A Gaming PC

[paceyjg]

Hello, i am new to the site and was hoping i could get some good advice from any who would like to give it! I was thinking about building a new PC aimed mainly for gaming - i dont want to spend a huge amount and would like a tft monitor to go with it. I have looked around the net and it seems that it will cost roughly the same to build it myself as it will to have it built for me. I dont want to spend more than eight hundred quid really but i would like something that could be easily upgraded in the future. Anyone got any good advice? I am considering having one built at pcspecialist.co.uk at the moment. Some of the specs i have currently chosen are -

Athlon 64 3500 processor
Asus A8N- SLI motherboard
128 6600GT graphics card

Many thanks for looking

Justin

[apocalypse]

Here are a few articles that should give you some food for thought.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...aming_pc_2005/

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/...le.php/3550661

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/...le.php/3520601

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/...le.php/3529251

[CaptHandsome]

Weeeeeeell. If you are building a gaming PC, I implore you to skip the TFT. Yes, they are making so fantastically brilliant flat panels lately, almost eliminating ghosting, BUT, none of them will ever get the Resolution/Refresh performance of a CRT.

800 quid is about $1,000 us correct? Get the Asus mobo, get the 3700+ San Diego. Better bang. Its about $100us more, w/much better performance. Dont get the 6600. Drop an extra $150us and get a 6800GT. Again, supierior performance. Grab a couple of western digital 120GB HDD (SATA 150) and a nice 16X DVD burner, a 52X CD burner, at least 1GB (2x512mb) of some Corsair/Mushkin/OCZ 400mhz RAM (i reccomend 2gigs if u can afford it. If you want to go crazy, get some WD raptor hard drives instead. they will add noticeable performance. umm....what else? sound blaster audigy2 zs will suit you fine, but the X-Fi is the next generation. great sound repro and takes a lil more load off your CPU for those 64 man BF2 server. get a decent case and solid powersupply (antec or enermax) and you're gold.

any other questions?

[RamonGTP]

I thought the same about the LCD's until I actually used one with a low response time. It works quite well for anything from fast paced gaming (I was playing BF2) to watching DVD's. While my main gaming rig still has a CRT, I will seriously look into a low-responce LCD for my next monitor. That said however, low responce monitors can get pricey.

[CaptHandsome]

Let me ask you something. Are you just upgrading, because then the option of affording a TFT becomes much more possible. But if you want to get CPU, Mobo, RAM, Video, Sound, HDD, Case, PSU, Fans (am i forgetting anything?); basically the whole kit-n-kaboodle, then you could get a much better system and a fully functional, flat screen, gamer preferred, CRT monitor. Or you could get an inferior system with "space friendly," skinny, alien looking TFT monitor. Mind you, the CRT still performs better. But those are the facts jack. I think half the fun of getting a whole new rig is actually busting your balls, reading all the reviews, posting a whole bunch of threads, asking all your questions and finally cutting all the corners to get the best buy for the buck.

[RamonGTP]

On the memory front, I would definatly recommend 2GB (2x1GB sticks) if you're building this for gaming. If however you go with 1GB for the time being, I would go with a single 1GB stick instead of 2x512. You won't get dual channel from 1 stick, but the benifits outweigh the costs IMO. Reason being is that if you're going to be gaming, you WILL want to upgrade to 2GB sooner or later. If you go with 2x512 now and then 2x512 later, you will have to run some VERY relaxed memory timings in order for 4 sticks to work on an A64 system. I had 4x512 sticks in mine and upgraded to two 1GB sticks within a couple days because I didnt like the idea of having my brand new 3700+ not operating at its fullest potential.

[CaptHandsome]

agreed

[paceyjg]

Thanks for you help guys, i will do more research then get your opinions before i build/order. (800 quid is about $1400)

[apocalypse]

I do like the fact that Google has a built in currency converter (or convert anything to anything really).

http://www.google.com/help/features.html#currency

1400 U.S. dollars = 792.303339 British pounds