Hardware Building a £400 Gaming PC

Yep, they will but since most of bit's readers build PCs from components, they've probably already got one (or more) of each of those lying around!

 

Great article, how long did overclocking take you to do?

I think that's the main problem really, the overclocking part of the build is really what puts off the average console buyer as with all the jargon and acronyms it comes off as being something you could only do with a degree in it.

 

Overclocking too me about 30-40mins for the CPU.

 

"a £25 case isn’t going to be particularly special and had the budget been higher, we would have liked to include a more expensive chassis."

Why? In your article you state that the system was quiet and said the cooling abilities are good. I have felt that this whole chassis discussions are overrated. Unless you need something special like extreme quiet or space for the water cooling most cases will do. I have a cheap mid tower case and works great. I decided to improve it by adding extra cooling so I made a hole on the top, but this was not necessary. I have a e6600@3.2GHz and a 8800GTS640MB btw.

What will a more expensive case bring? Screw less installation and removable MB...ok, if you are a component tester that does this every day, fine. Most people just do it one a year... maybe? Before buying a more expensive case I rather spend the EUR100-200 better components or games.

Would be interesting for somebody to justify EUR300 for a case out there that does not do WC or SLI with 8800GTX. (they have the money to throw away)...

 

yeah, then I sat down and stability tested for a while, leaving it overnight to make sure we were stable.

 

I wasn't suggesting a super-expensive case, just something maybe in the region of £50-60, like the CM 690. There are some build quality niggles with the CM-331, but it's not too shabby when it comes to performance and quietness.

 

People spend EUR300 because those cases often look gorgeous in comparison to something that's EUR50. Not everything is about functionality otherwise we'd still have green/yellow motherboards and ugly heatsinks.

 

Well possibly better airflow, better looking, quieter, more cooling options, more expansion possibilities. Better looking is the main thing.

Although my £25 at the time antec case is good enough for me, just looks a little lame.

 

Most of these parts are in custom pcs budget pc which is 370 pound wow in fact there almost exactly the same.

 

what a great article, i wish bit tech would do more of this kind of thing.

I have the same mobo but a slightly higher spec: E4500 @ 3ghz and 8800GT @ 700/1000.

i have always found mid range hardware to be the best bet for me, i run a 19" monitor and due to that i can turn all the eye candy up on anything i throw at it with no problems. a little bit of overclocking and performance easily matches that of a system £100 - £200 more expensive.

to me the percentage of extra perfomance you get from a high end rig just isnt worth the price difference

 

Great article....just a shame you had to 'waste' £60 on an OS........

A spare £60 could have nearly doubled your Frame rates....)

cough....cough....

 

but im sure you'll agree the system would have been pretty useless without an OS! its just a shame gaming on linux is not a viable option as yet

 

Just for fun I built the same thing from my favourite Canadian parts vendor - i had to swap the CM 331 chassis for the 330 and the Optiarc DVD-RW wasn't there so i chose the cheapest SATA black DVD-RW. and it came out to CAD $799.91 sadly that was before tax. I do wish that tax was included in our prices here. It's not like we're getting anything cheaper in the end. Either way great read - it's an eye opener.

 

Be interesting for one of the US based members to do a similar exercise and see what they come out with inc tax.

 

I wasnt referring to a Linux powered machine.....but i think you knew that....)

 

ahhh......so hustler is a literal term then? ;-)

better be careful those nice M$ men with the black suits and ear pieces will be knocking

 

My boss would like to thank you for my productivity this morning...

Cheers Tim!

 

doesnt 800 CAN equal £ 400?

 

That is my point.... the "possibly"... just as Bindibadgi said: for looks and show off. (BTW, what is a niggle?)
A case that can fit 10 HD, How many people use more than 3 that do not have a server? I have never used more than 2. You can fit 5 DVD drives... why? I guess I took the long way to try to get to my point. You could have a basic case inside for most of the people without having the extras that make it cost extra and still make it look nice.

This is the main reason why I arrived in this forum: I was not willing to pay extra for screwless... I want my screw! Err... you know what I mean.

Tim S,
thanks for the clarification. It is a topic that I have never seen discussed at all. For me most of the cases are just too expensive than they are worth. I do not find any of them particularly pretty. The nicest ones I have seen are part of MOTY and MOTM, not commercially available.

 

Yeah - very good guide. The E2xxx series are a godsend to enthusiasts. Only comments...

1. I would have included a monitor and upped the price £200. A gaming machine requires a decent gaming monitor (ie not a 17" job), and then you would have had to choose the right size and speed for the CPU/Graphics Card to combine with. This would have made the balancing act more interesting.

2. I'm not sure how wise it is to clock an E2160 to 2.9Ghz and game on it, with only the stock cooler and one other fan to cool it. I have my E2160 at 3.15Ghz. I've got a Tuniq Tower sitting on it, and 3 other case fans and the cores still get into the 50s and 60s under load easily. I bet that rig hits 70+!

With the extra £200, I would added something like this Thermalright for £29

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=683686

and this Asus 22"Monitor for £167, where 1680 res screen would have been a good fit for the CPU/Gfx card combo, and which has an excellent 2ms response time:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=688560