Gaming rig help

[sim_uk84]

Hi all, I wanna build a new gaming system that will play the latest and greatest and hopefully will still be able to handle games a year or 2 down the line. I'm on a strict budget of £800 and with this I need to build the entire rig (except optical drives). Here is what ive come up with:

CPU: Athlon 64 3700 (san diego) 1mb L2 £95
Mobo: Abit KN8-SLI,nForce4 SLI £70
Graphics: Xfx Geforce 7600gt £130
Memory: Corsair value select 1024MB, DDR400 / PC3200 £60
PSU: Hiper 580W Type-R Modular PSU £60
Hard-disk: Western D Caviar SE 250GB SATA2 16MB Cache £55
Case: Antec SLK3000B Black Super Mid Tower Case £30
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 940BF 2ms £230
Input: Logitech Cordless Desktop Mx 3000 £55

TOTAL £785

I know im limiting myself to socket939 but viable upgrade options are:
- Replace the single core cpu with 64X2 or FX (as the mobo supports these)
- Add a second 7600GT running SLI
- More RAM obviously.

The mains things I wanna know are:
- How long do you think this system will last for playing games before I need a totally new system (bearing in mind the upgrade options)?
- Do you have any suggestions on making the cost cheaper with similar performance? OR
- Do you have an suggestions on making the system better (while remaining in the budget)?
- Any generic suggestions about specific components or alternatives.

Cheers.

 

[Akifuddin]

Wait for Conroe and get the cheapest E6300 processor. And the 7600GT is pretty good too (you can get a 7900GT instead though) and don't even think about SLi with a 7600GT, instead just get a 7900GT. As for RAM, get either G.SKILL 1GB DDR2 RAM or OCZ Gold 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 RAM depending on preference. The G.SKILL has lower latency and lower timing but the OCZ has a lower price with the Mail-In Rebate. Simple as that, but upgrade to 2GB later. And don't get an SLi motherboard because non-SLi ones are cheaper. You should also get a cheaper hard drive to make up for the money lost. The E6300 will have similar pricing compared to that 3700+ so if you get a cheaper hard drive and a non-SLi motherboard, the price for the system will be about the same although performance will be higher on the Conroe system.

 

[shadowduck]

Wait for Conroe and get the cheapest E6300 processor. And the 7600GT is pretty good too (you can get a 7900GT instead though) and don't even think about SLi with a 7600GT, instead just get a 7900GT. As for RAM, get either G.SKILL 1GB DDR2 RAM or OCZ Gold 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 RAM depending on preference. The G.SKILL has lower latency and lower timing but the OCZ has a lower price with the Mail-In Rebate. Simple as that, but upgrade to 2GB later. And don't get an SLi motherboard because non-SLi ones are cheaper. You should also get a cheaper hard drive to make up for the money lost. The E6300 will have similar pricing compared to that 3700+ so if you get a cheaper hard drive and a non-SLi motherboard, the price for the system will be about the same although performance will be higher on the Conroe system.

First of all, notice he posted in pounds. That means he CANNOT use Newegg, so pointing him there is pretty pointless.

Secondly, Conroe is not the answer for everybody. I wish people would stop posting telling everyone to get Conroe regardless of the situation. Sure, it might be great, but it is not the end all be all answer!

Thirdly, you don't know the price of the E6300. What you saw was in quantities of 1000, so add $50 to $60 to that price (maybe more). THEN add 17% VAT on top of that, so its hard to know the price at the moment.

Fourth, right now Conroe is Vaporware. Until you can buy a shipping product, its vaporware. What if he need a system within the next two weeks? Conroe isn't the answer.

Orginial Poster:

I DO agree to ditch the SLI motherboard and look at a non SLI one to save some money. The 7600GT is a fine idea, but plan on upgrading with the DX10 cards come out for optimal Vista performance. That price seems a bit high on the video card, as they can be had for $150 USD and the exchange rate is like 1.83:1 right now. Might want to shop around a bit there.

What store did you price from? I have some experience with Dabs, and they seem to be reasonable on most things.

As for the RAM, try and pick up 2GB if you can. Might not be possible with the budget, but you could cut down to say a 3200+ without a huge loss in speed and squeeze in the RAM, which is more than makeup for the MHz difference.

If you can wait until the end of the month, I would look at the firesale AMD is going to have on their CPUs. Look for 50% reductions in the prices of dual core CPUs. Around 100 pounds should get you a X2-3800+ or so. But that is if you want to wait.

I am not familar with Hiper PSUs. It should be ok, but Antec cases and Antec PSUs are made to go together so you might want to look there.

My long 2 1/2 cents

 

[Akifuddin]

Or he can go AM2 right? I only recommend these parts after July 24th because prices will be cheaper although you can do with a 3200+ now instead of the 3800+ later (Not X2)

Asus M2N-E
AM2 3800+ Single Core or Dual-Core depending on preference
Corsair XMS DDR2-800 1024MB (2 x 512MB) RAM (OCZ is not compatible and DDR2-667 sucks for AM2, shadowduck you're the one who told me this, you must agree)
7600GT

And I know that the Intel E6300 is higher priced, that's why I told him to get a cheap Non-SLi motherboard and a cheaper hard drive such as the 160GB Seagate Barracuda although he can get away with a 120GB, I mean games don't need THAT much space which is why I would recommend Conroe, I mean it WOULD be faster wouldn't it? And he did not state that he would need the computer in 2 weeks.

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

I have the Hiper, works great. No problems with a dual core AM2 CPU, 7900GT, two opticals, three hard drives, and an X-Fi XtremeMusic.

 

[sim_uk84]

Yeah the hiper was one of the best price/quality ratio i managed to find but im still very much in research mode at the minute. I'm in no rush to build this system, infact the longer i wait the more i will save and can maybe increase my budget a little. I think im gonna hold fire and see wot the conroe does for cpu prices when its released. If I could build a conroe system on that kind of budget that would outperform the one I suggested then I would definately do it but on the other hand if amd prices drop by a lot then I might consider AM2 and spend more on the graphics. Its a difficult decision to make, especially when it involves so much money. The UK sites ive been looking at are overclockers.co.uk, ebuyer and komplett.

Thanks for the advice guys.