New Gaming PC

[wozza100]

Hi Guys,

I want to build a new gaming pc, my budget is around £500-600

I have been thinking of going for

Geforce 8800gt graphics Card (are all the makes of the card the same ?)

2 Gig of Ram ( does it matter which make ?)

Intel E6600 chip

I really need help on what Motherboard to go with ?

Western Digital SATA II 500GIG HD

I have a monitor already so dont need that !

Any suggestions welcome

Thanks Guys

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums mate

well instead of E6600, get E6750 its cheaper and faster (the reason is that intel wants its customers to buy 1333MHZ CPUs instead of 1066MHZ CPUs with the exception of Q6600)

For RAM, well it depends that u want to OC or not , if u want to OC then get a DDR2 800 RAM with 4-4-4-x or lower timings, if u dont want to OC, then the timings doesnt matter

for motherboard go for ASUS P5K-E (Get the WIFI version if u want to OC,because it has a better cooling compared to P5K-E no WIFI)
or GIGABYTE P35 DS3R or ABIT IP35 PRO

 

[rgeist554]

**Edit** Maziar beat me too it!

Video Card - Good. No, Choose XFX or EVGA if you can. They offer the best warranty and coverage.

RAM - Just go for Dual Channel OCZ, Crucial, etc. If you're going to OC then look at the specs on the RAM and make sure they have fast timings (4-4-4-12) is pretty good.

CPU - I suggest the E6750, it's faster and cheaper. Did you mean the Q6600? That's the quad core version which would be a little faster than the E6750 if you OC.

Motherboard - Go with Gigabyte P35-DS3L or R ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813128050 ) if you don't need SLI. If you do need SLI (a waste unless you play in really high res) go for the P35-DS4 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128064&Tpk=p35%2bds4 )

HDD - Fine. If you want a fast loading HDD for Games and OS, choose an additional 10k RPM HDD.

If you don't have a CD/DVD ROM drive, check out newegg and get something from Samsung. I think they even have a DVD Burner on sale for 32.99 + free 3 day shipping.

 

[wozza100]

Thanks Guys, what kinda psu would this need, also any suggestions on a no frill case

 

[rgeist554]

If you want the bare minimum - I'd say 450-550W. If you want to build for the future and maybe re-use the PSU - I'd go for 650-750W (This also covers you if you want to SLI).

As for the brand of PSU, I personally suggest any of the following: Corsair, Seasonic, or PC Power & Cooling.

Here's the list of PSU's ranked by tier: (Stay in the top 3 if you want a quality system) http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon

 

[aevm]

wozza100, if your monitor is 24" or bigger get an Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus motherboard, this way you can add a second 8800GT later when you have saved more money. If not, GA-P35-DS3L or GA-P35-DS3R will be great.

I'd pick one of these PSUs:

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V 610W Power Supply, £65.00
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-PP

Corsair VX 550W PSU, £55.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132563

If your monitor is big (i.e. you may want SLI later) get the Silencer. If not, the VX will be fine.

Case: Antec 900 is perfect for this sort of thing, it will fit the Silencer and cool the 8800GT properly.

 

[Maziar]

Agreed with aevm however, OCZ STEALTHXSTREAM 600W is a very nice and silent PSU too

 

[aevm]

Yup. It's also a bit cheaper and a bit smaller than the Silencer, which means it fits in more cases.

 

[wozza100]

having trouble tracking down a xfx 8800gt, I am in the uk any sugestions ?

I can find a msi 8800gt is this a good make/brand ?

 

[aevm]

I think MSI will be OK.

You should know that the 8800GT comes with the fans running at 29% by default, and they stay that way even when the card gets very hot. There's a bug in nVidia's drivers that causes that. Apparently there are third-party programs that can take care of that. Sorry, I don't knwo more details on it.

Or get a HR-03 GT cooler for the card, when it's available.

 

[Maziar]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1008

 

[aevm]

OK, I'm silly. I searched that site earlier today but I used "8800GT" and found nothing. I didn't think to search for "8800 GT" too.

So, they have Gainward and Gigabyte in stock. I'd trust Gigabyte. How's Gainward, is that a good brand?

 

[Maziar]

Yeah Gainward is a very good brand, but its not availabe in US