Gamer PC on a budget ish lol

[tim_bethany]

Hi basically I bought a dell (fail) 3 years ago and have been up grading as I go along, I have now got to a point where everything is as good as it can be with the motherboard and cpu I have and as dell have their own brand of motherboard I’m going to start again in a new case blah blah blah

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: next month (as soon as I know what I want)

BUDGET RANGE: below 500 ish

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming, gaming and .... gaming? maybe a bit of surfing etc

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, Harddrive, graphics, sound card, RAM if i dnt have too its ddr2 so....

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: any that are trusted

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK

PARTS PREFERENCES: Im not sure if theres a difference between AMD and Intel really so I know AMD is a lot cheaper

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe but by no means a must

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: maybe/yes

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I have made my mind up on the case (armor+) unless u guys and girls think there’s a better/cheaper one

As I say above all I basically need is a PSU, CPU and motherboard and I need some advice from yous lot

This is what I’ve been looking at:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-231-GI&utm_source=froogle

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Of course I would then need sum cooling fans and replacement ram but I can get those easy

 

[Silvune]

That motherboard is DDR3 so imo it would be best to get a set of that, 2x2GB will be plenty. You can get decent 1600mhz RAM for £100, and on that site I think they have some from Patriot that's only around £85 so I'd suggest you grab that.
The Phenom II X3 720 is a decent gaming CPU, but if you are planning on playing CPU intensive games such as Crysis or GTA 4, then it would be best to go up to a quad core, probably just the £20 more expensive 955. Remember it's only necessary in any sense if you are planning to play such a game.
What graphics card are you using? That PSU is fine if you aren't going to crossfire, but there aren't many cards that I'd want to crossfire on a 500W PSU.
I don't know how many cases you've looked at, or how much the Armor+ is, but some cases that I like and/or are well liked generally are Lancool PC-K62, Coolermaster CM 690, HAF 922/932, Antec 900/902, 1200. Up to you if you want to consider them.

 

[tim_bethany]

thanks, i will look into those cases. i was thinking would it be worth downgrading the motherboard to one that dosnt have usb 3.0 and sata 3 and save me some money that way i dnt have to buy more ram either, im using a HD 3850 atm but will props upgrade because atm thats all that would fit in my dell lol, if i did want to crossfire would i just have to get a more powerfull psu? and is there the right connections on that psu?

 

[tim_bethany]

wouldnt let me edit soo..... i realised that i would still need to get diffrent ram and im now looking at these, are they just as good:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-210-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

 

[irule9000]

id get the gigabite. Although the asus has better chips the gigabite is a better brand, cheaper, and basicly has the same specs

 

[Silvune]

I'd advise against getting the second Gigabyte board you suggested (GA-MA785GT-UD3H) as it's second PCI-E slot is at x4 speeds, so if you're going to go down get the Asus one you suggested, as it is better for crossfiring. A 600W from a good brand will be able to crossfire 3850s or 5770s. The 500W OCZ only has one PCI-E connector, whereas the 600W version of that PSU has two.
Asus M4A79XTD Evo £85
AMD Phenom II X3 730 £100
OCZ 600W MOD £65
Patriot DDR3 RAM £85
Total £335
If the case is £100, then £435. Which unfortunately wouldn't be enough to get a nice new graphics card atm. I am rather loathe to point this out to you, but if you wanted to get a 5770 (~ £120) for instance into this £500 budget, then you could get an AM2+ board which supports DDR2 RAM and could therefore save yourself £85. Such a board: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P £85

 

[tim_bethany]

Ok thank you silvune, taken your advice on the motherboard I’ve got it down to this now:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143852
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-199-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1482
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-032-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098

This all comes to around £410 which I’m happy with

Can you say if this will all work, I’ve looked and can’t see any problems; it has support for crossfire if I want to at a later date.

 

[Silvune]

Yea that is all compatible.
The Antec 1200 is quite a large case, in which case you might want the PSU to have long cables to allow for good cable management. In this review and on this page http://www.hardocp.com/article/2008/11/12/ocz_700w_modxstream_pro_power_supply/3 it says that the cables from the OCZ 700W unit will reach 17 inches. Whereas in a review from the same website http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/18/antec_earthwatts_750w_psu_review/3 the Antec Earthwatts 750W Modular PSU - 80plus (@ £78.68) has longer cables at 21 inches and is generally considered to be from a tier 1 PSU manufacturer while many would consider OCZ to be a top tier 2 PSU maker. Seeing as you are still well below £500, 6 pounds of difference to get such a fantastic PSU seem worth it to me.
I decided not to 'pressure' you into going for one of these top tier PSUs until now, because I didn't know how much you were willing to spend on a PSU and what components you'd end up deciding to get and how much those components would come to, and in the case of cable length, what case youd' get.

 

[tim_bethany]

oh great, yeah money isnt too much of an issue so will deffently go got the antec psu thanks alot will order the parts sharpish