combo: Not Included
Wired Keyboard: Standard Multimedia - Included
Mouse: Standard Wired Optical - Included
Headset: Not Included
Gaming Accessories: Not Included
Speakers: Not Included
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32bit Version) - Included
Antivirus & Security Software: Not Included
Multimedia Software: Nero Essentials - Included
Office Software: OpenOffice - Included
Warranty: 2 Years Return To Base (1st yr. Parts & Labour, 2nd yr. Labour) - Included

[strickt]

4670 is a low end graphics card, if your looking to play the newest games that come out your going to need something better then that.

[AirborneForever]

CPU: Intel® Core 2 Duo E7400
Included

CPU Cooler: Standard CPU heatsink & fan
Included

Motherboard: Asus P5QL (Intel P43 chipset, 4x DDR2, PCI-E 2.0)
Included

Memory: 4GB DDR2 800mhz (2x 2GB)
£-5.30

Hard Drives: 250GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Included

Optical Drive: 20x DVD±RW DL S-ATA Lightscribe
Included

Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
£77.90

Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Included

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP Home SP3
£66.89

Monitors: 19'' Widescreen LCD
£81.99

PSU: 700W EZCool Tornado
Included

Case: Antec Three Hundred
Included

Warranty: 3 Year Bronze Warranty
Included

This is my last one I'm going to post up. I'll upgrade at the end of september, when I'm back at work, because throughout August, I'm buying stuff for my Games Development course, and I'm not working most of the month due to injury.

What would you recommend upgrading first?

[Jigsaw]

^^ get that one but upgrade the CPU to a quad core.

You will help future proof yourself for a year or two as well as save some money, and if you want to play the newest games they will be optimised to run better on quad cores than duals.