This isn't the first time I've tried to spec together a new machine, but I really REALLY need a better gaming rig, so here goes, any comments, suggestions greatly received before my credit card gets a hammering.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium £65.55

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU £59.99

ASUS P5KC AiLifestyle Series iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £74.89

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) £49.99

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM £87.99

Gecube HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £68.41

Sony DRU-190S 20X DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM Serial ATA - Retail Multi Bezel & Nero £15.97

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache £129.31

Guy come on, if you want a better gaming rig you're going to need to spend more than £70 on the graphics card, you're going to need to at least double that.

Get a cheaper motherboard, CPU and harddrive if you're on a budget....what is your budget?

Whats up with the GFX card?, what should I be looking for?.

Budget is as normal, as cheap as possible, to give you some idea of how long ago it was I built a system......

My current system is a P4 3.0, 1GB Ram and an AGP ATIX800

Quote from danowat :

this Isn't The First Time I've Tried To Spec Together A New Machine, But I Really Really Need A Better Gaming Rig, So Here Goes, Any Comments, Suggestions Greatly Received Before My Credit Card Gets A Hammering.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium £65.55

hope It's The 64-bit Version

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With Cm Extreme Power 460w Psu £59.99

sounds Good

Asus P5kc Ailifestyle Series Ip35 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio Atx Motherboard £74.89

would Recommend Either The Gigabyte P31-ds3l Or The P35-ds3r If Your On A Tight Budget - Do You Need Raid Or Overclocking?

Ocz 4gb (2x2gb) Ddr2 800mhz/pc2-6400 Memory Gold Dual Channel Unbuffered Cl5(5-5-5-18) £49.99

ocz's And P5k's Have Issues, But It's Still Good Ram (for Cheap).

Samsung Spinpoint F1 Hd103uj 1tb Hard Drive Sataii *32mb Cache* - Oem £87.99

great, But Can Be Had For Less From Scan Via Today Only With Free Delivery From Hexus

Gecube Hd 3850 512mb Gddr3 Dual Dvi Hdtv Out Pci-e Graphics Card £68.41

if You Can Try To Get A 4850

Sony Dru-190s 20x Dvd±rw Dl & Dvd-ram Serial Ata - Retail Multi Bezel & Nero £15.97

meh - Best One For The Price But Tbh Doesn't Really Matter

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4ghz 1066mhz) Socket 775 L2 8mb Cache £129.31

great Cpu, But £130 Is A Bit Much - Aria had Them For £105, But They Are Back Up To £115 Now

Quote from Jakg :

this Isn't The First Time I've Tried To Spec Together A New Machine, But I Really Really Need A Better Gaming Rig, So Here Goes, Any Comments, Suggestions Greatly Received Before My Credit Card Gets A Hammering.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium £65.55

hope It's The 64-bit Version

Hmmm.....so I'd need a 64 bit one then for the CPU I presume?

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With Cm Extreme Power 460w Psu £59.99

sounds Good

Cool

Asus P5kc Ailifestyle Series Ip35 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio Atx Motherboard £74.89

would Recommend Either The Gigabyte P31-ds3l Or The P35-ds3r If Your On A Tight Budget - Do You Need Raid Or Overclocking?

No and no to both, just a decent mobo

Ocz 4gb (2x2gb) Ddr2 800mhz/pc2-6400 Memory Gold Dual Channel Unbuffered Cl5(5-5-5-18) £49.99

ocz's And P5k's Have Issues, But It's Still Good Ram (for Cheap).

Cool

Samsung Spinpoint F1 Hd103uj 1tb Hard Drive Sataii *32mb Cache* - Oem £87.99

great, But Can Be Had For Less From Scan Via Today Only With Free Delivery From Hexus

Cheers, I'll look into pricing when I have a spec

Gecube Hd 3850 512mb Gddr3 Dual Dvi Hdtv Out Pci-e Graphics Card £68.41

if You Can Try To Get A 4850

No idea about GFX cards, last one I brought was an X800 many moons ago, will look into it.

Sony Dru-190s 20x Dvd±rw Dl & Dvd-ram Serial Ata - Retail Multi Bezel & Nero £15.97

meh - Best One For The Price But Tbh Doesn't Really Matter

Indeed

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4ghz 1066mhz) Socket 775 L2 8mb Cache £129.31

great Cpu, But £130 Is A Bit Much - Aria had Them For £105, But They Are Back Up To £115 Now

Ta, CPU is good, price is bad, again, once I have spec sorted I'll try and beat the price down

Thanks Jak

I read some good stuff about the ATI's 4850 (around £130), it matched Nvidia's 9800GTX and is about £40 cheaper.

I'd also go for the Intel E8200. Quad cores are nice but only gain with applications/games that use all four cores.

Not really kept up with enough to go into detail, I'm sure the one will be around soon tho.

EDIT: There you go.

You won't need 64-bit Vista for the CPU, but to see over about 2.75 - 3.5 GB of RAM you'll need 64-bit Vista.

Overall it's just better.

The Gigabyte P31-DS3L is a good cheap (£50) mobo.

Ok, nice one Jak, price is the same for 32 bit and 64 bit, so if 64 is better, I'll go for that.

Dan, ever considered buying in 2nd hand ?
I saw this because there's probably dozens of forums sellings good stuff like new and with garantie, you don't idea how many OC's and reviewers guys keep selling their products after reviewing or testing.

Aye, it's a possiblity, but you can't beat the convenience of buying everything in one hit.

I'll have to look into it, thanks man.

Id recommend atleast E8400, its stock clock is 3.0 ghz, and not many games use more than 2 cores anyway, so compared to Q6600 2.4ghz and older technology, i think e8400 would be better choice.

dont get a gigabut board there ram killers. on the forums i hang out in theres guys reporting of there gigabut boards killing there ram or degrading it. the reason there killing ram or degrading it is becuz the boards dont have a good power circuit for there ram and they have bad ripple and spikes in the ram voltage circuitry. try searching it you will see. try dfi, biostar, asus. those are what i would choose. i have a biostar tp45 board and its great for everything.

Do you absolutely require the Vista licence?
I don't think there's any important software right now that requires Vista and I don't think there will ever be.
Using your old Windows Xp (propably) licence on the new computer will free up some funds that can be invested into a good and lasting GFX card.
And not switching to Vista will free up system recources to improve performance.

Vain

If you're going for 4850, look out for models where reference cooler is replaced with better. Gainward and Sapphire atleast have those, I'm using Sapphire's 4850 and it stays under 75'C for most of the time while not sounding like a jetplane. It's little bit louder than my old EAX-X1950Pro but it's not really distracting since it's rather low hum and you won't notice it during gameplay.