New System Advice

[Myatt88]

Hey guys.

Im looking to build myself a budget gaming rig for £250-£300
Can stretch to £350 if need be.

Just want to make sure i get the most for my money http://forum.novatech.co.uk/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

If someone could help me it would be much appreciated! http://forum.novatech.co.uk/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

Have Mouse, Keyboard and monitor already

Thankyou

[wonderlust]

What size monitor?, what games?

both will give an idea of which graphics card would suit you best

[Myatt88]

Monitor is a crappy 17" crt atm but will be updating to a 17" tft in a month.

Games: COD, Brothers in Arms, Crysis, Fifa, few mmorpg's and quite a few others :)

[mac124]

with a 17" tft and the buget you have you could probably get away with a 3650 / 4670 or maybe 3870 / 9800gt if you stretch the buget to the max.

[Myatt88]

http://i38.tinypic.com/64kqs5.jpg

Maybe? Will it all work together?

[mac124]

Yup should all work together, though for less than £10 more you could get a 9800gt or 3870? Both of which are far superior than the 9600gt.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+9+Series/nVidia+GeForce+9800GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=33061

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/Sapphire+ATi+Radeon+HD+3870+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29511

[Myatt88]

Thank you so much!

I've added the 3870 to the list ;)

Surprised it all runs together. Anything else that i will need? sata cables maybe?

[wonderlust]

I would swap the HDD for a Samsung F1 500Gb They are quicker and quieter

[Myatt88]

Got it! :) Thanks!

Will that be all i will require? cables be included with mobo?

[wonderlust]

looking at the Asus Website the Motherboard appears to only have one sata cable, It may be worth contacting sales to get it confirmed.

Is the processor you have chosen under 95w? as this is the maximum this board takes (again from the Asus web site)

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1976&l1=3&l2=149&l3=595&l4=0

[Myatt88]

Its 65 according to: http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=382

Will the psu supplied with the case be enough to power this?

[Mul.]

Frankly, I wouldn't trust the 400W PSU that comes with the case when used with a machine that is likely to consume up to around 300W including all devices.

If you don't mind me rejigging your spec slightly, here's a couple of changes that I reckon are worth making

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7982/clipboard01tc8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/clipboard01tc8.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img243/clipboard01tc8.jpg/1/)

Overall this comes out about £20+VAT more than your original.

I've swapped out the Asus M2N-XE for an MSI K9A2GM board as it sports a better chipset for future CPU upgrades to AMD Phenom X4, X3 or X2 6500+. It supports 125W CPU's as well. All of this is quite crucial particularly with AMD soon to be releasing 45nm chips that could well be brilliant performers.

I've replaced the Xblade with an Antec NSK4480. Yes it is a lot more bland but it's built far better and comes with a good Power Supply Unit. Also because it's got decent airflow, there's no need for the Patriot Active Cooling fan. The CPU comes with a stock cooler and in my opinion, it actually isn't that loud particularly with a 65nm Dual.

You'll find that this is a slightly more balanced setup that will serve you better when it comes to upgrading next time.

[jonwoad]

Nobody has mentioned an OS yet :P

[Mul.]

^^ This is true.

[wonderlust]

He is going for 4Gb of ram so that narrows it down to 64bit Linux, Vista 64 or xp64 (yuk)

[jonwoad]

but if he goes for Vista then his budget is over by £70 minimum if he goes for the spec Mul. did for him.

[wonderlust]

Looks like Linux then ;)

[jonwoad]

for gaming?

[wonderlust]

in that case drop 2 gigs from the ram and stick with the xp he already has

[Myatt88]

My bro has a copy of 64 XP.

So... if you guys had the same budget as me... would this be the same setup you would buy?

Edit: How about buying cheaper CPU graphics but OC'ing them? maybe save some money? I dont know? lol

[wonderlust]

I would steer clear of XP 64 the driver support is awfull.

I think Mul has it about right.

[Myatt88]

Is having 64bit "Amazing" cause i could purchase vista64 in the future.
If not ill take your advice and drop to 2g

Plus: Is there a 250g hdd that is the same speed/quiet as the one suggested to save £ as i wont use all of that :P

[wonderlust]

Vista 64bit is not any different most of the time, but it will, amongst other benefits, allow you to use all of your 4Gb of ram.

XP (non 64) will give you between about 3.2 and 3.5Gb depending on the hardware installed (graphics ram takes the most away).

remember that if you buy a 4Gb kit (2x2Gb) you will drop to single channel mode by using only 1x2Gb Dimm.

I am not sure how much this actually affects perfomance but under vista using its experience rating memory drops to 5.1 (from 5.9 which is the top rating available).

[Myatt88]

Ill drop to 2g then since it will help me on my budget :) You guys are very helpful! Thankyou

Edit: Any smaller HDD's that are just as good as the one suggested?

[Myatt88]

Updated. If i was to drop down to a smaller HDD (still as fast if poss :)) would i be able to get a windowed case?
http://i38.tinypic.com/2a6m5qc.jpg

[wonderlust]

looks good go for it!

[Myatt88]

:D Will be ordering Friday :)

[Mul.]

To be frank, you'll save about £10-15 at best on HDD's and that isn't enough to cover the costs of opting for a windowed case. I can't think of a windowed case with the kind of money you have to play with that actually has respectable build quality.

[jonwoad]

Stick with that Antec for now, then when you can afford £50-60 you can then get another case :)

[Myatt88]

If i was able to get hold of £50-60 :P Which case/psu would that get me? :)

[jonwoad]

TBH not many as cases in that price range dont come with PSUs but if you got the antec first you'd have the psu already

[Myatt88]

kk :) Thankyou for your help :) all of you. Will be ordering this friday!

Edit: Im i best signing up for google checkout as i only have a solo card and usually use paypal :)

[tystar]

Solo is taken through aria checkout also. if you have any doubts just call telesales and place the order over the phone.

[Myatt88]

Just thought! Cable's? which and how many? :)

Don't want it arriving and find that i haven't got any lol

Thank you!

[wonderlust]

MSI are a bit vauge about what you get in the box

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1436

again if you are going for the Retail DVD-/+RW drive I would hope that would also have the required sata cable.

if in doubt order one, preferably the clipped type

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130166 also suggests only 1 sata cable

[Myatt88]

Will do :) Thankyou.

Just been looking on **** at the desktops.

Quads 4g ram 1g gfx for £300 wtf lol. Got be something wrong here lol
I remember someone telling me that you shouldn't buy systems off here? whys that?

[Myatt88]

Is the processor, mobo and gfx card i'm going to order good for OC'ing? :)

[Myatt88]

Ordered it yesterday over the phone around 1/2ish and payed extra for the Saturday delivery. Was told i would receive it at 12 and it still hasn't come! :(

[marsey99]

you should of phoned them as you dont see many staff on here at week ends :(

[Myatt88]

Tried but phone lines closed on weekends :(