Getting a gaming PC - or close enough.

[Assailant]

Hey everyone, it's my birthday in about a month. The story goes like this, my parents bought my sister a new car, my brother is getting her old car & driving lessons. As they believe it's only fair I get something, and seeing as how they know I want a new PC, they basically told me this, needless to say - I'm over the moon.

 

The budget is anything up to about £800. I was sincerely hoping you guys could send me some links to any complete rigs or seperate parts. I was looking at the ATI radeon 5870, but if there's any better choices, I'd be grateful to hear. I was hoping to find a complete rig to buy online, but it's up to you guys. If you wouldn't mind helping, I'd be ecstatic, thanks alot.

 

Edit: I'm also looking for perhaps a new monitor + keyboard/mouse too. But if not, don't worry about it.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Assailant

[Ryan]

A 5870 is going to take up about half the budget alone.

[Assailant]

Hmm, well it's around £800, so maybe a little more, my heart isn't set on this card, I'm happy to go with a lower card in order to get other more efficient parts.

 

Edit: make that about £900, my grandma and my actual dad will obviously give money too. I sound like such a spoilt brat. I'm going to start saving money 'til May too. Gotta go to bed, I'll be on in a few hours.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Assailant

[Ryan]

Here's a build I put together.

 

Case: Antec Three Hundred - $69/99

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - $140.99

Motherboard: ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - $59.99

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 - $114.99

Video Card: VisionTek 900297 Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 - $329.99

PSU: CORSAIR 650W - $119.99

HDD: HITACHI Deskstar 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - $53.99

ODD: LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - $24.99

CPU Cooler: Scythe SCKTN-3000 - $28.69

 

Instant Rebates = $75

Grand Total = $867.62

[mike752]

Unlimited, since he's talking about £, I'm assuming he's somewhere in the UK, meaning that there's no Newegg (unless they ship overseas, which I doubt).

 

Assailant, from where would you like to buy the parts?

[Scorpus]

That's a great system there Unlimited, but you're forgetting that the budget is actually £900, which is roughly US$1,300.

 

For that amount you could probably upgrade the graphics card to a HD 5870 for an extra $90 and for an extra $340 you could get an Intel Core i7-920 + ASUS P6T SE + OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 which brings the total to ~US$1,300

 

However you'll need to source parts from a UK site and that will probably mean that they will be slightly more expensive

[Ryan]

Oh sh*t. Didn't even see the £. Just assumed it was $. My fault.

 

I would make up a build from a UK site, but I don't know of any.

[Assailant]

Thanks for building that Unlimited, I'd go ahead and get it but due to it being an American site, it'd be more expensive due to shipping etc. I don't know any sites in particular, plus not to counteract what I already said, but I guess £800-£850 is the max. Just to be on the safe side.

 

There's sites like pcworld.co.uk etc.

 

I went on alienware, but [email protected] me are they expensive. Maybe eBay is selling brand new rigs. If someone wouldn't mind looking, I will too.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Assailant

[anus]

PC World is quite overpriced compared to other UK sites I've seen. And don't bother getting a prebuilt, especially something like Alienware which are overpriced like hell. Get the parts and build the PC yourself .

 

Here's a build from a reliable UK site:

 

Case: NZXT Gamma

 

Case fans: 3x Akasa AK-191-BL

 

PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W 80 Plus Certified

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-790GXTA-UD5

 

CPU: Phenom II X4 955 BE

 

RAM: Patriot Sector 5 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 PC12800 Dual Channel

 

Video card: Sapphire HD4870 1GB

 

HDD: Hitachi 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache

 

ODD: Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE

 

Totals to £850.62 with shipping.

 

Really awesome PC. The motherboard supports USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0Gbps so you can upgrade to them later on if you want without an issue.

 

 

[Assailant]

Thanks alot Warlord, I heard you were really helpful with this sorta stuff.

 

Not meaning to sound ungrateful, I am indefinetely, but is there anything I could leave out, or a cheaper peice of hardware to get to around £800?

[anus]

No problem. Here's another from a different site:

 

Case: Casecom 6788

 

Case fan: Akasa 14CM

 

PSU: Antec Basiq Power 550W

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5

 

CPU: Phenom II X4 955

 

RAM: Patriot Sector 5 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 PC12800 Dual Channe

 

Video card: PowerColor HD5870 1GB (free Dirt 2)

 

HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATAII

 

ODD: Samsung SH-S223

 

Totals to £797.16. You can get free shipping on the Ebuyer items (everything except the RAM) if you choose the "Within 5 working days" shipping option.

[Assailant]

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

[Ryan]

 

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

While you usually won't get your money back, if you can isolate the problem to say, the motherboard, you should be able to RMA it to the manufacturer and get a replacement board. That is if it's covered under warranty. Most parts come with a 2 or 3 year manufacturer warranty.

[Assailant]

Alright, sounds good, thanks again.

[AmyJones]

Oh sh*t. Didn't even see the £. Just assumed it was $. My fault.

 

I would make up a build from a UK site, but I don't know of any.

Yeah but even still if he looks in the right places he can get most of those parts cheaper.

[Tornado Rex]

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

Contrary to popular believe it's actually easier to deal directly with manufacturers than Dell and the like.

[mike752]

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

Contrary to popular believe it's actually easier to deal directly with manufacturers than Dell and the like.

Hehe, do NOT get me started with Dell. Their support is decent IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY SAY. I agree, though, dealing with manufacturers is much easier because they are usually more knowledgeable with their products and can help narrow down the diagnosis.

 

The only manufacturer with whom I have had a problem was Gigabyte. One of the IDE (yes, IDE) ports on my motherboard didn't work. So I RMAed it, and two months later, it showed up with the exact same problem. I didn't feel like dealing with them again (I was 10 at the time ) so I plugged both the DVD Drive and the HDD into the IDE 2 port.

 

Other than that, I've had no complaints with manufacturers. I even bought another Gigabyte motherboard for the computer I use now, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

 

 

[Assailant]

My step dad, being the "You can never trust people online" sort of man he is, is asking 3 computer geek friends of his to see what they think about it, and see if it'll do fine. Guaranteed they'll say "Oh, no get this, it's alot better" when in fact it's worse.

[Tornado Rex]

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

Contrary to popular believe it's actually easier to deal directly with manufacturers than Dell and the like.

Hehe, do NOT get me started with Dell. Their support is decent IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY SAY. I agree, though, dealing with manufacturers is much easier because they are usually more knowledgeable with their products and can help narrow down the diagnosis.

 

The only manufacturer with whom I have had a problem was Gigabyte. One of the IDE (yes, IDE) ports on my motherboard didn't work. So I RMAed it, and two months later, it showed up with the exact same problem. I didn't feel like dealing with them again (I was 10 at the time ) so I plugged both the DVD Drive and the HDD into the IDE 2 port.

 

Other than that, I've had no complaints with manufacturers. I even bought another Gigabyte motherboard for the computer I use now, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

Yeah Gigabyte was "meh" for me too. I RMAd a mobo as well. They were a little slow (took a couple weeks to get it fixed) and they didn't e-mail me a return tracking number (though they had it available and gave it to me right away when asked over the phone). Other than that though I've been very happy with manufacturer support. I suppose it helps to have technical knowledge though.

[Democrab]

 

Here's a build I put together.

 

Case: Antec Three Hundred - $69/99

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - $140.99

Motherboard: ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - $59.99

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 - $114.99

Video Card: VisionTek 900297 Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 - $329.99

PSU: CORSAIR 650W - $119.99

HDD: HITACHI Deskstar 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - $53.99

ODD: LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - $24.99

CPU Cooler: Scythe SCKTN-3000 - $28.69

 

Instant Rebates = $75

Grand Total = $867.62

Even though this is older, I want to comment on it.

The Phenom II x4 940 BE is an older AM2+ only chip, meaning DDR3 and AM3 rigs don't work with it, plus Hitachi Hard Drives are a bit.. ehhh in their reliability, I had a year old 320GB one die on me recently.

 

 

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

Dell's general way of "fixing" things is to take it back, format the Hard Drive and reinstall the OS if the problem isn't hardware related.. If it is hardware related, they format after replacing the broken part. (In other words, you're better off just asking us and doing it yourself as there's a far higher chance you'll keep your files)

 

If something in that PC breaks, narrow it down then contact the manufacturer, you'll easily have at least a 3 year warranty on the stuff that can break easily. (CPU, motherboard, HDD, GPU, etc)

 

 

Thanks alot.

 

My step-dad's a bit skeptical because if something goes wrong, we can't exactly get our money back. I'll see what he thinks though, this looks perfect.

Contrary to popular believe it's actually easier to deal directly with manufacturers than Dell and the like.

Hehe, do NOT get me started with Dell. Their support is decent IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY SAY. I agree, though, dealing with manufacturers is much easier because they are usually more knowledgeable with their products and can help narrow down the diagnosis.

 

The only manufacturer with whom I have had a problem was Gigabyte. One of the IDE (yes, IDE) ports on my motherboard didn't work. So I RMAed it, and two months later, it showed up with the exact same problem. I didn't feel like dealing with them again (I was 10 at the time ) so I plugged both the DVD Drive and the HDD into the IDE 2 port.

 

Other than that, I've had no complaints with manufacturers. I even bought another Gigabyte motherboard for the computer I use now, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

Heh, Gigabyte's been wonderful with me, only one dead board and that was a clone from a different manufacturer from the Socket A days.

 

ASUS on the other hand... Eugh, Dead IDE channel, they don't accept it for RMA, chip falls off in an OEM system that hadn't been touched by anyone but the makers, no RMA because "Its obviously been altered" (I opened the case and saw the chip on the bottom when it didn't boot, there was nothing else it could have came from either, I was using onboard video.) plus the only good boards they have generally have a AU$150 premium on the Gigabyte one of the same caliber.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Joe.