£500 Gaming rig

[wez]

Hey guys,
im looking to build a gaming rig for about 500 english smackers.
i have done some research and looked at getting these components.
please take a look and advise on alternate parts if you think they need to be changed or whatever .
Thanks
Wez

CPU - Q9400
MoBo - Asus P5P43TD
RAM - 4GB DDR3 Corsair TwinX
HDD 1 (purely for O/S and Games) - SATA 2 250GB Deskstar
HDD 2 for storage) - 1TB SATA 2 (probly be a spinpoint)
DVD - 22X dual layer Sony SATA 2
GPU - unsure but probly between the 9500GT 1GB -- Geforce GTS 250 1GB -- Radeon HD 4870 1GB
PSU - anything above 500W probs 750W

i have already got prices for these part and depending on the GPU the price ranges from £440 to £550

please advise if you think alternate parts would be better for my budget.

Thanks again

 

[Gulli]

Motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174565 81

CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172755 147

RAM: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158711 70

DVD-RW: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169683 16

PSU: http://www.overclock.net/attachments/power-supplies/112538d1245304634-basic-power-supply-buyers-guide-antec.png 43

Hard drives: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142569 and http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150256 89

GPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150349 50

That's 500, are you sure you don't need a case?

BTW: I strongly advice to drop the secondary hard drive in favor of a better GPU such as a HD 4850

 

[wez]

hey dude i might drop the second HDD for the better GPU, nah ive got a case already . i hadnt really thought about going for the newer i5 as i wasnt really sure if i could go for older technology but get a better spec pc for my money. i suppose using the i5 gives better scope for upgrade. Which do you think would be better?

BTW im buying this comp in the next few weeks hopefully, and i was also planning on overclocking.

 

[Gulli]

hey dude i might drop the second HDD for the better GPU, nah ive got a case already . i hadnt really thought about going for the newer i5 as i wasnt really sure if i could go for older technology but get a better spec pc for my money. i suppose using the i5 gives better scope for upgrade. Which do you think would be better?

BTW im buying this comp in the next few weeks hopefully, and i was also planning on overclocking.

Well the Q9400 costs about the same as an i5 750 and you were going for DDR3 memory already, so the only cost difference will come from the motherboard and that's not too much of a difference actually.
The i5 is better than the Q9400 and you can overclock it a little with the stock cooler, if you want to overclock more you can buy a cooler for 15 pounds, but a 2.66ghz i5 beats a 3.0ghz Q9xxx.

 

[build]

+1 on the I5.

@ OP: A 1TB Spinpoint will be faster than that 250GB desktar so there's no point in buying it.


Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz - £146.97
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172755

ASROCK P55 PRO Socket 1156 - £80.59
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174565

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB - £55.95
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

Antec EarthWatts 500W - £54.20
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/120377

LG GH22NS50 22x SATA DVD±RW - £15.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169683

Kingston Hyper X 4Gb 1600Mhz - £66.45
http://www.dabs.com/products/kingston-hyper-x-4gb-1600mhz-ddr3-5FSR.html

Asus ATI Radeon 4870 HD 1GB - £113.83
http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-ati-radeon-4870-hd-1gb-pci-express-hdmi-64NH.html


Total = £533.98 (dabs and ebuyer both deliver for free)

It's a bit over-budget so if you want to go a little closer to £500 then you might want to consider an AMD Phenom II build. Since this will be primarily a gaming PC, you should invest more on the graphics card.

Having said that, you won't need a 4870 if your monitor has a low resolution. What resolution is it and what games do you play?

Also, do you have a case and an operating system?

 

[brockh]

Personally I'd recommend a Phenom II X3 720. It'll save you enough to upgrade to at least a 4890. That combo (from experience) will run most anything high-very high settings in 1080p (or 1200p depending on your monitor) fine.

That is unless you need the extra power from the i5 for some reason.

 

[coltman]

a HD 4870 (1GB) is a great graphics card. I recently bought a gaming rig with it along with Core 2 Quad 2.3ghz and it can run any game i throw at it. The rig cost me £550 but i didnt build it myself.

If u get over 3gb ram (including gfx card) make sure you use a 64bit v. of vista or 7, then you can use all the ram you decide to put in.

Good luck mate