I've got about £300-400 to spend on either building or buying myself a computer.

Considering that I'm going to use it mainly for gaming, what's my best options?

I'm throwing it into the winds, and hoping that you're not going to suggest earning another £1000 to spend :P


Minimum I would want for Process is 2.2ghz
Minimum I would want for RAM is 1GB, preferably 2GB.

Throw up a list of what YOU would do with the price range... If you ever had that sort of limitations.




Before anyone starts suggesting the following lets make this clear:

NO!!! I can't increase the price range... I've got limited funding for this venture.

Yes... this would be the first custom-built computer I'd made for myself...

No, it wouldn't be the first computer I've made, I've made about 10-15 (generally patching together parts from other computers) from motherboard+CPU for various people and organisations.

Yes, this would be the first time I've ever played around with CPUs and Motherboards... I don't generally touch them, I just utilise them to the best I can with the materials I've got (I haven't touched anything bigger than a 1GB DDR2 RAM and a 333mhz Athalon Processor in the last few years. Biggest thing I've ever touched in terms of technology was a new Graphics Card I was installing for a friend of mine... That was 3 years ago... It's outdated now.)

Yes, upgrading my current computer could work... I have two. One of them is about 5 years old. The other is about 10 years old. current specs for them is so low I struggle playing "Worms:Armageddon."

No, I don't already have any parts, other than ones either vastly out of date or that only work vaguely well. For instance: My two computers have currently got, respectively (better computer first) 191MB and 256MB... In other words... nothing at all

Yes, I'm aware that the minimum specs I want would take up quite a bit of that money available.... Don't ask me why I want those specs... Just start looking at the games out in the last 4 years or so


I'll post what motherboards 'n' stuff I've got once I've dismantled my computers... I was playing a couple of multi-player games earlier so I had to use some "Plug and Pray" network cards, which took me a while to sort out... I also had to put together both my computers, so I couldn't really tell you what's in them atm.
I'll post what stuff I've got in the morning... Just going to dismantle my computers now :P

None of your stuff will be worth keeping, IMO - it's just too old.

Your biggest problem is going to be including a display in this price - what do you have already? What's the resolution? This will definitely affect the graphics card I choose, since there's little point in getting anything higher than an 8600GT if your display is 1280x1024, for example - there's not enough real estate to justify the expense of a higher-rated card.

• 2GB OCZ Platinum 4-4-4-15 - £29.99
• Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard - £62.98
• Maxtor STM3250310AS 250GB SATAII 8MB Cache - £36.50
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed - £107.27 (Should overclock well on the retail heatsink/fan, save up and get a Zalman 9700 cooler for superb cooling )
• Gecube HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 Overclocked Edition (this can be changed if you have a lower-res screen) - £109.98
• Arctic Power 700W PSU - £39.99 (this can be changed for a lower power one if necessary, but it better allows for future GPU and CPU upgrades). Ideally, I'd go for a modular PSU, but they're much more expensive.

Total: £386.71

You can recycle your current case (unless it's a small one, in which case you might have trouble fitting the GPU inside!)

This also assumes you have some kind of working optical drive.

That's my tuppence anyway - it'll be a bit of beast, IMO

My monitors are currently both about 14"...
Possibly getting a 22" off of a friend.
My cases are both 15.6" by 15.9" by 8.5"... Should be large enough right?

I have about 5 or 6 working optical drives... none of which are recent (last 2 years) but they work alright...


Some of my stuff isn't THAT old... I brought myself a video card a while back, which isn't too bad! It's a Matrox 7003-0301... Relative to some of the newer ones it's awful, but it's still alright. Would still want to replace it though :P

Just out of interest: What happens if I manage to get another £100 and a 44" screen? Does that vastly effect what graphics card/specs I could/should get?

And also - what sort of CPU/GPU upgrades would I be looking at in say... 12 months time... when I've got another £300-500 to spend on computers?

*oops*

LCD or CRT? ?If they're LCD, I guess they're 1024x768, which would make that graphics card vastly overpowered for what your screen can actually display in-game. You'd be better off with an 8600GT, or somesuch. If you get the 22" display, then the graphics card I chose would be much more suitable.

Perhaps - the latest generation of DX10 cards are big - My 8800GT just about fits inside my case, which is about 4cm longer than yours. The cards are designed to fit inside ATX cases with a full size motherboard, but the issue is more about placement of drives and the frame of the drive bay getting in the way. The graphics card slot is in a standard position on the motherboard, so you should be able to look at the dimensions of the card and then compare it to the inside of your case. If all else fails, you could always take some bolt cutters and cut out the offending part of the frame. that's a ghetto hack though.

It'll be AGP, though. That ATi card should tear a hole in its arse in terms of performance. Seriously.

I'd spend another £100 on a case, and maybe look at a somewhat more expensive graphics card - an 8800GT 512MB, for example, or a higher spec ATi card. If you had a 44" screen (I'm guessing you're talking about an HDTV of some description), I might spend all the money on a graphics card, but the problem is that the more money you spend, the worse the power/£ ratio gets.

Difficu,lt to say - the problem is that in 12 months time there wil probably be a new iteration of the Phenom AMD chip, and Intel won't have sat on their hands either. Pricing is also pretty difficult to predict.

They aren't LCD, so they must be the other one...
The 22" is coming with ANOTHER computer.. not sure of stats tho.. guessing it's something like this (from what little I've seen of it):

1.6ghz Process
512mb/1GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 7300
Not sure about power 'n' stuff like that...
22" Monitor
Linksys Network Card (Network card is definite... I installed it for him.. I had it kicking around so I put it in for him)
Couple of other stuff.. like speakers and a mouse/keyboard.
Might have an external modem as well, not sure.
Windows XP (not sure what version.)
Not sure what motherboard.


Is it worth just buying a new processor/upgrading RAM on this computer instead of building an entirely new one?

I would have to get Vista at some point anyway, because I need to upgrade quite a few of my other computers to it... Partly because they currently run on about 8 different OS and I can't easily connect them, and partly because with newer graphic cards you can get DX10.1 which is something I might as well get

If I was to buy a new case, what sort of size should I get? They aren't TOO expensive, so I could probably burn some money on them.

OK... I correct myself... ALL of my computer is out of date, obsolete and complete and utter...... rubbish....

No, if I had a 44" screen it would be a computer monitor, not a TV.. unless I decide to take my PC to my friends and hijack his 102" TV screen...

So... in 12 months time I would have to burn up more money? YIPEE!!! I'll have something to save up for... The... billionth (or something like that) computer for me to use :P

Out of interest - is it worth overclocking my older PCs? Currently running a P3 and a P2... 450mhz and a 330mhz. What will I get to if I overclock them? Is it worth overclocking the Matrox card for use in multi-player games?

Will my diplidated fan cope with overclocking?

I don't think so. It really would depend on the motherboard though.

your older systems will absolutely choke on Vista if they have less than 1GB RAM.

Antec make nice cases. Basically, you're looking for an ATX case that's at least 44CM long and 20CM deep.

That'll be very expensive!

Talk to Tom about that - he likes to resurrect old PCs. You could probably stick Xubuntu on an old PIII and have it run adequately. Fluxbuntu would run well too.

As for the Matrox card, it only has 32MB video RAM, if my Googling hasn't let me down, so no - I don't think it'll make any significant difference if you OC it.

So I'd have to upgrade my motherboards?

yep, definitely have to upgrade my motherboards. They could probably run 2x216, but not 2x512...

Hmm... What sort of price?

What makes you think I'll be paying for it?

OK.. I need to talk to Tom... what's his forum name? Or will he eventually notice this post and the personal reference and come post of his own accord?

Take a look. Lucky you
That's the general idea - unsolicited PMs are often frowned upon on forums.

Nearly Definite Computer Specs/Pricing:

Motherboard - GA-MA69VM-S2 AMD Motherboard. Onboard Radeon X1200. £31.75
Processor - AMD Athlon 5200+ Processor. £53.33
RAM - Crucial 2x1GB RAM (compatiable with motherboard btw) £23.99
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 160GB Hard Drive £24.37
OS - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64 Bit) £58.04
PSU - Integrated 400W
Casing - ATX Black/Silver. £?
Mouse - Unsure of make/model. Already have.
Keyboard - Unsure of make/model. Already have.
Speakers - Unsure of make/model. Already have
Monitor - 14.1" Fujitsu Seimens LCD. Already have.


Total: £264.12 (inc delivery, inc VAT)

Spending/Upgrades in the near future: DX10 compatible graphics card, larger HD (possibly up to around 500GB or maybe even 750GB), a new monitor (if I don't get that 22" off my friend), wireless networking...

Any suggestions as to what graphics card? Max spending is up to about £120 on this.. as will buy in a month or two.

Personally I wouldn't.

I think with processors that old you might get away with a 200MHz overclock, providing your case has good cooling (And you might find some of the pre-ATX cases don't really cool too well).

With modernish software I think this increase wouldn't make enough difference to justify overclocking.

On the other hand with an old processor you don't have much to lose if everything goes bad...

Hope that helps?

__________________
I Beat Anorexia.

If I have helped you, please consider donating a little cash to Cancer Research UK

Yes it does, thanks.


It doesn't really matter now anyhow - I've managed to sell the P3 to someone(with two monitors) and the P2 (with no monitor, keyboard/mouse) to the same person.

Not sure what they want them for, but I've decided it's just easier if I buy a new one