Need some Advice on Building my first PC please :)

[Ashley Brown]

Hey ive been looking to buy a new computer for a while now. To play mainly ut3 which is a game i NEED to play. played the ut2k4 for a long time now and love ut3 even more (playing at a friends house atm).
Anyway i was tempted to buy a pre made pc from a retail store like pc world/comet! I only recently realized building your own gaming rig will be cheaper and more suitable for a person who's sole purpose is to play the latest games more or less (not Crysis though as i heard you need a daddy of a computer)

Ok. My budget is £400, max is £450 (IF NEEDED) but i really cant afford to go past this amount.
I really don't no much at all about pc's when it comes to the technical side of it. Like overclocking and such..wouldn't mind finding a guide on how to overclock and what i need to do it and how this would benefit me. Also knowing what is compatible with what.
So bare with me if i ask you to rephrase stuff for me :D

Id love to play ut3 at max settings and decent at fps. 1024.768 res. I don't mind a small size hard drive around 160-200gb mark. All i want is the base unit. no screen, mouse, keyboard or monitor.

All my items will most likely be bought from this site as a friend recommended it to me and i love it. easy to use and find what your looking for a prices seem great and your based in uk! so links from this site are fine.

Think ill be using XP.
Id like to be able to upgrade in the future. Memory and cpu ect (maybe a Quad later on)

Thats basically it. I read a similar thread on these forums to someone who was looking for help with a similar budget but i didn't really understand some terms used as I'm new to all this lol

Help is much appreciated and thank you in advance!

[coiler]

Here you go!

The GFX card is your most important component for smooth playable fps. The board will take Quad core when they come down in price. The E2160 is a supurb CPU and very OCable if you even need to. Decent case, decent reliable PSU. Good fast harddrive.

I think you'll be hard pressed to get a better spec for your money!

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/pault123/450build.jpg




What you guys think?

[CallumRogan]

Yeah i agree with coiler, except i dnt think you need the 550W corsair you can get the 450W if u wanna spend more on the processor, or just save some cash

[coiler]

If you want to save £10 go for this

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+500W+StealthXstream+PSU+?productId=29090

[Ashley Brown]

hey thx for replies.

i was thinking of this cpu insted.+£68.74 https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E6750+2.66GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=27972

And i heard the geforce 9 series will be out soon enough so i was thinking of scaling down the graphic card a bit. To a;
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/ATI+Radeon+HD+3850+512MB+-+PCI-E2.0+?productId=29977

played ut3 on a friends comp who has a geforce 8600 gt 256mb and its runs smoothly just not perfect graphics, so thats fine i think. -£83.42


Also the PSU, was thinking of somthing cheaper but has 650W. -£29.38
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/SV+650w+SilentLoad+20+%26+24%2BSATA+PSU?productId= 28428

Is there any downsides to that psu which makes it as cheap as it is? or is it just the generally quality which affects the price of this one and the one you first suggested?

I dont need a DVD RW drive. Sorry forgot to mention. -£16.56



So Current amount is £449.49

Upgrade on CPU| +£68.74 = £518.27
Downgrade on Graphics card| -£83.43 = £434.84
Cheaper PSU| -£29.38 = £405.46
Dont need a DVD RW Drive| -£16.56 = £388.9

The processor i chose would work with that motherboard right?

Thx

[wonderlust]

Avoid the SV PSU, they are very very light, normally heavy=good.

Spend a little more on something like a Jeantech or Hiper

[tystar]

Wouldnt touch a generic psu with a barge pole, they are so often the cause of most people's problems.

I'm sure i wont be the only person to say this.

you could always go for something like this if cost is a factor.

Thermaltake TR2 RX W0146 450W Modular PSU Quickcode: #28847 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/450w+to+499w/Thermaltake+TR2+RX+W0146+450W+Modular+PSU+?product Id=28847)



http://www.aria.co.uk/dynres/cHJvZHVjdF9pbWFnZS53aWR0aD0yMDA=/bWFpbmltYWdlcy9QT1ctVFIyLVJYLVcwMTQ2LmpwZw==.jpg

£35.19inc Vat

[coiler]

Now they are back in stock go for this

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+600W+StealthXStream+PSU+?productId=26933

I would never buy a cheap PSU.

Personally the better GPU lower CPU as I first quoted will give you better perfomance and FULL settings!

[Kenichi]

Hi, im in a similar situation as Ashley, i was gonna buy a new computer from Comet/Pc world mainly for gaming until a friend recommended this site and a spec:
ASUS M2N-E nF570 Socket AM2 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Retail AM2)
Corsair Twinx 4GB PC6400 C5DHX
Nvidia GeForce 8800GTX 768Mb PCI-E OEM
Seasonic M12 700W Modular Power Supply
500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 16MB
Samsung SH-S203 20x DVDRW - SATA - Black (Recommended by Coiler)

i believe i need an OS, should i use Vista or can i stick to XP and is this spec good for 'todays and tomorrows' games?
Thank-you

[mac124]

I think most around here would recommend an Intel core2 setup, other than that it looks fine, you could drop the graphics card down to a 8800gt 512 and not lose much performance but it wouls save quite a bit of money.

[Kenichi]

Thanks for the reply. May i ask whats the difference between AMD and Intel, im still a newb =p and can u recommend any cases?

[Repster]

I would go for the GTS 512mb over the GT at the moment as its only +£20-30 with the Superspecial offer at the moment :) be quick !!

[mac124]

AMD and intel are the 2 manufacturers but pound for pound the intel cpus give much better perfomance.

How much are you looking to spend on the case?

[Kenichi]

Sorry late reply, been looking at come cases and decided to buy:
Thermaltake Soprano - Silver, Window Side Panel. Anyway thanks for everyone's advice and i decided to go with ur advices - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 95W Go Stepping (retail 775) - nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512mb PCI-E + my original list

[Repster]

Nice one, will fly. Nearly the same spec as my PC (when I get my replacement GTS RMA'd ;) )

[mac124]

You will need an intel motherboard too, the am2 one you originally chose wont be compatible.

This one should do the job nicely for around the same price as the one you chose. (if you hadn't already chosen one.)

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/ASUS+P5K+Intel+iP35+Socket+775+Motherboard+?produc tId=27298

[Ashley Brown]

Now they are back in stock go for this

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+600W+StealthXStream+PSU+?productId=26933

I would never buy a cheap PSU.

Personally the better GPU lower CPU as I first quoted will give you better perfomance and FULL settings!

Ok thx. Was just thinking of hitting or even exceeding the recommended requirments for the game which are;
Minimum System Requirements

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
* 2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
* 512 Mbytes of System RAM
* NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
* 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements

* 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
* 1 GBytes of System RAM
* NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
* 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

And the CPU you mentioned was 1.8Ghz. Maybe i can find a slight upgrade from that somewhere. ill take a look.

I also dont understand what overlocking is exactly.Can anyone explain breifly how it works and what it does please? :)

[coiler]

Ok thx. Was just thinking of hitting or even exceeding the recommended requirments for the game which are;
Minimum System Requirements

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
* 2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
* 512 Mbytes of System RAM
* NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
* 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements

* 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
* 1 GBytes of System RAM
* NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
* 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

And the CPU you mentioned was 1.8Ghz. Maybe i can find a slight upgrade from that somewhere. ill take a look.

I also dont understand what overlocking is exactly.Can anyone explain breifly how it works and what it does please? :)

Hey mate,

Read the below link, this is with a E2140. They are a rapid CPU for a great price. I've reccomended the E2160 so even more performance.

Once youve read the below you will see the CPU will be MORE than enough :P

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-Pentium-Dual-Core-E2140-overclocking,review-29816.html

[Kenichi]

Thanks guys really appreciate the advice. Yeah i forgot to mention that i'll be getting the intel mb (as recommended)
ASUS P5K Intel iP35 Socket 775 Motherboard.
Cant wait to get the stuff and build my FIRST computer...hope everything we'll go smoothly, otherwise im back here for more help =p