Gaming PC for ?700?

[spleenboy]

Hi all,
My cousin has asked for my advice to build him a gaming PC for ?700 and, to be honest, I'm a bit lost. Are there any ready-built systems for this price that are any cop?

In addition, what's a reasonably priced, good GFX these days?

Thanks in advance

[oblivion_6]

The 7800 GT is a good PCI-E card that you can get for less tha ?200

I would use an A8N-SLI Board, stick in a gb of memory and a 200gb sata drive, through in a reasonable fast athlon and that gfx card and i reckon you could do it for just about 700, no monitor ofc

This is a pretty future proofed system as the SLI capabilities will allow you to add another 7800 GT in a year or so if things start to slow down

Mobo
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=82818 ?100

HDD
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=55240 ?70

Memory
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=65723 ?90

CPU
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=88107 ?150

GFX
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=94694 ?200

THen youve got bout 90 quid left to get a PSU, case and the usual gubbings like keyboard etc.

And youve managed to build a 3500+ Athlon with 1GB, 200GB, and a PCI-E 7800 GT which is a pretty decent system and well capable of running todays games, if you wanted to up the extreme you could get a GTX card instead of the GT but that adds about another ?100, you could also add another stick of 1GB

One thing, dont be tempted to go with cheap components youll only end up regretting it

[spleenboy]

Brilliant, thanks. What type of PSU is needed - will any generic 300W one do? He's already sorted with a monitor, keyboard, etc., so could splash out the whole ?90 on a PSU if needed.

[capcom_suicide]

Brilliant, thanks. What type of PSU is needed - will any generic 300W one do? He's already sorted with a monitor, keyboard, etc., so could splash out the whole ?90 on a PSU if needed.

The GT needs 400Watts

If you can manage, do take the advice on 2Gb of RAM. It will make quite some difference.

C_S

[spleenboy]

The GT needs 400Watts

If you can manage, do take the advice on 2Gb of RAM. It will make quite some difference.

C_S

Righto, I'll go for this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=14999210225&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=90613

What about a case?

[Rsdio]

If you can spare an extra tenner for an extra 100gb of hard disk, I've heard quite a few people recommend this.

[capcom_suicide]

Righto, I'll go for this one:

What about a case?

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=63768

Seems to be OK and not bad for 18 quid.

[oblivion_6]

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=63768

Seems to be OK and not bad for 18 quid.

decent case that one, i used it for a build i did a while ago, decent access to it etc and it holds a fair amount of things.

[Magnakai]

I'd go for this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=93403
Really great case. Nice and quiet too.

In my opinion a decent case is an important part of a nice PC. I'd spend the extra on this or a similar one. Tbh, you'll be hard pressed to find a decent case with a good PSU for much cheaper than that.

[Rsdio]

I've got the original Sonata and it's fantastic. I'll deffoes be getting the 'sequel' next time I'm building a PC, not only quiet but it looks lovely too.

[SubparMario]

Simple black cases are definitely where it's at. Those neon fairground ride jobs with the "windows" look like ****.

[spleenboy]

Ok, so all the bits arrived and I was tasked with putting it all together. Great. My knowledge of this sort of thing is decidedly 'basic'.

A couple of things:

1) The HDD is a SATA one; does this mean that my DVD drive can be connected as the primary master IDE?

2) The cooling fan on the case itself requires power. Do I connect this lead to a handy little slot I've found on the motherboard, or directly to the PSU? Or does it not matter?

Thanks in advance.

[EvilBoris]

Ok, so all the bits arrived and I was tasked with putting it all together. Great. My knowledge of this sort of thing is decidedly 'basic'.

A couple of things:

1) The HDD is a SATA one; does this mean that my DVD drive can be connected as the primary master IDE?

2) The cooling fan on the case itself requires power. Do I connect this lead to a handy little slot I've found on the motherboard, or directly to the PSU? Or does it not matter?

Thanks in advance.

1) yep

2) Check your mobo manual to see if it has a slot, as it may have special cooling control built into the bios. If it doesn't it can go straight to the power

[spleenboy]

The manual says nothing specific of the power connector, only that it's a 4-pin EZ_PLUG. It does suggest using it to connect to a second GFX card, though.

I think I'll play it safe and plug it into the PSU. Thanks for the advice!

[oblivion_6]

How did it go m8 u get it up and running?