Budget C2D gaming rig

[Brevik]

Hi guys,

I've been reading this forum for a while now (although never posted), trying to get a good idea of what to go for in a cheap gaming rig - I think I've got it there or thereabouts, but I'd like someone with an "expert hat" on to look through the list and see if I've made any mistakes.

My current rig (AMD 64 3000, A8N-SLi Deluxe, 1Gb RAM) plays Enemy Territory, CoD2 and Quake 4 reasonably well (struggles a little with Q4 online), but I guess anything coming up is going to really test it to the point where the games won't be much fun/look like a dogs dinner. I'm also a mapper for ET, and compile times are lengthy with the current rig - I'd like something to speed that up a little too.

The current spec I'm looking at (copy and paste from http://microdirect.co.uk):

- Coolermaster iGreen 500W PSU ATX Form Factor 12V V2.2 / SSI standard EPS 12V V2.91
- Coolermaster CAC-T05 Centurion 5 silver/black case USB mic audio, firewire NO PSU
- Intel CPU Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz 800FSB LGA775 2MB cache Retail inc.Fan (3yr Manufacturers Warranty)
- Geil Ultra DDR2 2.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel memory kit (2 x 1GB) 800MHz (4-4-4-12) +Aluminium heat spreader
- Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 SKT 775 P965 Chipset PCI-E, DDR2, SATA2 GB LAN, 8ch Audio, USB2, ATX
- 250GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA II 300 8MB cache 7200rpm Hard Disk Drive
- Microsoft Windows XP Home (oem) inc SP 2
- Samsung SH-S183L Black DVD +/-R/RW Lightscribe DL SATA OEM SH-S183L BEBN

All comes to about £411.

I'm going to be using my BFG 7900GT as I don't think I need to upgrade that yet.

The current rig will be sold on with a cheap graphics card, but £411 is about my budget limit

The idea is to do some moderate overclocking in the future and to have some potential for upgrades.

Can anyone see any potential problems? I've been doing plenty of reading on the subject and the Gigabyte board seems to be the one recommended the most, but Gigabyte's P35 board doesn't seem to be that much more, so is it worth going for that one instead?

Hopefully it will be capable of playing ET:QW and TF2 (when they're out)

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Brev

 

[Brevik]

Did I make some horrnedous forum faux pas with my initial post above?

I'm not throwing a hissy fit or anything, just wondering why hardly anyone read my topic and no-one posted a reply, when similar topics have got plenty of replies.

I'd hate to think I'd posted something stupid/offensive/arrogant/etc.

 

[haywood]

Can't speak to the power supply, but I'll bet it is not a good one. Check out the PSU forum stickies by mpilchfamily for suggestions. Other than that it looks good. Personally I like Samsung hard drives though most people here recommend the seagate 7200.10 drives. Either is probably a little better than the Hitachi.

Feel better now?

 

[Brevik]

Feel better now?

All warm and fuzzy inside now, thank you.

 

[coldmast]

Like the show Jeopardy,
you get more responses when you post in the form of a question
please help budget gaming rig

PS don't go to the other in > Community, you'll feel really warm and fuzzy but not in a good way :lol:

 

[shooter124]

that power supply has gotten many good reviews and is on the psu reccomended list. a lot of people don't seem to use it though. It seems like a its a good value, plus its shiny, probably wont' have any problems with it but there are probably other options for you as well.

 

[ausch30]

I think the reason for no replys is that the system looks pretty good. I've never used that MOBO but most agree that it's pretty good, all in all a solid inexpensive computer.

 

[The_OGS]

Hi Brev,
Yeah, people will look at your post and see, the system looks okay, so that's good news, really... LoL
Now personally I would get the new E6420 w/ 4MB cache (to replace my E6400 w/ 2MB) and I'm gonna grab it on my next payday!
I assume you are going to run your rig @ 266FSB with the CPU therefore running @ E6600 speed...?
That's a good setup, it's what you call a 'stock' overclock, where it's all very easily within the capabilities of the mobo, memory etc.
Speaking of which, you have selected good memory for the rig. Typically you would see more CPU with less memory $$ in a build like yours.
But memory is cheap now right? It was bloody costly last fall when Conroe came out and then right through winter...
Anyway, at perfectly stock 200FSB (800QDR) your rig could achieve a 1:2 ratio in memory timing! This is because your CPU is slow and your memory is fast. Your memory bandwidth will then be double your CPU bandwidth.
I would purchase top-quality PC2-5400 and run 1:1 ratio of memory timing. You could then still select any FSB from the stock 200MHz up to ~333MHz (woohoo! 3GHz!) if you became inclined to experiment with that...
More memory bandwidth than CPU bandwidth is not overly useful beyond posting quite impressive scores in memory bandwidth benchmarks.
Hey you're U.K. right? We also live under the protection of the Crown here in Canada.
You can buy a really very nice big house in London, Ontario for ~$150,000 bucks - which is only about 70,000 pounds sterling I think. U.K. people could live like kings in Canada; everything seems very expensive back home in the mother country.
Well I just priced up your rig and I got ~400 pounds sterling (give or take) so that's not bad, pretty close really.
But things are CHEAP in Toronto right now, CPUs and memory both, hallelujah.
Regards

 

[Brevik]

Woo! Thanks guys, was getting a little paranoid after having a similar experience on another tech forum...

Thanks for the hint on topic titles too.

I've also been recommended the Asus P5B E by the guys at YoYotech.co.uk, and CustomPC are recommending the Abit FP-IN9 (in the budget vs High-End article in this months mag), so I'm still umming and ahhing about the motherboard, but likely to go for the DS3 - hopefully this is the right choice?

I'll stick with the PSU for now.

The memory I'd chosen is dirt cheap at the moment, so I was going to stick with that too.

Yep, The_OGS, overclocking it to E6600 speeds is the plan.

...and yep, I'm from the UK, where the house prices are absolutely ridiculous - I think the positive equity built up in our house would buy a decent sized house in the US or Canada. A tiny, tiny 2 bedroomed house in Swindon (the most average of average towns in the UK) costs around £120,000. That's 12' wide, by about 20' long on 2 floors - mid terrace. 8O

We've got a much bigger place than that now, but if you can imagine our mortgage, then you'll understand why I'm on such a tight budget for a new PC...

 

[foxrocks]

The build looks solid, I guess the only thing to mention is whether the mobo budget can stretch to £75-85 in order to accomodate a P35 chipset board (something like the Gigabyte DS3R or Asus P5K), which would be a bit more future-proof.

 

[haywood]

I have the P5B-E and it OC's like crazy though I keep my E6400 at a comfortable and cool 2.8. No complaints from me plus the latest BIOS changes the NB strap to 1333 so it will work with the new Intel chips coming out this fall.