P1Fanatic

As per PS3 thread I have had enough of console gaming and moving back to PC for my FPS.

My ageing PC is as follows:

Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0ghz
Asus P5K-E (I think)
2gb Crucial Ballistix 8500 DDR2
120gb OCZ Vertex 3 SSD
Sparkle 1GB GTX430 (stop gap fix after OC2 8800GT 512mb died)
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard
Coolermaster Cosmos Full Tower
Corsair HX620 Modular PSU

So doesn’t really have much worth salvaging other than case, dvd drive & PSU. And even the PSU is a bit lacking if I fancy a bit of SLI X-Fire so will probably try and break it and flog the parts (other than the SSD) on that famous auction site

I am not sure I can be bothered to build my own this time. Looking around on rigs at my budget of £800 you are paying around £100 on top of the bare component price for someone like overclockers to professionally build it for you (inc decent cable management), stress test it, overclock it and provide a 2yr warranty on the full build. Even less if you happen to catch one of their deals knocking £50+ off a system build. Last time it was buy some components here, some there as no one had everything in stock or at the best price.

What other companies build customisable rigs like Overclockers. I have heard Chillblast mentioned before but not so sold on the rigs they offer and also lack of customisation.

As above my budget £800ish (not incl monitor obviously) and leaning towards an AMD GPU like the HD7950 as Nvidia GPU prices are just crazy.

Cheers
Simon

Turbo Tone

iTrader: (2)

Don't blame you for moving to PC gaming.

May go that way myself if I can resist the itch of buying another Xbox.

Would recommend Overclockers though. Only work two minutes from them and they do know there stuff.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

It all depends on how far you want to go as gaming rigs can be expensive, £800 sounds a lot but it doesn't go a long way as i found when i was building my current pc.

The 7950 HD is a good card but you'll be talking over a quarter of your budget on the card alone as i think they are around £230 ish, if your going down the gaming route i'd upgrade that psu to something a 750W or preferably 850W. Seeing as you have a Corsair now, the AX850 is a great psu and fully modular.

Your going to need a decent mobo, ram and good cooling. If its mainly for gaming the processor isn't as important as the GPU so you can save a bit on that, i would go for an i5 3570k if your budget can stretch to it.

The only snag with getting a company to build your pc is you won't get a lot for your £800, make sure you pick your components if you go down that route especially the mobo as quite a few will use cheap motherboards.

If that were me and you deffo don't want to build one i'd be looking at the classifieds as you'll get more for your £800, people tend to build pc's then move onto another project not that long after so you can get a fully built one at a good price if you do your homework and get receipts for all the components.

Good luck anyway.

eagle

from where you are novatech have a shop on the outskirts of reading, so close enough IF you ever get a problem.
although they dont show it on thier site they can build any custom machine you need, just need to ask...although it might be a little cheaper diy.. just got all the bits from novatech to build mine and also haggled the price a bit, everything was in stock too.
i can see the idea of getting one built though, if it goes wrong .. easy enough to send it back ..

Nimbus

I was looking at a new PC earlier and was also looking at Chillblast, Overclockers etc. In the end, and after a bit of research on the net (maily new egg), decided to built it myself. While initially a little daunting wondering where all the wires go, it was actually quite a satisfying task. Especially when it actually booted up OK the first time. So on top of saving a fair amount I also have the satisfaction of building this myself and knowing exactly what is in there.

Mossy1283

I bought mine from ukgamingcomputers.co.uk, service was brilliant, couldn't fault it. Machine is excellent for FPS but I did spend a fair whack!

P1Fanatic

I have built a fair few in my time so fully understand the advantages and disadvantages. With custom build you can spec pretty much what components you want anyway. Ive never been into overclocking properly. Dabbled but nothing more so like the appeal of a guaranteed overclock which is warrantied.

P1Fanatic

Yeah I have used them for quite a few components in the past and a few RMA and always seem good. Not always the cheapest on every item but not usually far off. Forums are very useful as well.

P1Fanatic

Yep aware it’s not a massive budget and will probably end up nearer £1k but would rather end around there than start at that price as putting £200 aside for a new 24” 120hz monitor. Low £200’s is what I was looking for GPU wise. Probably try and pick up a 2nd one later on if they come down in price enough. Is there any reason why the high end Nvidia cards are still only running 2gb VRAM and cost more than the AMD cards running 3gb? I have always preferred Nvidia in the past as got my fingers burnt with a couple of ATI cards that were DOA.

Overclockers specify exactly what components they use and for my budget they are using Gigabyte & Asus mobo’s which is what I have always used in the past anyway. Not the highest spec mobo’s but I have tended to go for the ones with all the bells & whistles in the past and not used half the features anyway. As long as it handles their overclock, xfire, usb3, sata3 bla bla ok by me.

CPU wise I was looking at an i7 3770k O/C’d to 4.40ghz

PSU wise they start with the Corsair GS Gamer series but yep I would stump up a bit extra to get the 800-850W and modular so less cable clutter inside & a bit more future proofed especially if I do end up running xfire.

P1Fanatic

Will check them out later cheers. Did they let you tweak your build or were they rigid with their component list?

P1Fanatic

I assume 8gb RAM is sufficient for average PC usage & FPS gaming? 16gb is not much more but if you say that about every component your budget is soon out of control.

ScoobyJawa

8gb is fine, I would say I probably never go over 8 and I have 16. Samsung Green is excellent stuff, low profile and oc's exceptionally well.

You'll easily see the 3770k to 4.5ghz 24x7 with a decent cooler.

I'd stay clear of 2gb cards now for a little more future proofing, I've got 2 7950's 3gb (they were 229.99, now 275.99 ) and on BF3 ultra it can nudge on the door of using 2gb so it won't be long till games are going over it.

Nvidia cards you pay Nvidia tax, just like with owning a Skyline lol!

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

If its for gaming which he stated he doesn't need an i7 unless he's doing graphics work or video editing etc, he can save himself quite a few quid by getting an i5 3570k and spend the money he saved elsewhere.

ScoobyJawa

Agreed.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Overclocking RAM on modern rigs is for only bragging rights. It looks good on a couple of RAM-specific benchmarks, but in the real world a gaming PC is limited by (in order) the GFX, then the CPU, then nothing. Drop the RAM speed from 1600 to 1066 and you'll not the see the difference in RL. I agree with 8GB, though, since most games cap the RAM usage at about 1-2GB anyway.

(And yes, I have 16GB of RAM at 1600)

Littleted

http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fusion-Asgard.html

http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast...Hurricane.html

just got top one for my mate, normally build them but couldn't be arsed, tricked it up to match bottom one, goes like stink I gotta say

I did buy 1 for my son from these guys over 5 years ago and its still going strong core i5 clocked to 3.8 still ticks along at 1900x1200.

gets my vote if you cant be arsed building, and nowadays I cant, for the savings made#

just buy the disks, seperate