Building a New PC

[darrylstott]

Hi,

Can someone give me a rough estimate as to how much a new PC + Monitor would cost (primarily for gaming) if i built it myself?

Darryl

[Dazzla]

For the base unit, you could get a nice gaming PC for around ?600 - ?800, monitor depends on whether you want CRT of TFT.

[yashiro]

A PC that is primarily for gaming needs to be mid to top end spec.
You're looking in the region of 700-1000 pounds for something decent.

At the end of the day it costs as much as you are willing to pay.
The better approach is to set yourself a budget and buy parts to fit into said budget.

[shogun2k]

I just built an Athlon XP 1800+ , 512MB SDRAM , Geforce 4 MX 128mb, 60gig HD with all the other bits for ?175 without a monitor ( I have spares lying about) , this system is perfectly capable of running UT2K3 at near full whack without any slow down (yet to 3dmark it tho), I reckon I could build a barton 2.8ghz with 1 gig odd DDR and a decent radeon for ?300 (without dvd drives , keyboard etc, cus most have them knocking about) so , if you wanna but second hand (most things have 3 years warrenty anyway) then you can get a real bargain.

[darrylstott]

I should've been more specific about what i'm looking for, i'm currently using a P4 2.4Ghz laptop with 256mb DDR ram & a 32mb Geforce 4Go 460. It can play most current games (e.g. EVE Online) with no trouble except a bit of lag sometimes but i wan't something to play the upcoming games (Halo PC etc.)

It must be a Pentium 4 system, with DDR Ram and have a good graphics card, also the Monitor must be TFT though it doesn't have to be massive.

It also needs to have internal slots for 4 or 5 extra hard drives though i don't want the tower to be too big.

Thanks for the replies,

Darryl

[Shimmyhill]

How desperate are you ?

Reason i ask is that late August we get the revised boards that can take first batch of Prescott chips (read p5's)

May be worth hanging on for !

If not i have a Abit IC7 with 3.0C p4 with 1 gig Dual DDR 400 (Mushkin) Raddy 9700 pro and 120gb SATA drive.

Needless to say it fly's and im very happy with it !

Whatever you do go for a P4C chip (800 fsb) and DUAL DDR.

Value for money wise the 2.4c is very good and the Abit IS7 make a good combo. OCUK are very competitative on prices on these parts and have good after sales service (i also shop with them as i use the forums alot and like to give a little back !)

Hope this helps !

[darrylstott]

I'm not that desperate though i'm just looking for a system that will play upcoming games. I would have to first sell my Laptop so by that time the P5 boards may be out.

[shogun2k]

Whats pulling the machine down is the GFX card, laptops arnt gaming machines, thats it With a better graphics card that would run all games well released in the next year, doom 3 included.

[darrylstott]

Whats pulling the machine down is the GFX card, laptops arnt gaming machines, thats it With a better graphics card that would run all games well released in the next year, doom 3 included.

I agree, but as far as i know the card can't be upgraded

[shogun2k]

yep, Im pretty sure you cant

[darrylstott]

Anyway, now that i've been a bit more specific about my needs, can anyone provide more estimates?

[newmiyamoto]

How desperate are you ?

Reason i ask is that late August we get the revised boards that can take first batch of Prescott chips (read p5's)

May be worth hanging on for !

If not i have a Abit IC7 with 3.0C p4 with 1 gig Dual DDR 400 (Mushkin) Raddy 9700 pro and 120gb SATA drive.

Needless to say it fly's and im very happy with it !

Whatever you do go for a P4C chip (800 fsb) and DUAL DDR.

Value for money wise the 2.4c is very good and the Abit IS7 make a good combo. OCUK are very competitative on prices on these parts and have good after sales service (i also shop with them as i use the forums alot and like to give a little back !)

Hope this helps !

listen to the man hes talking a lot of sense (apart from his estimate about the prescott chips).

I should've been more specific about what i'm looking for, i'm currently using a P4 2.4Ghz laptop with 256mb DDR ram & a 32mb Geforce 4Go 460. It can play most current games (e.g. EVE Online) with no trouble except a bit of lag sometimes but i wan't something to play the upcoming games (Halo PC etc.)

It must be a Pentium 4 system, with DDR Ram and have a good graphics card, also the Monitor must be TFT though it doesn't have to be massive.

It also needs to have internal slots for 4 or 5 extra hard drives though i don't want the tower to be too big.

Thanks for the replies,

Darryl

if you want a board with dual ddr, 800fsb and the ability for multiple HDD's then go for the gigabyte GA-8KNXP (the board i just bought) top board rammed with features, and addons are doing a bundle with a 2.4Ghz800fsb for 300 (but i paid less).

[darrylstott]

I'm probably going to get it done at a local shop as i don't want to mess it up. My budget is only around ?500 - ?650 (inc. Monitor) so i was wondering which parts of the computer wouldn't be essential and could be upgraded at a later date?

[shogun2k]

IF you can get a xp1.8 - 2.4 with 512 ddr and a decent graphics card you will have a very good games machine, there is no need fo anything above a 2.2ghz athlon really, unless youre doing rendering or data mining, no games want or require that speed of system .

[darrylstott]

What is the cheapest graphics card that falls into the decent category and will play games such as Halo for PC and other upcoming games?