Gaming New PC build - About £1000

[jlsyber]

I have about £1000 to make a new PC. I am a gamer, but not a hardcore one. Mainly use my pc for internet browsing, so I won't really need one that's that powerful. In a few years time I'll get another £1000 which I'll use to get better Processor, RAM, and Motherboard.

Here's my build so far:

Monitor: BenQ G2411HDA 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black - £140
Case: Coolermaster HAF 932 Black, High Air Flow Tower Case w/o PSU (New Version) - £108
Mouse: Microsoft Sidewinder X8 Mouse - £50
Keyboard: Logitech 920-000978 G19 Gaming Keyboard - £127
PSU: 750W Antec Truepower New PSU, Modular, 120mm PWM Fan, 80+ Bronze - £93
Total of reusable items: £518


I don't really want to change my choices on these and will probably keep them for a few years.

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, S AM3, 3.4GHz, 8MB Cache, 125W, Retail - £136
RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V - £142
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H, AMD 890GX, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1866(OC), USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID - £104
GPU: 1GB Asus HD 4350 Silent, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 800MHz GDDR2, GPU 600MHz, 80 Cores, D-Sub/ DVI-I/ HDMI - £34
Total of key components: £416

I'll be changing these in a few years, hence them being pretty cheep.

Optical drive 1: Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £16
Optical drive 2: Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £16
Optical drive 3: Akasa AK-ICR-07S 3.5" Black Internal Multi Card Reader Incl. M2, Micro SD & USB port - £5.63
Optical drive 4: Silverstone SST-FP35B Black 3.5" Bay Multi Card Reader & I/O System - £18.74
Total of optical drives: £57

Hard drive 1: 2TB Hitachi Saturn, 0F10311, Deskstar 7K2000, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.2 ms - £107

Extras:

Grand Total: £1098

 

[DSGamer64]

Don't get the Athlon X4, get the Phenom II X4, ideally one of the Black Edition models or similar which have more cache then the old Athlon X4 processors. And if you have that much to spend, you can buy some better equipment then what you have been looking at. Don't skimp out on certain hardware because it is cheap for a reason, because it is dated. Get the Gigabyte GA-890GPA motherboard, it is a future proof board with USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0Gb connectors on it. The G.Skill memory seems good enough. Dunno why you need 2 card readers though, just get a case with some I/O ports already on it and then get one card reader that has whatever else you need.

Get a Radeon HD5770 graphics card too, they are great for the price.

 

[Lee79]

Get this stuff and you are all set for gaming.

CPU= AMD 955 X4 BE and overclock it to 3.6ghz very easy to do.
PSU= Corsair 650W TX
Graphics= ATI 5770

 

[Originality]

Quoting myself in a nearly identical thread:

Taking the spec from the latest CustomPC Magazine I have:

Performance PC:
Case: Antec TwelveHundred (£117.37)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (£151.57)
CPU: Intel Core i7-930 2.8Ghz (£231.79)
CPU Cooling: Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ (£29.35)
RAM: Corsair XM3 PC3-12800 (3x2GB@1600Mhz) (£138.79)
Graphics: Asus Radeon HD 5870 (£323.94 - prices fluctuating quite a bit, and CPC are expecting a new high-end graphics card to challenge the 5870 next issue)
Power: Antec TruePower New TP-650 EDIT: Forgot to list the price (£79.88)
HDD: 1TB Samsing Spinpoint F3 (£62.25)
SSD (optional - solid state makes computers go zoom, at a price): OCZ Vertex 120 (£288.80 - prices always very volatile)
Sound Card (optional, but they list it anyway and it counts to the final price): Asus Xonar DX (£57.55)

Final Price (not including the SSD): £868.55 (all prices include VAT).

Not included in price: Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Windows 7, and extra software (such as the latest Photoshop).

It's a very good system if I do say so myself. If you like, you can stretch a bit to get Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D RAM, which are supposed to perform better but cost £172.87, or get a monster of a graphics card in the HD5970 (which are somewhat hard to find nowadays). I think Solid State Drives are also a very good investment, if you can afford it. In any case, this system should easily handle your programs and any games you care to try, and should be within your budget since the £ and € are quite close last I heard.

I won't get into the Phenom/Core i7 debate again. I'll just leave it with the above.

 

[Raki]

Well a i7 is more or less wasted money for pure gaming

 

[Cermage]

Well a i7 is more or less wasted money for pure gaming

if you want "pure gaming" you might as well jump on the old 775 and a e8400 or something. quad cores, more or less still aren't fully used. in a $1000 budget you might as well jump on the i7, it'll last you longer than the phenom in the end. really the only reason to go amd chips is if you're on a tight budget. $1000, isn't really tight.

 

[Originality]

Assume £1000 is around $1300. I've not kept up to date on the exchange rates, but £ has always been more than $.

Even so, the same reasoning applies. AMD make good cheap chips. Intel make stronger, pricier chips. If you can comfortably get a Core i7 930 chip, 6GB of RAM, a HD5870 and a huge Antec 1200, all within £800, that gives you plenty of room left over to add extras (like DVD drives, media readers, extra HDDs, even a SSD if you wanted) and genuine Windows 7. System builder editions seem much cheaper than full editions, so go with them

 

[YourHero]

I have an athlon IIx4 and it does very well. But why do you need 2 optical drives?

 

[jlsyber]

I don't really need it to be future proof as I'l get another £1000 in a few years. But I'll get a good Case, keyboard, mouse, monitor and PSU as these won't get outdated that soon.

Changed the Processor to the Phenomenon II x4 and the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H that DSGamer64 suggested.

Thanks for your help so far guys!

I don't really think the i7 is worth it as I don't need a gaming beast.

Also what PSU's do you recommend? I want it to be pretty future proof.

 

[Originality]

You say you don't want a gaming beast, so naturally you should have no interest in SLI/CrossFire. Therefore the Antec TruePower New TP-650 I mentioned should be perfect for you.

 

[jlsyber]

Thanks! However I opted for the 750W version as it was only a few quid more.

 

[gov78]

u might be able to grab ahold of one of the new Phenome II 6 core processors

 

[Cermage]

you might want to also look at the corsair powersupplies, more or less the hx line. the hx850w is known to be able to pull well over 1000w if needed.

 

[jlsyber]

The six core Phenomenons are about double the price of the Quad core so I don't think I want it

Regarding the PSU, do you think it's better than the TruePower? I don't really know much about PSU's so

 

[Joe88]

Regarding the PSU, do you think it's better than the TruePower? I don't really know much about PSU's so

never heard of the company before

go with corsair
you cant go wrong

 

[ZeWarrior]

Well a i7 is more or less wasted money for pure gaming

if you want "pure gaming" you might as well jump on the old 775 and a e8400 or something. quad cores, more or less still aren't fully used. in a $1000 budget you might as well jump on the i7, it'll last you longer than the phenom in the end. really the only reason to go amd chips is if you're on a tight budget. $1000, isn't really tight.

Um, no. An E8400 is crap right now with the newer games which are starting to be more cpu intensive (good luck running GTA IV or Battlefield BC2 with an E8400)

 

[Cermage]

Regarding the PSU, do you think it's better than the TruePower? I don't really know much about PSU's so

never heard of the company before

go with corsair
you cant go wrong


its antec. its up to you really though, i'd go the corsair, the tp series has good feedback, but only 5 year warranty compared to corsairs 7 year.

QUOTE(Raki @ May 2 2010, 08:02 AM)

Well a i7 is more or less wasted money for pure gaming

if you want "pure gaming" you might as well jump on the old 775 and a e8400 or something. quad cores, more or less still aren't fully used. in a $1000 budget you might as well jump on the i7, it'll last you longer than the phenom in the end. really the only reason to go amd chips is if you're on a tight budget. $1000, isn't really tight.

Um, no. An E8400 is crap right now with the newer games which are starting to be more cpu intensive (good luck running GTA IV or Battlefield BC2 with an E8400)

which is why i said quad cores still aren't fully used. even a couple games that have come out this year still arent threaded for quad cores. an e8400 o/ced will still run you all the new games fine, albeit a slightly lower res with the multi-threaded games.

 

[DSGamer64]

u might be able to grab ahold of one of the new Phenome II 6 core processors

The X6 is probably a bit more then he needs to spend and really all you are going to get out of it is multitasking and a bit of future proofing. At stock speeds it looks to be a beast, but seeing as how they start at 205 bucks US on Newegg, while the top of the line X4 is about 40 dollars less, there really isn't much reason to get it unless you want the Turbo Boost feature which clocks 3 cores up to 3.3 Ghz with 6MB of L3 cache while the other 3 are shut off. Ideally this gives you basically an X3 with more power from the cache ratings. Still, if you can spare the extra 40 dollars or so for the cheaper X6, it would be worth the investment for those going for an AMD build.

 

[jlsyber]

I'll stick with the Quad core.
However I changed the PSU to the 650Watt corair.

Thanks for your help.

 

[leinad]

650 Watt are totally enough - Most gaming systems dont take more than 500Watt anyway without SLI/Crossfire.

Are you sure about the HD4350 ?! That's a lowend GFX of the last generation. Sure, browsing/mailing will work fine, but gaming will be horrible/impossible.

I would just go with 2 RAM modules, because with three you cant use the dualchannel thing [please correct me if Im wrong, at least it's that way on my board] - and in most situations you wont need more than 4GB (heck, even 2GB is enough for most ppl)

Ah, and for the GFX card you should take something around HD 5770~5670~5750 , - anything above would be too expensive - they arnt that much more than the office-card you named before, but they play everything as long you dont play on extreme settings

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Sidenote:
Why do you choose an 130£ gaming keyboard and then take an office GFX card :| ?

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Edit: Usualy if ppl speak of "PC build" you don't take LCD/Mouse/Keyboard into account ... somewhat confusing. Just the box with the things inside