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Gaming PC for about 300-400 Pounds

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My budget is about 300-400 pounds
I want to build a computer that will be able to run Empire total war cleanly on medium settings and crysis, simply I want the best gaming PC for 300-400pounds.

I need:
1.Motherboard
2.Processor
3.RAM
4.Graphic Card
5.Power supply

Possibly new case and cooling system depending on the rest.

More about : gaming 300 400 pounds

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AMD 720 x3
Biostar TA790GX
ATi 4770
PCP&C 610w (so you can add another 4770 later)
OCZ blade 1066mhz low voltage.

that maxes out your £400 budget but it will play games fairly well and that ram will OC to 1200mhz with a 0.05v boost.

Thanks for the post I might actully get what you recommended but I got a quick question when u say "add another 4770 later" u mean having 2 the same graphic cards? Im a bit of a noob

Yeah he means having 2 of the same card. 2 cards = roughly double graphics performance, although this depends on the game. For ATI cards (like the 4770) its called crossfire, for nVidia cards its called SLI.

Helloworld98's build is about as good as you'll get for £400, i'd definately go for it. You say your a noob, but with a couple of weeks reading you'll be able to get the 2.8Ghz AMD 720x3 operating at about 3.6Ghz which gives a huge performance boost.
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emyyhh said:
Yeah he means having 2 of the same card. 2 cards = roughly double graphics performance, although this depends on the game. For ATI cards (like the 4770) its called crossfire, for nVidia cards its called SLI.

Helloworld98's build is about as good as you'll get for £400, i'd definately go for it. You say your a noob, but with a couple of weeks reading you'll be able to get the 2.8Ghz AMD 720x3 operating at about 3.6Ghz which gives a huge performance boost.



thanks for the explonation by I got one guestion, what do u mean when you say boosting your clockspeed from 2.8ghz to 3.6ghz and im not sure what u mean by 'reading'.

I'm thinking he means overclocking the CPU, which is practically changing the default CPU clock speed to a faster one. The 720 X3 runs at 2.8GHz, but you can "overclock" it to a higher clock speed, for example 3.xx GHz which might give a peformance boost in some applications or games.

Boosting a processors clockspeed is called overclocking. So by making a 2.8Ghz chip run at 3.6Ghz, you have 'overclocked' it by 800Mhz.

People overclock to gain extra performance from chips. This can be done on a cheap(er) chip to yield £800-processor performance, or on expensive chips to set benchmark records. Many people on Toms hardware overclock, including myself.

For instance, I have a lowly dual core e5200 (2.5Ghz - £60), but it easily runs at 3.33Ghz, which is the speed of the much more expensive e8600 (3.33Ghz - £210), giving me a saving of £150. Likewise, with an i7 920 processor i have (2.66Ghz - £250) I overclocked that to 3.2Ghz, which is the same speed as the £800 i7 965.

Clearly overclocking is an attractive propect, but it isnt without risks - hence me telling you to read about for a bit before you try it, although an 800Mhz overclock on a Phenom 720 is easy.

With regard to the 4770, only one is included in the £400 price. The 4770 is a good card and will handle most games very well. You have to realise £400 is not a lot to spend on a pc, especially one used for gaming. Helloworld98 has done a good job on picking quality parts so you'll be getting a pc worth much, much more than £400 if you where to buy it on the highstreet.

emyyhh said:
Boosting a processors clockspeed is called overclocking. So by making a 2.8Ghz chip run at 3.6Ghz, you have 'overclocked' it by 800Mhz.

People overclock to gain extra performance from chips. This can be done on a cheap(er) chip to yield £800-processor performance, or on expensive chips to set benchmark records. Many people on Toms hardware overclock, including myself.

For instance, I have a lowly dual core e5200 (2.5Ghz - £60), but it easily runs at 3.33Ghz, which is the speed of the much more expensive e8600 (3.33Ghz - £210), giving me a saving of £150. Likewise, with an i7 920 processor i have (2.66Ghz - £250) I overclocked that to 3.2Ghz, which is the same speed as the £800 i7 965.

Clearly overclocking is an attractive propect, but it isnt without risks - hence me telling you to read about for a bit before you try it, although an 800Mhz overclock on a Phenom 720 is easy.

With regard to the 4770, only one is included in the £400 price. The 4770 is a good card and will handle most games very well. You have to realise £400 is not a lot to spend on a pc, especially one used for gaming. Helloworld98 has done a good job on picking quality parts so you'll be getting a pc worth much, much more than £400 if you where to buy it on the highstreet.


Thanks I feel much more confident now, as you said I will read about overclocking.

K1ash3r said:
I was thinkinh wouldnt it be better to get a dual core and a better graphics card?


An AMD dual core would be cheaper than a tri or quad core, but not nearly as good a chip. Processor speed does not solely depend on the Mhz or Ghz rating, the internal structure of the processor, called the 'architecture' also has a big say in the overall speed of the chip.

For instance, an old Pentium D 960, a dual core chip running at 3.6Ghz sounds pretty meaty on paper. However, put it up against a newer core 2 duo chip (dual core also) and the core 2 will leave it in the dust, despite having a much lower clock rating. This is because the architecture of the chip is different, and much more efficient at processing commands.

In order to buy an AMD dual core processor, you would need to get one from the Athlon X2 range, which has now been superseded by the Phenom 2 range of processors. The Phenom 2 offers a much more efficent architecture than the Athlon series, and so despite costing more, is a much better purchase. The chip helloworld_98 suggested was a chip from the Phenom 2 range.

If you wanted to go Intel, then you'd have to settle with a dual core. Intels dual core chips are fantastic though, and speed-wise, when overclocked give even the best AMD chips a run for their money. One such setup could be:

Biostar TPower I45 ~ £100
Intel E7400 ~ £83
Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ~ £37
PC power and Cooling 610W PSU ~ £68
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB ~ £115

This build brings you to £403, but that was using google to quickly find prices, the 4870 was found at overclockers.co.uk, and is a very good price for such a good card. The E7400 will overclock very well on the Biostar motherboard, and Corsair RAM is renowned for being good quality.

Choosing between each setup is up to you, they are both very good value for money.

emyyhh said:
An AMD dual core would be cheaper than a tri or quad core, but not nearly as good a chip. Processor speed does not solely depend on the Mhz or Ghz rating, the internal structure of the processor, called the 'architecture' also has a big say in the overall speed of the chip.

For instance, an old Pentium D 960, a dual core chip running at 3.6Ghz sounds pretty meaty on paper. However, put it up against a newer core 2 duo chip (dual core also) and the core 2 will leave it in the dust, despite having a much lower clock rating. This is because the architecture of the chip is different, and much more efficient at processing commands.

In order to buy an AMD dual core processor, you would need to get one from the Athlon X2 range, which has now been superseded by the Phenom 2 range of processors. The Phenom 2 offers a much more efficent architecture than the Athlon series, and so despite costing more, is a much better purchase. The chip helloworld_98 suggested was a chip from the Phenom 2 range.

If you wanted to go Intel, then you'd have to settle with a dual core. Intels dual core chips are fantastic though, and speed-wise, when overclocked give even the best AMD chips a run for their money. One such setup could be:

Biostar TPower I45 ~ £100
Intel E7400 ~ £83
Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ~ £37
PC power and Cooling 610W PSU ~ £68
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB ~ £115

This build brings you to £403, but that was using google to quickly find prices, the 4870 was found at overclockers.co.uk, and is a very good price for such a good card. The E7400 will overclock very well on the Biostar motherboard, and Corsair RAM is renowned for being good quality.

Choosing between each setup is up to you, they are both very good value for money.




Which build would you say is better for current and future gaming for example Empire total war, Far Cry 2, Crysis, Fallout3, Dead Space, GTA 4, Bioshock, CODWAW and im not sure but isnt it better to crossfire 4770s than getting a 4870 and future games will run on multi cores.

current games will already run well on a multi GPU setup.

and the 720 BE would be more future resistant because it has the extra core, and for now the AV will just run off the spare core unless you have one of those fancy NPU cards.

Helloworld_98 said:
current games will already run well on a multi GPU setup.

and the 720 BE would be more future resistant because it has the extra core, and for now the AV will just run off the spare core unless you have one of those fancy NPU cards.


So which build would you use and whats a AV and NPU

Helloworld_98 said:
current games will already run well on a multi GPU setup.

and the 720 BE would be more future resistant because it has the extra core, and for now the AV will just run off the spare core unless you have one of those fancy NPU cards.


So which build would you use and whats a AV and NPU

K1ash3r said:
Which build would you say is better for current and future gaming for example Empire total war, Far Cry 2, Crysis, Fallout3, Dead Space, GTA 4, Bioshock, CODWAW and im not sure but isnt it better to crossfire 4770s than getting a 4870 and future games will run on multi cores.


Both builds will be capable of running all modern games at varying graphics settings. The only games that will tax the 4870 are crysis, empire TW, GTA 4 (more CPU bound though) and possibly Far Cry 2. You dont mention your monitor resolution, but at 1600x1050 all games will be playable.

In terms of future proofing the system, i think its a tough call. Niether chip is high-end, but both are very capable. The Intel chip will overclock higher, whilst the AMD chip has the advantage of an extra core, which will come in handy should you multitask a lot, or video encode.

Crossfired 4770's will outperform a single 4870, but your original budget does not stretch enough for 2 4770's. I have no idea of what money you will have available in the future, and so can only advise on what you have said. If your gaming resolution is lower than 1600x1050 i'd go the 4870 route. If higher, then the 4770 route, and add another at a later date. I only say this due to the extra vRAM you'll have from 2 cards. If you can see yourself having more cash in the next 6 months or so, then the price of the 4870 will fall furthur still, enabling a nice crossfire setup. To make a worthwhile upgrade from 2 x 4770's, you'd need to replace both cards, rather than one from the 4870, which will last you fine for 6 months assuming your not gaming on a 22'' + monitor. The Biostar can also accept Intels quad-core chips should you wish to upgrade at a later date.

You have to remember that you are wanting a high-end gaming setup for £400, which simply doesnt happen. An i7 motherboard can cost in excess of £300 on its own, so unless you can afford to spend pretty much double your budget, then you are at the mercy of the fast-paced pc world. Both suggested setups represent the very best you'll get for £400, and both setups will run the latest games, and, with some cheap(ish) upgrades, will continue to do so for the next year or so.

I'd go the Intel route, get the 4870, and in 6 months time upgrade the CPU to a quad, which will be cheap by then, and either crossfire another 4870 (if low res) or sell it and buy a new card (58xx series or GTX 3xx series) if you game at a high resolution, or can't live without AA in games.

emyyhh said:
Both builds will be capable of running all modern games at varying graphics settings. The only games that will tax the 4870 are crysis, empire TW, GTA 4 (more CPU bound though) and possibly Far Cry 2. You dont mention your monitor resolution, but at 1600x1050 all games will be playable.

In terms of future proofing the system, i think its a tough call. Niether chip is high-end, but both are very capable. The Intel chip will overclock higher, whilst the AMD chip has the advantage of an extra core, which will come in handy should you multitask a lot, or video encode.

Crossfired 4770's will outperform a single 4870, but your original budget does not stretch enough for 2 4770's. I have no idea of what money you will have available in the future, and so can only advise on what you have said. If your gaming resolution is lower than 1600x1050 i'd go the 4870 route. If higher, then the 4770 route, and add another at a later date. I only say this due to the extra vRAM you'll have from 2 cards. If you can see yourself having more cash in the next 6 months or so, then the price of the 4870 will fall furthur still, enabling a nice crossfire setup. To make a worthwhile upgrade from 2 x 4770's, you'd need to replace both cards, rather than one from the 4870, which will last you fine for 6 months assuming your not gaming on a 22'' + monitor. The Biostar can also accept Intels quad-core chips should you wish to upgrade at a later date.

You have to remember that you are wanting a high-end gaming setup for £400, which simply doesnt happen. An i7 motherboard can cost in excess of £300 on its own, so unless you can afford to spend pretty much double your budget, then you are at the mercy of the fast-paced pc world. Both suggested setups represent the very best you'll get for £400, and both setups will run the latest games, and, with some cheap(ish) upgrades, will continue to do so for the next year or so.

I'd go the Intel route, get the 4870, and in 6 months time upgrade the CPU to a quad, which will be cheap by then, and either crossfire another 4870 (if low res) or sell it and buy a new card (58xx series or GTX 3xx series) if you game at a high resolution, or can't live without AA in games.




I was thinking and as you said

I might take the Intel route you suggested get the 4870, upgrade CPU to guad in 6 months and either corssfire 4870 or buy a new card

OR I was thinking if I raise my budget a bit go the Intel route as well but instead of getting 4870 now i could get 2 4770s NOW or perhaps ONE graphics card better than 4870. I dont know if that makes much sense as I will be planning on upgrading my GPU later on. and I have 19" monitor by the way.

and about the CPU as I am not experience with overclocking and have never done it i was thinking about Some other Intel dual core over the E7400, and if I do overclock the E7400 will there be a problem upgrading to quad and will the motherboard you suggested be compatible with the quad core

K1ash3r said:
I was thinking and as you said

I might take the Intel route you suggested get the 4870, upgrade CPU to guad in 6 months and either corssfire 4870 or buy a new card

OR I was thinking if I raise my budget a bit go the Intel route as well but instead of getting 4870 now i could get 2 4770s NOW or perhaps ONE graphics card better than 4870. I dont know if that makes much sense as I will be planning on upgrading my GPU later on. and I have 19" monitor by the way.

and about the CPU as I am not experience with overclocking and have never done it i was thinking about Some other Intel dual core over the E7400, and if I do overclock the E7400 will there be a problem upgrading to quad and will the motherboard you suggested be compatible with the quad core


If you have a bit of extra cash then i'd get a 1Gb 4870 rather than 2 x 4770's. My resoning is because your monitor has a resuoltion of 1280x1024, which isnt enough to fully tax crossfired 4770's, and both card setups will be fine for gaming at the resolution. The extra 512Mb on the 1Gb 4870 will mean you can crank up the AA without sacrificing too many frames. My 9800GX2 is simply 2 8800GTS 512Mb cards joined together. It games really well, but its not too fond of AA in new games. If I had a single GTX285 though it'd fare much better despite the total ram being the same.

The 1Gb 4870 is only about £20 more than the 512mb version i suggested. If you have more cash still then you could go for an E8400 (£150). Dont bother with the E7500 because despite it having a higher stock clockspeed than the E7400, they'll overclock to pretty much the same speed. You could also look at the cheaper core 2 quads (Q8x00), although they wont overclock as well as the duals, and unless your running a crazy GPU setup (SLI 285's) then they get the same frame rates as the quads. The quads may be more future proof though. The Biostar motherboard will accept quads and overclocking will have no effect on compatibility. Overclocking an E7400 to 3.2Ghz is really easy, and will be more than enough for even the newset games at your resolution.

If you are planning on overclocking then a decent 3rd party cooler is a must. The Artic cooling freezer 7 pro is very good (£20), as is the Thermalright Ultra (£35). That would be the best use of any spare cash you have. When looking for coolers remember that the CPU socket is LGA775 (for Intel core 2 duals and quads). A new and fast hard drive, like the Samsung Spinpoint F1 will also bring a nice performance boost to your pc.

emyyhh said:
If you have a bit of extra cash then i'd get a 1Gb 4870 rather than 2 x 4770's. My resoning is because your monitor has a resuoltion of 1280x1024, which isnt enough to fully tax crossfired 4770's, and both card setups will be fine for gaming at the resolution. The extra 512Mb on the 1Gb 4870 will mean you can crank up the AA without sacrificing too many frames. My 9800GX2 is simply 2 8800GTS 512Mb cards joined together. It games really well, but its not too fond of AA in new games. If I had a single GTX285 though it'd fare much better despite the total ram being the same.

The 1Gb 4870 is only about £20 more than the 512mb version i suggested. If you have more cash still then you could go for an E8400 (£150). Dont bother with the E7500 because despite it having a higher stock clockspeed than the E7400, they'll overclock to pretty much the same speed. You could also look at the cheaper core 2 quads (Q8x00), although they wont overclock as well as the duals, and unless your running a crazy GPU setup (SLI 285's) then they get the same frame rates as the quads. The quads may be more future proof though. The Biostar motherboard will accept quads and overclocking will have no effect on compatibility. Overclocking an E7400 to 3.2Ghz is really easy, and will be more than enough for even the newset games at your resolution.

If you are planning on overclocking then a decent 3rd party cooler is a must. The Artic cooling freezer 7 pro is very good (£20), as is the Thermalright Ultra (£35). That would be the best use of any spare cash you have. When looking for coolers remember that the CPU socket is LGA775 (for Intel core 2 duals and quads). A new and fast hard drive, like the Samsung Spinpoint F1 will also bring a nice performance boost to your pc.


Thanks so from what Iv learned this is what Ill do

Intel Dual Core E7400 (Since you say its very easy to overlock and Id rather get this thatn E8400 as I will be upgrading to Quad later)
Biostar TPower I45 ( Since its east to overclock with and compatoble with Quad as i will be upgrading later and wont have to buy new Moteherboard)
Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ( Because you say its good qualit =])
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB (If I crossfire this one or getter better single graphic card, do you think I will have to make any changes to my 19" monitor)
PC power and Cooling 610W PSU ( Is this too much unless Ill be crossfire or getting better graphics card)
+ Artic cooling freezer 7 pro OR Thermalright Ultra because of overclocking

and which brand do you recommend for the 1GB 4870 keeping the price in mind?

and finally whats the cheapest case i can get with the 'see through glass thing on the side that lights up' that will fit all of this.

Do you think this is as good as it can get?


Gaming Authority

K1ash3r said:
My budget is about 300-400 pounds
I want to build a computer that will be able to run Empire total war cleanly on medium settings and crysis, simply I want the best gaming PC for 300-400pounds.

I need:
1.Motherboard
2.Processor
3.RAM
4.Graphic Card
5.Power supply

Possibly new case and cooling system depending on the rest.


Lose the case and monitor in this build and it's right about in your price range.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854 £46.99 inc vat
Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - No PSU

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159 £45.00 inc vat
OCZ Stealth Xtream 500W PSU - 1x PCI-E 6/8pin, 2x SATA 12cm Fan

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB... £67.99 inc VAT
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164298 £92.99 inc vat Free Delivery
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz Socket 775 1066FSB 3MB L2 Cache OEM Processor

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/105994 £16.35 inc vat
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164355 £109.99 inc vat Free Delivery
PNY GTS250 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130429 £37.49 inc vat
Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Kit CL5 1.9V

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735 £37.60inc vat
Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATAII 16MB Cache 7200 RPM - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999 £15.99 inc vat
LG GH22NS40 22X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM Black Bare Drive - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149940 £80.49 inc vat Free Delivery
Acer V193WAB 19" TFT Monitor 1440x900 2000:1 300cd/m2 5ms VGA Black 3 Years

Total: £550.88 inc vat

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.... <---Save your money (o/s), and dl the 64 bit version of Windows 7

emyyhh said:
If you have a bit of extra cash then i'd get a 1Gb 4870 rather than 2 x 4770's. My resoning is because your monitor has a resuoltion of 1280x1024, which isnt enough to fully tax crossfired 4770's, and both card setups will be fine for gaming at the resolution. The extra 512Mb on the 1Gb 4870 will mean you can crank up the AA without sacrificing too many frames. My 9800GX2 is simply 2 8800GTS 512Mb cards joined together. It games really well, but its not too fond of AA in new games. If I had a single GTX285 though it'd fare much better despite the total ram being the same.

The 1Gb 4870 is only about £20 more than the 512mb version i suggested. If you have more cash still then you could go for an E8400 (£150). Dont bother with the E7500 because despite it having a higher stock clockspeed than the E7400, they'll overclock to pretty much the same speed. You could also look at the cheaper core 2 quads (Q8x00), although they wont overclock as well as the duals, and unless your running a crazy GPU setup (SLI 285's) then they get the same frame rates as the quads. The quads may be more future proof though. The Biostar motherboard will accept quads and overclocking will have no effect on compatibility. Overclocking an E7400 to 3.2Ghz is really easy, and will be more than enough for even the newset games at your resolution.

If you are planning on overclocking then a decent 3rd party cooler is a must. The Artic cooling freezer 7 pro is very good (£20), as is the Thermalright Ultra (£35). That would be the best use of any spare cash you have. When looking for coolers remember that the CPU socket is LGA775 (for Intel core 2 duals and quads). A new and fast hard drive, like the Samsung Spinpoint F1 will also bring a nice performance boost to your pc.




Thanks so from what Iv learned this is what Ill do

Intel Dual Core E7400 (Since you say its very easy to overlock and Id rather get this thatn E8400 as I will be upgrading to Quad later)
Biostar TPower I45 ( Since its east to overclock with and compatoble with Quad as i will be upgrading later and wont have to buy new Moteherboard)
Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ( Because you say its good qualit =])
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB (If I crossfire this one or getter better single graphic card, do you think I will have to make any changes to my 19" monitor and which options better)
PC power and Cooling 610W PSU ( Is this too much unless Ill be crossfire or getting better graphics card)
+ Artic cooling freezer 7 pro OR Thermalright Ultra because of overclocking

and which brand do you recommend for the 1GB 4870 and PSU keeping the price in mind?

and finally whats the cheapest case i can get with the 'see through glass thing on the side that lights up' that will fit all of this.

Do you think this is as good as it can get?

You have recommend me a Hard drive ( I also have 600gb external HD will it make any diff if I play games from internal or external hardrive?) but i wanna ask you what optical drive would you recommend it dosent have to Write just Read as I have a laptop for that and overall I wont be using it toomuch cause Ill be playing games without CDs

Some more questions:
2x 4770 512MB VS 1x 4870 1gb VS 2x 4870 512mb

Now im getting 4870 1gb will it be better to crossfire or get a completly new graphics card in the future

K1ash3r said:
Thanks so from what Iv learned this is what Ill do

Intel Dual Core E7400 (Since you say its very easy to overlock and Id rather get this thatn E8400 as I will be upgrading to Quad later)
Biostar TPower I45 ( Since its east to overclock with and compatoble with Quad as i will be upgrading later and wont have to buy new Moteherboard)
Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ( Because you say its good qualit =])
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB (If I crossfire this one or getter better single graphic card, do you think I will have to make any changes to my 19" monitor)
PC power and Cooling 610W PSU ( Is this too much unless Ill be crossfire or getting better graphics card)
+ Artic cooling freezer 7 pro OR Thermalright Ultra because of overclocking

and which brand do you recommend for the 1GB 4870 keeping the price in mind?

and finally whats the cheapest case i can get with the 'see through glass thing on the side that lights up' that will fit all of this.

Do you think this is as good as it can get?


That all sounds good.

For the 4870, the card I suggested was made by XFX, and was listed because of its low price. IMO it doesnt matter too much what brand you buy, just go with whatever one offers what you want. The XFX one was cheap and factory overclocked, meaning it will peform slightly better than normal ones, and still come with a full warranty. Factory overclocked cards tend to be selected from better quality parts as well.

The PSU brand is 'PC power and Cooling' - thats the name of the company. 610W is enough to support sli or crossfire as long as you dont stick 2+ monster cards in it.

I wouldn't bother crossfiring the 4870. Its a really good card, and at the resolution you play will not be heavily stressed for a while yet. If you get another, then i'd also get a larger screen - 20''+. Although higher resolutions place increasingly large workloads on graphics cards.

Case-wise, the cheapest one i can find (that ive heard of) is the NZXT Lexa, which i imagine will stretch your budget a lot. I also dont know how good that case is, so i'd read some reviews before getting it. The best cheap case i can think of is the Antec 300 (£48), which may not have the see-through side panel, but does offer excellent air cooling. Thats the one i'd go for. If you can afford to spend £80, the the antec 900 has a clear side panel, and is an excellent case. Cathodes to light the inside can be bought for less than £10 from virtually all online pc stores.

For not far off £400, i think thats as good as its going to get.

emyyhh said:
That all sounds good.

For the 4870, the card I suggested was made by XFX, and was listed because of its low price. IMO it doesnt matter too much what brand you buy, just go with whatever one offers what you want. The XFX one was cheap and factory overclocked, meaning it will peform slightly better than normal ones, and still come with a full warranty. Factory overclocked cards tend to be selected from better quality parts as well.

The PSU brand is 'PC power and Cooling' - thats the name of the company. 610W is enough to support sli or crossfire as long as you dont stick 2+ monster cards in it.

I wouldn't bother crossfiring the 4870. Its a really good card, and at the resolution you play will not be heavily stressed for a while yet. If you get another, then i'd also get a larger screen - 20''+. Although higher resolutions place increasingly large workloads on graphics cards.

Case-wise, the cheapest one i can find (that ive heard of) is the NZXT Lexa, which i imagine will stretch your budget a lot. I also dont know how good that case is, so i'd read some reviews before getting it. The best cheap case i can think of is the Antec 300 (£48), which may not have the see-through side panel, but does offer excellent air cooling. Thats the one i'd go for. If you can afford to spend £80, the the antec 900 has a clear side panel, and is an excellent case. Cathodes to light the inside can be bought for less than £10 from virtually all online pc stores.

For not far off £400, i think thats as good as its going to get.


Thanks for that

You have recommend me a Hard drive ( I also have 600gb external HD will it make any diff if I play games from internal or external hardrive?) but i wanna ask you what optical drive would you recommend it dosent have to Write just Read as I have a laptop for that and overall I wont be using it toomuch cause Ill be playing games without CDs

and I was jsut wondering is 2x 4770 512mb better than 1x 4870 1gb

and like you said when i upgrade ill sell 4870 1gb and get better and possibly crossfire than in future.

K1ash3r said:
Thanks for that

You have recommend me a Hard drive ( I also have 600gb external HD will it make any diff if I play games from internal or external hardrive?) but i wanna ask you what optical drive would you recommend it dosent have to Write just Read as I have a laptop for that and overall I wont be using it toomuch cause Ill be playing games without CDs

and I was jsut wondering is 2x 4770 512mb better than 1x 4870 1gb

and like you said when i upgrade ill sell 4870 1gb and get better and possibly crossfire than in future.



The external drive will likely be slower than an internal one. Depending on how old it is, it will either use a SATA or PATA interface. SATA is faster. I have an extrenal PATA drive, and its fine for data/media storage, but will load levels in games slower than my internal SATA drive. To be honest if your stuck at £400, then it wouldnt concern me much. Just get the pc up and running first, and then add to it later on. Samsung spinpoints and Western Digital drives are both good upgrades.

CD/DVD drives cost peanuts now, so just take your pick. A brand-name DVD+/- RW drive is about £12. How exactly will you be playing games without cd's? ;) 

Sticking with, or crossfiring the 4870 depends on how much cash you have. A decent new card is likely to set you back about £300, which if you care about gaming at high res with max graphics, would be a nice upgrade. If your not fussed then a second 4870 will boost frame rates once the first starts to struggle, buts thats quite a while off yet.

emyyhh said:
The external drive will likely be slower than an internal one. Depending on how old it is, it will either use a SATA or PATA interface. SATA is faster. I have an extrenal PATA drive, and its fine for data/media storage, but will load levels in games slower than my internal SATA drive. To be honest if your stuck at £400, then it wouldnt concern me much. Just get the pc up and running first, and then add to it later on. Samsung spinpoints and Western Digital drives are both good upgrades.

CD/DVD drives cost peanuts now, so just take your pick. A brand-name DVD+/- RW drive is about £12. How exactly will you be playing games without cd's? ;) 

Sticking with, or crossfiring the 4870 depends on how much cash you have. A decent new card is likely to set you back about £300, which if you care about gaming at high res with max graphics, would be a nice upgrade. If your not fussed then a second 4870 will boost frame rates once the first starts to struggle, buts thats quite a while off yet.


Im not sure if my External HD is SATA or PATA all i know is that is "Mastor Basics External Desktop Hard Drive 640Gb at a high speed of 7200 RPM'

Ok,thats whay I was a bit more concerned with HD than optical drive because I dont usually play original games and all my pirate games will probobly be found on my hard drive

and dont I need an internal HD even if its 40gb or less for my operating system or can I install it on my external HD.

and Id probobly will get better GPU in future

I should warn you that chances are in 6 months 775 cpu will have skyrocketed from where they are now because the reason why i5 is delayed til august is because their buyers needed to get rid of their stock.

And e-tailers know that they can make more money off of an old socket CPU since people will pay more to keep their tech alive.

also, what costs more? a £220+ quad core or a £80 gfx card.

oh and an AV is an antivirus and an NPU is a Network Processing Unit.

Helloworld_98 said:
I should warn you that chances are in 6 months 775 cpu will have skyrocketed from where they are now because the reason why i5 is delayed til august is because their buyers needed to get rid of their stock.

And e-tailers know that they can make more money off of an old socket CPU since people will pay more to keep their tech alive.

also, what costs more? a £220+ quad core or a £80 gfx card.

oh and an AV is an antivirus and an NPU is a Network Processing Unit.


IM not sure what you just said there sorry.

emyyhh said:
The external drive will likely be slower than an internal one. Depending on how old it is, it will either use a SATA or PATA interface. SATA is faster. I have an extrenal PATA drive, and its fine for data/media storage, but will load levels in games slower than my internal SATA drive. To be honest if your stuck at £400, then it wouldnt concern me much. Just get the pc up and running first, and then add to it later on. Samsung spinpoints and Western Digital drives are both good upgrades.

CD/DVD drives cost peanuts now, so just take your pick. A brand-name DVD+/- RW drive is about £12. How exactly will you be playing games without cd's? ;) 

Sticking with, or crossfiring the 4870 depends on how much cash you have. A decent new card is likely to set you back about £300, which if you care about gaming at high res with max graphics, would be a nice upgrade. If your not fussed then a second 4870 will boost frame rates once the first starts to struggle, buts thats quite a while off yet.

Im not sure if my External HD is SATA or PATA all i know is that is "Mastor Basics External Desktop Hard Drive 640Gb at a high speed of 7200 RPM'

Ok,thats whay I was a bit more concerned with HD than optical drive because I dont usually play original games and all my pirate games will probobly be found on my hard drive

and dont I need an internal HD even if its 40gb or less for my operating system or can I install it on my external HD.

and Id probobly will get better GPU in future

^ your HDD is most likely SATA because I haven't come across any 640GB IDE drive's.

what I was trying to say in my previous post is that if you went with the intel build and upgraded to a Quad core later it would cost over £600 in total, if you went with the amd build and added another 4770 later, it would only cost £480 in total.

Helloworld_98 said:
^ your HDD is most likely SATA because I haven't come across any 640GB IDE drive's.

what I was trying to say in my previous post is that if you went with the intel build and upgraded to a Quad core later it would cost over £600 in total, if you went with the amd build and added another 4770 later, it would only cost £480 in total.


Well that sounds much simpler. The reason Im going with Intel because is because my thinking is prurly based on upgrading in the future. I prefer quad over tri and would like a better GPU system in future. In the future money wont me such a problem for me. I really appriciate your build and I think its very good. The best choice for me would simply be the Intel build

emyyhh said:
The external drive will likely be slower than an internal one. Depending on how old it is, it will either use a SATA or PATA interface. SATA is faster. I have an extrenal PATA drive, and its fine for data/media storage, but will load levels in games slower than my internal SATA drive. To be honest if your stuck at £400, then it wouldnt concern me much. Just get the pc up and running first, and then add to it later on. Samsung spinpoints and Western Digital drives are both good upgrades.

CD/DVD drives cost peanuts now, so just take your pick. A brand-name DVD+/- RW drive is about £12. How exactly will you be playing games without cd's? ;) 

Sticking with, or crossfiring the 4870 depends on how much cash you have. A decent new card is likely to set you back about £300, which if you care about gaming at high res with max graphics, would be a nice upgrade. If your not fussed then a second 4870 will boost frame rates once the first starts to struggle, buts thats quite a while off yet.



Ok,thats whay I was a bit more concerned with HD than optical drive because I dont usually play original games and all my pirate games will probobly be found on my hard drive

and dont I need an internal HD even if its 40gb or less for my operating system or can I install it on my external HD.

and Id probobly will get better GPU in future

I don't think you get it.

As soon as a CPU is discontinued the price at retailers will go down a bit just before it's discontinued and about two weeks after, then the price will go up severely as they know people will still pay to keep old tech alive. then about 2-3years after that when cpu's are an awful lot more powerful and they haven't sold it they drop the price to about 30% of what it was before.

Now the important thing you need to know is that i5 is coming in August and the Core 2 line will be discontinued then, so you'll have until august to upgrade your cpu, or 3 months to put it in better terms, while you will only gain in video encoding because the 720 BE build will have quite a bit more GPU power, about 75% of two 4870's.

Helloworld_98 said:
I don't think you get it.

As soon as a CPU is discontinued the price at retailers will go down a bit just before it's discontinued and about two weeks after, then the price will go up severely as they know people will still pay to keep old tech alive. then about 2-3years after that when cpu's are an awful lot more powerful and they haven't sold it they drop the price to about 30% of what it was before.

Now the important thing you need to know is that i5 is coming in August and the Core 2 line will be discontinued then, so you'll have until august to upgrade your cpu, or 3 months to put it in better terms, while you will only gain in video encoding because the 720 BE build will have quite a bit more GPU power, about 75% of two 4870's.


Your right I dont think I get it, what do u mean by the terms discontinued and 'keep old tech alive'

Helloworld_98 said:
^ discontinued - to not create a product ever again.

'keep old tech alive' so you don't have to buy a whole new PC.


ima bit confused so your saying "..people will still pay so they dont have to buy a whole new PC'

IM not sure i get it

Helloworld_98 said:
^ discontinued - to not create a product ever again.

'keep old tech alive' so you don't have to buy a whole new PC.


ima bit confused so your saying "..people will still pay so they dont have to buy a whole new PC'

IM not sure i get it

Helloworld_98 said:
^ discontinued - to not create a product ever again.

'keep old tech alive' so you don't have to buy a whole new PC.


ima bit confused so your saying "..people will still pay so they dont have to buy a whole new PC'

IM not sure i get it

I don't know how you can't get it.

People will pay say £150 for a CPU which costed £100 a month before it was discontinued if it can keep their PC running current apps a little bit longer because it saves them money from buying a whole new PC.

Helloworld_98 said:
I don't know how you can't get it.

People will pay say £150 for a CPU which costed £100 a month before it was discontinued if it can keep their PC running current apps a little bit longer because it saves them money from buying a whole new PC.


Is this what your saying

lets say thers a CPU1 for 100$
THAN CPU2 comes along which costs 300$ and CPU1 is discontinued and price of it is raised to 150$
Some guy comes along and says 'hmm i wanna buy a computer I wont buy the CPU2 for 300$ because its too much SO ill by the CPU1 for 150$ which can run my current applications.

Did I get it right

no,

CPU1 costs $150 since it's just been discontinued and replaced by CPU2 which requires a different chipset and/or socket on the motherboard and other things.

Customer has a PC which already supports CPU1 but doesn't have enough money at the moment to buy a new CPU2 based build, but he needs CPU1's power for what he does. So Customer buys CPU1 while saving up for a CPU2 based build so he can perform the apps he needs the CPU power for.

Helloworld_98 said:
no,

CPU1 costs $150 since it's just been discontinued and replaced by CPU2 which requires a different chipset and/or socket on the motherboard and other things.

Customer has a PC which already supports CPU1 but doesn't have enough money at the moment to buy a new CPU2 based build, but he needs CPU1's power for what he does. So Customer buys CPU1 while saving up for a CPU2 based build so he can perform the apps he needs the CPU power for.


yes but if I buy CPU1(e7400) and in 6 months upgrade to CPU2(quad) i wont have to buy new motherboard or anything i can just get the CPU2 which is compatibel with my CPU1 Motherboard.

emyyhh said:
The external drive will likely be slower than an internal one. Depending on how old it is, it will either use a SATA or PATA interface. SATA is faster. I have an extrenal PATA drive, and its fine for data/media storage, but will load levels in games slower than my internal SATA drive. To be honest if your stuck at £400, then it wouldnt concern me much. Just get the pc up and running first, and then add to it later on. Samsung spinpoints and Western Digital drives are both good upgrades.

CD/DVD drives cost peanuts now, so just take your pick. A brand-name DVD+/- RW drive is about £12. How exactly will you be playing games without cd's? ;) 

Sticking with, or crossfiring the 4870 depends on how much cash you have. A decent new card is likely to set you back about £300, which if you care about gaming at high res with max graphics, would be a nice upgrade. If your not fussed then a second 4870 will boost frame rates once the first starts to struggle, buts thats quite a while off yet.


Right, so this is what I came up with

MOBO: Biostar TPower I45 ~ £100
CPU: Intel E7400 ~ £83
RAM: Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ~ £37
PSU: PC power and Cooling 610W PSU ~ £68
GPU: XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB ~ £135
CASE: Antec 300 ~ £48
HD: Wester Digital Caviar Blue 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache ~ £35 ?????
OD: LG 22x DVD +/- RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter ~ £20
3rd part coller: Artic cooling freezer 7 pro ~ £20 ???????

Operating System:??

1.So,about my HD is it really necessery to get it or can I use my External HD im preety sure its SATA and will there be a problem installing my operating system on external HD

2.Is the cooler necessey (I will be overlocking)

3.What operating system do you recommend ( i actully have a copy of XP pro on a CD if I can find it)

Helloworld_98 said:
no,

CPU1 costs $150 since it's just been discontinued and replaced by CPU2 which requires a different chipset and/or socket on the motherboard and other things.

Customer has a PC which already supports CPU1 but doesn't have enough money at the moment to buy a new CPU2 based build, but he needs CPU1's power for what he does. So Customer buys CPU1 while saving up for a CPU2 based build so he can perform the apps he needs the CPU power for.



yes but if I buy CPU1(e7400) and in 6 months upgrade to CPU2(quad) i wont have to buy new motherboard or anything i can just get the CPU2 which is compatibel with my CPU1 Motherboard.

or if that dosent make sense, what if i said ill upgrade my CPU in 2+ years, and just upgrade my GPU cause i dont multitask and I dont use a AV so quad isnt a must for me.

My old PC died on me (PSU died I think) and I was going to build a very similar system. I have some parts I can salvage from my old PC (the optical drives and the hard disk) I'm assuming I can just put them in and it will work???

I was looking to purchase:

MOBO: Biostar TPower I45 ~ £100 http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-001... (£111.50)
CPU: Intel E7400 ~ £83 http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin... (£90)
RAM: Corsair XMS2 (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 ~ £37 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY...
PSU: PC power and Cooling 610W PSU = £68 http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002...
GPU: XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB ~ £135 http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-120...
CASE: Antec 300 = £45 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA...

As for the fan I have an Arctic Freezer Pro 7 from my old PC (P4 3.4ghz) can I just reuse it if I apply new thermal paste???

If you could find any cheaper links and post them it would be much appreciated. (I've also heard overclockers is a very bad company to order from, so alternate links even for the same price would be great)

You really don't get it, there's a good chance that you won't be able to get a Core 2 series quad core in 6 months, or they will be prohibitively expensive.

Infact some retailers are already putting Core 2 45nm's on sale suggesting that they will be discontinued sooner rather than later.

Not to mention the P2 build might have 6 core cpu's for it for £180 I guess, 775 will never get any more than 4 cores.

@wings, 1st make your own thread, 2nd e7xxx series aren't worth it, pay the extra for an amd 7xx processor but you'll spend less on the motherboard as biostar 790GX motherboards only cost about £80. 3rd swap that ram for 1066mhz OCZ gold, they run at 2.1v and have the same latency as those dimm's, or if you want to spend a bit more get some of the 1.8v blade dimm's.

Helloworld_98 said:
You really don't get it, there's a good chance that you won't be able to get a Core 2 series quad core in 6 months, or they will be prohibitively expensive.

Infact some retailers are already putting Core 2 45nm's on sale suggesting that they will be discontinued sooner rather than later.

Not to mention the P2 build might have 6 core cpu's for it for £180 I guess, 775 will never get any more than 4 cores.

@wings, 1st make your own thread, 2nd e7xxx series aren't worth it, pay the extra for an amd 7xx processor but you'll spend less on the motherboard as biostar 790GX motherboards only cost about £80. 3rd swap that ram for 1066mhz OCZ gold, they run at 2.1v and have the same latency as those dimm's, or if you want to spend a bit more get some of the 1.8v blade dimm's.


What if I upgrade my CPU in 2years+ not necesserly from Core 2 Series or would that not make much sense cause I will have to buy a new motherboard.

Helloworld_98 said:
The socket is discontinued with the cpu series and in 2+ years you would need a new motherboard, new cpu and new ram.


Right, so what future upgrade recommendations do you have for the AMD build and would the Antec 300 be fine for the AMD build.

I also wanna ask emyyhh for advice cause hes the one that recommended the Intel build and the quad upgrade in 6months

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