Building a gaming rig.

[lost prophet]

Ive been saving up for a while and im now looking around the place for a good combination of hardware to build my new gaming computer and i was wondering if you guys knew any good web sites or setups around the 2.5K mark. Im having a bit of trouble since when i put " computer accsesories " into google nothing helpful comes up, and no, its not because im spelling accsesories wrong...

[Larry_OHF]

Here is a thread about a similar question that may have some of the information you need, though there will be individual questions from you that will not pertain to this thread, but you can still use this for reference. FYI, I linked to Intel's website in that thread that has a gaming PC walkthrough on how to build one if you are interested in looking at it. It may or may not help, but there it is.

[Sir Krustin]

http://www.tomshardware.com/ has a lot of useful articles on the various PC components. One of my favourite sites for keeping on top of things.

[Dace De'Briago]

Gaming = A64

3700SD for a single-core CPU
4400 for a dual-core CPU

Asus A8N-e for an excellent and stable motherboard
Or DFI SLi for dual graphics cards (Nvidia only)

X850XT PE for ATI
7800GT for Nvidia (much better, 20 - 24 parallel pipelines depending on model)

2 x 80gb IDE (or SATA) hard drives with 8mb cache in RAID-0
One or two larger drives for storage, SATA preferred (200gb+)

DECENT PSU (do not skimp). Minimum ATX 2.0 and 460W.

Low End: 2gb Geil Value
Mid Range: Corsair 2gb CAS2 kit
High end: OCZ 2gb kit

Should help you get an idea of what to get. If you have any further questions, give me a shout and we can talk specifics.

[Felix The Assassin]

I prefer http://www.newegg.com.
Good prices, excellent customer service. What more could you ask for.
http://www.tomshardware.com/ is where I go for research, they also have some advertisment, for good deals. I did use a no-namer once, and got the 'well we don't have it in stock, but yes we still advertise it' reply.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Originally posted by Dace De'Briago: Gaming = A64 3700SD for a single-core CPU 4400 for a dual-core CPU Asus A8N-e for an excellent and stable motherboard Or DFI SLi for dual graphics cards (Nvidia only) X850XT PE for ATI 7800GT for Nvidia (much better, 20 - 24 parallel pipelines depending on model) 2 x 80gb IDE (or SATA) hard drives with 8mb cache in RAID-0 One or two larger drives for storage, SATA preferred (200gb+) DECENT PSU (do not skimp). Minimum ATX 2.0 and 460W. Low End: 2gb Geil Value Mid Range: Corsair 2gb CAS2 kit High end: OCZ 2gb kit Should help you get an idea of what to get. If you have any further questions, give me a shout and we can talk specifics.

I woudl also recommend the Asus A8N SLi Deluxe as a good motherboard, especially with the new chipset fan.

Double 7800GTs would be insane, but you couldn't afford that with £1000. I would probably get a 3700 San Diego, 7800GT, Asus A8N SLi Deluxe, 74gb Raptor (for games), 200gb mass storage drive (or 2 if you can afford it and put them in RAID 0), the Tagan 480W PSU is good, there are also some good Antec models out there, and of course the beastly OCZ PSUs. I guess these days you might aswell get 2gb of RAM, as that is what most new builders are getting, and games like BF2 enjoy it.

Did you need peripherals with this? Monitor etc?

[Dace De'Briago]

I'm not sure what the exchange rate is, but this uses current GB prices for a £1000 spec. Just requires an OS.

Core
----

Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
Price: £55.95 (£65.74 Including VAT at 17.5%)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
Price: £119.95 (£140.94 Including VAT at 17.5%)

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
Price: £163.95 (£192.64 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XL 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11053-00-40) (GX-088-SP)
Price: £159.95 (£187.94 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD)
Price: £34.95 (£41.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD)
Price: £34.95 (£41.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Monitor
-------

Viewsonic VE710b 17" LCD Monitor (MO-042-VS)
Price: £137.95 (£162.09 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Case, Accessories and Peripherals
---------------------------------

Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
: £64.95 (£76.32 Including VAT at 17.5%)

ND3540 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-019-NE)
Price: £24.95 (£29.32 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard - OEM (KB-045-MS)
Price: £12.95 (£15.22 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Logitech MX510 Performance Optical Mouse - Retail (KB-071-LG)
Price: £22.75 (£26.73 Including VAT at 17.5%)

OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK)
Price: £6.50 (£7.64 Including VAT at 17.5%)

TOTAL: £986.72 including VAT.

Notes
-----

Hard drives to be run as RAID-0 array. Fairly silent system, will handle all modern games. Requires OS. Will probably overclock to circa 2600Mhz with the stock heatsink at stock voltage.

[ 08-21-2005, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: Dace De'Briago ]

[lost prophet]

Originally posted by RoSs_bg2_rox: Did you need peripherals with this? Monitor etc?

Nope my mother recently bought some decent speakers and a 19 inch lcd moniter so ill stick with that and save money.

[ 08-22-2005, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: lost prophet ]