finalzero

Hi,

Looking to build a gaming PC as there are a fair few good PC games out there that my gaming laptop is just not geared for.

I don't building the PC (lots of experience building and modding PC's) however I have been out of touch with the hardware market so have no idea what is a good PC build with decent graphics and frame rates.

I want to stick to Intel processors, thinking of the following:

Dual Core CPU
At least 2gb DDR2 memory (fast enough for gaming)
nVidia Graphics card (which one is a good all rounder but no a bank breaker)?

Motherboard, no idea what the favourite is and one that will work hassle free with the above.

I will be putting Vista on the system (probably 32bit as it's more supported than the 64bit version) and also Debian Linux (dual boot).

Cheers,

Fz

mattster12

iTrader: (5)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600, 2.4ghz. £130. Can easily be overclocked to 3.2ghz and runs 100% stable.

Graphics card wise good one at the moment is: BFG GeForce 8800 GTS 512mb which out performs most of the 8800 GTX cards, especially if you overclock it a little. £165.

Memory wise a good bet at a good price would be: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit. £30.

For your motherboard a good one that is easily upgradable in the future is: Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard. At about £120.

This spec will run anything that is out at the moment on high settings.
All depends how much you want to spend, but this would be a real good setup.

Also a lot of companies sell more expensive processors which are just overclocked lower models so buying a cheper spec one then overclocking yourself if the way to go.

john banks

I built this 3 weeks ago:

2GB Crucial Ballistix £49
E8400 Retail £128
8800GT-512MB £130
Asus P5K-E £94
Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU £43
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro £17
Hiper 120mm case Fan £6
Spinpoint 500GBx2 £114

Total £581

All from Ebuyer except the RAM direct from Crucial. Overclocked to 4GHz stable, 4.3GHz to do a 10 sec 1M Super PI run for e-bragging rights on here , and the 8800 GT has taken a small overlock too. Plays Crysis with everything on high at 1280x1024 nice and smooth. Drives are in RAID0, very fast. I used my old keyboard, mouse, monitor, XP.

You could buy something prebuilt for similar money, some good bargains have been posted on here, but the cheap ones tend to be not for gaming as they have poor graphics cards, PSU, cheap RAM and motherboard, small cases etc.

I went for fast overclockable dual core at this stage as the overall gaming performance is higher, and will upgrade when I can get a cheap 4+GHz quad core in this board in future when most software is using quad cores efficiently. However, you won't go wrong with an overclocked Q6600 either at the moment, very good VFM. If I couldn't get the E8400 I would have got one.

I will also upgrade to 4 or 8 GB RAM in future when 64 bit OS become mainstream, and also look forward to the next generation of graphics cards, not much has happened in the last 2 years there since the 8800GTX came out.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

have a look at the bundles on overclockers

Components » Bundles - Overclockers UK

matched components that can be overclocked easily giving very good performance for the money

Components » Bundles » Enthusiast Bundles - Overclockers UK

chuck in a 8800 series gfx card and your ready to rock

finalzero

Cheers chaps, got a better idea of what to look for now. I had a look at the overclockers site, some good bundles on there, will have to compare the prices against single items (I worked out a package for £350 which included an overclockable dual core, 4gb ballistic ram, Coolermaster CPU cooler and Overclockers stealth 600watt sli psu).

I have a custom built cube case I will be putting the above into so space and cooling is not an issue.

mattster12

iTrader: (5)

If you are going to be running 4gb ram you willl need to go for vista 64 really.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

im probably going to go for one of the above myself in a few weeks