13 replies to this topic

[Senna]

Hey.. I live in UK and am looking to buy a new PC for playing CS:S on mainly, budget = 1k ish but looking to spend around £600

I've no idea about what's what specs wise which is why I made the thread... also i'm not into overclocking etc or taking my pc apart, I just want to buy a really good pc take it out of the box.. then play!

Help much appreciated =)

[Plasmic Fury]

Im not good with UK prices but get something like this


PSU: ?? no idea what good PSU's are now someone else can recommend one get one 500W or over
Mobo: Asus P5k
GPU: 8800GT
Processor: Q6600
HDD: Your preference, 320gb or 500gb would be nice to fit price ranges
Case: Your preference again, I like thermaltake and Antec cases
RAM: 2gb's of something cheap


CSS isnt demanding at all, this computer will run it amazinly, plus ull be able to play all new games perfectly aswell.

[Seroph]

Your total costs including the actual creation of the machine by a UK based company will most likely cost you more like £350

nVidia geforce 8600 GT = £70
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-86GT5

2gb DDR2 ram, Intel Mobo and P dual core processor with heatsink, fan etc. = £140
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-E2162G

Midi ATX case with 450watt PSU = £35
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DAGON

160GB HDD - Seagate = £30
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-79P162

Use your old CV/Dvd drive or pay for one here: = £10
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DVD16B

Cost from a UK company to fit it all = £50

Total cost = £335 + VAT = £360-£370(depending on DVD drive) inc delivery from Novatech.

If you're close to me I can install it for you, i've done a few for customers.

James

Hey.. I live in UK and am looking to buy a new PC for playing CS:S on mainly, budget = 1k ish but looking to spend around £600

I've no idea about what's what specs wise which is why I made the thread... also i'm not into overclocking etc or taking my pc apart, I just want to buy a really good pc take it out of the box.. then play!

Help much appreciated =)

[Senna]

So I just order all that lot then ask a company to put it together?

is there no way you can just order it already done

[Seroph]

They won't install it as they are just a trading company not a manufacturer- take the parts into your local PC shop.

[AZN_L473ncy]

Or do it yourself and save like $50 (sorry using a US/Canada keyboard so no pound symbol)

Usually there is some cost associated with a shop putting it together for you (labour isn't cheap you know).

It's not too hard to do it yourself and you only have to do it once to get the hang of it.

[7h3 n00b m4573r]

Your total costs including the actual creation of the machine by a UK based company will most likely cost you more like £350

nVidia geforce 8600 GT = £70
<a href="http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-86GT5" target="_blank">http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-86GT5</a>

2gb DDR2 ram, Intel Mobo and P dual core processor with heatsink, fan etc. = £140
<a href="http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-E2162G" target="_blank">http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-E2162G</a>

Midi ATX case with 450watt PSU = £35
<a href="http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DAGON" target="_blank">http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DAGON</a>

160GB HDD - Seagate = £30
<a href="http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-79P162" target="_blank">http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-79P162</a>

Use your old CV/Dvd drive or pay for one here: = £10
<a href="http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DVD16B" target="_blank">http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-DVD16B</a>

Cost from a UK company to fit it all = £50

Total cost = £335 + VAT = £360-£370(depending on DVD drive) inc delivery from Novatech.

considering he said he had a larger budget than that he can can do a lot better than that build
also i wouldn't recomend that mobo/CPU bundlge, G31 chipset = crappy compared to P35, G31 is mostly for lower power media centre PCs and the likes.


anywayz a good modern gaming build you wanna look at:
Q6600 for quadcore or for dualcore E8400
quality mobo, gigabyte P35/X38 ones are good if you get the ultra durable series (has a D in the name), P35-DS3L is a good basic one with few extras and great performance
2gigs of DDR2 RAM, clocked depending how high you want to overclock. For a Q6600 any old set radeon for 800MHz will do, for an E8400 you can hit 4GHz with those things which would require 888MHz memory on a 1:1 divider.
a reasonable quality mid-tower case, coolermaster mystique is good, coolermaster centurion 5, thermaltake armor junior/somprano.
dont use a PSU that comes with the case if you can afford it though, got a quality one from a maker such as FSP, seasonic, corsair, zalman, tagan and there are a few other good ones. Antec is allright for lower budget builds but don't have the component quality of the other brands, most rigs can be powered comfortably of a 450W high quality PSU
graphics card, best cards in their price range would be HD2600XT, HD3850 256mb, 8800GT 256mb/512mb, 8800GTS 512mb, 2xHD3870s in crossfire, 2x8800GTS 512mb in SLI. Just depends on your budget which setup you get.
then just chuck on any old SATA-II harddrive which suits your needs, RAID setups are also nice if your motherboard supports it.

and there you have the recipe for a good desktop gaming PC

[teh_pVp3r]

I don't know much about UK stores or prices but here's what I'd recommend.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracude 320gB SATA2 3gb/s

Case: antec 900

RAM: Corsair XMS2 Twin2X2048-6400 DDR2-800

MOBO: ASuS P5n-E SLI

PSU: Silverstone or OCZ 500W

GPU: 8800GT or 8600GT if you only want to play counter strike for a year+

This system will run counter-strike at very high settings and you will also be able to play most of the latest games.
I am unsure if these are available in the UK but, hopefully you get the idea.

[DHC]

im bound to agree with Seroph's suggested PC. if all the OP wants to play is CSS, why spend all that money on a higher-specced PC? its just wasteful

[SorrowNight]

im bound to agree with Seroph's suggested PC. if all the OP wants to play is CSS, why spend all that money on a higher-specced PC? its just wasteful

I'd swap the 8600GT for an 8800GT 256MB, and buy a nice widescreen monitor, anywhere from 20-24". ;D

[7h3 n00b m4573r]

im bound to agree with Seroph's suggested PC. if all the OP wants to play is CSS, why spend all that money on a higher-specced PC? its just wasteful

The current intention is to play CSS on it, however most people at some point see some new game that looks good and wants to try it out so not buying the bare minimum specced rig saves on upgrading when some new awesome game is released.

[Seroph]

I have pretty much the rig I mentioned above with a few variants, i'm currently playing CSS, Tf2, Cod 4 etc with no problems what-so-ever, I think that the problem is there's a misconception that you simply have to have the latest hardware to play the latest games, which isn't true.

In re to the 512 86 --> 256 88 it's purely up to the OP'er, the 88 will probably double the cost and while the extra power is noticeable it 's really only noticeable on games that came out a month ago for PC and require teh_processing powerz to run.

Point is why spend money that you don't need --> as mentioned above get a larger monitor and a rig that will suit you + some spare cash rather than going and getting a WTB_BBQ PC (quad-super-dooper-ubrs-epix-money) that in reality you'll probably not want/need/use for a very long time especially if you're only playing games!

[AZN_L473ncy]

He seems like a recreational player so yeah, just cheap out on the parts. He'll have more money to play around with, invest, whatever.

He doesn't REALLY need to play on all high settings anyways, (well except for CSS I'm assuming), he can probably live playing COD4 on all low or low medium. So if you're not a hardcore gamer which has to have AA at 8x, at the highest res possible, and everything set to super high, then why not cheap out and have money in the bank for those mortgage payments or whatever?

[Rayza]

He seems like a recreational player so yeah, just cheap out on the parts. He'll have more money to play around with, invest, whatever.

He doesn't REALLY need to play on all high settings anyways, (well except for CSS I'm assuming), he can probably live playing COD4 on all low or low medium. So if you're not a hardcore gamer which has to have AA at 8x, at the highest res possible, and everything set to super high, then why not cheap out and have money in the bank for those mortgage payments or whatever?

lol, most of the competitive players I know use FPS configs, we usually care even LESS than other gamers about pretty pictures. Furthermore I'm with Noob Master on this one, you set a budget then you get the best parts within the budget, that simple.