just window shopping....

[chrisakira]

hey guys n gals, am just looking around atm getting ideas on a price for a basic desktop gaming rig for claire (shes currently using a laptop thats geared towards office rather than gaming so struggles with current games)

we're basing it on this case

http://www.ebuyer.com/115479-casecom-bl ... -lg7770blk

as its very cheap n cheerful

and i have a 400w psu lyin around that can be put into the case to save a few pennies

other than that no bells or whistles (ie extra cooling, ssd's, top of the line hardware etc), and it doesnt matter if its DDR2 or DDR3 compatible, just enough to get it running say l4d2 comfortably would be sufficient for now.

if anyone can come up with some example rigs it'd be appreciated, as i said before as cheap as poss whilst being able to play games is the focus =D

[Kanonfodda]

Motherboard:
Asus P8H61-M LE £49.73

Processor:

Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz £95.01

Memory:

Kingston 2GB DDR3 1066MHz Memory Module Single Rank CL7 1.5V £8.99 (* 2)

HDD:

BARRACUDA SPINPOINT 500GB - 3.5IN 7200RPM SATA £58.37

GFX:

Asus GTX 550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 VGA DVI HDMI PCI-E £96.65

Total cost: £317.74 + delivery (VAT included)

My knowledge of PC hardware is a little limited, but that should work pretty well and give some good performance etc. you may have ti invest in a new PSU though, not sure if a 400w will be enough for that setup.

[chrisakira]

sounds good, and is around the same price mark as the setups id found/put together. anyone else got any suggested rigs, or indeed advice on whether a 400w psu would be sufficient to run the rig kanon's posted?

[WildW]

Yep, 400W PSU is fine for that, though it depends on age and quality. I've run more hungry hardware on a 300W.

Those are solid buy-new choices. If you're on a tight budget, I'd consider a 2nd hand graphics card from eBay as you can get more for your money. £100 is a lot for 550Ti performance, all depends what resolution screen you'd be running on.

[[KTFO]i-LiMiT-i]

nVidia's minimum power recommendation for that card is 400W. Plus your mobo, cpu, hd, and ram bus' will use the power too. You can get a 700W for £40, which is what im using, and have been for years and a half now. Not let me down yet, works a dream with my specs

[chrisakira]

thanks for the input all =)

it occured to me this morning that i sold my old monitor when i got my shiny new one, so we would have to get a new monitor aswell, leading me towards ebays fine selection of dirt cheap 17" monitors for around the £30 mark. so as for resolution needed nothin more than 12x10 i imagine, so its deffo more the being able to run games side of the graphics im after as opposed to the super high end resolutions lol.

also (and this is a long shot) does anyone know off hand or know of a way to find out if an old geforce 8600GT would be sufficient to run L4D2 at around mid gfx? i have that card from my old system lyin around but have no easy way of pluggin it in to anythin other than into my system and then changin settings and goin to canyourunit.com which at 9am i am faaaar too lazy to do =P (however i might consider this a viable option in about 3 hours..... maybe =P)

if that card was sufficient for the meanwhile (could always upgrade at a later date) then we could remove the gfx card from the shopping list and invest in a better psu =)

thanks again for the help so far, tis muchly appreciated =D

[Kanonfodda]

Hi Chris, I've run L4D2 on an 8600GT card without any real hassle. Still got two lying around in my cellar

[chrisakira]

cheers kanon, so on that note i can scrub a new gfx card from the shopping list and see whether i need a new psu now or not. im hopin not as that'll mean i can spend that £40- £60 that would go on a psu on a new monitor instead =)

[CyberDrac]

It may be worth weighing up a cheap SLI board with a couple of cheap graphics cards versus a single card solution if you are in the mood for considering every possible solution

[chrisakira]

Yeh I'd consider It, u have any ideas cd?

[bsoltan]

I wouldn't trust any SLI setup worth having on a 400W PSU.

And it just isn't worth it for the kind of build you're putting together.

The bit-tech guides can give you a good indication on decent components for a budget:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers ... ber-2011/2

I don't know if you actually have a budget in mind, but I'd consider something like:

Intel i3 3200 - £90
Gigabyte P67A - £77
Plait Nvidia 460 - £120
4GB DDR3 - £22
WD Caviar Blue 500GB - £62
DVD Drive - £14
Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU - £50
BenQ 17 TFT - £80
Win7 HomeP OEM - £70

Total = £585 [From eBuyer]

Should be able to play most games.

--

If you want to really go budget I was looking on the OcUK forum and some users had been inspired by an article in CustomPC saying you could build a Skyrim PC for £350:

1 x OcUK HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £46.99
1 x Gigabyte H61M-S2PV Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £46.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
1 x OcUK Flamingo FM-12A Midi Tower Case - Black/Blue £21.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.39
Total : £359.41 (includes shipping : £11.75).

+ Windows, Monitor.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showth ... t=18380014