First hello to everyone at here, first post clearly! After messing up a bit when trying to build my own PC at first I thought I'd ask some people before I buy this time! I'm looking for a system that will hopefully run Empire total war nicely if thats possible just so you have an idea of what I'm looking for. What I need - Motherboard, GPU, Processor, some new ram and a cheap fan! What I have - 600W Artic PSU, 19" monitor and a big enough case. Budget - £250. I've been having a look around ebuyer as they have a very tasty buy now pay later option so I hope thats a reasonable site to buy hardware off. I was just wondering if you guys could give me some help in choosing some reasonable parts as I'm a bit clueless with compatibability and whats the best to get at the moment! Cheers for any help!
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/04/04/what-hardware-should-i-buy-april-2009/2 You should be able to get the CPU, Mobo, GPU, ram and cooler listed here for about £250. You didn't say anything about a hard drive, presume you already have one, but they are cheap these days.
Hmm, nice list thanks. Sorry yes, my hard drive is good enough for the job, so no need for upgrade there!
Alritey, had a look at that list which is pretty helpful and this is what my ideas are so far... GPU: XFX GTS250 512MB http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160986 (£105.99) OR XFX HD 4830 512MB DDR3 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159719 (£74.98) CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz Socket 775 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148715 (£57.92) Motherboard: ASUS P5QL PRO iP43 Socket 775 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149274 (£68.49) OR Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L P43 Socket 775 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145668 (£74.55) Ram: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146049 (£35.99) I'm pretty sure thats all compatible? Is there anything that could be improved upon for cheaper or a bit more cash? I'm also not sure which to get between those two choices with the GPU and Motherboard. Thanks.
here's the thing. I don't know what type of usage you have planned for this rig and am not familiar with that game, but you are really limiting yourself to what you can do in the future. the board is a fairly feature-less mobo, the cards are decent, but not going to blow the doors off anything, especially at higher resolution, and the mobo doesn't support dropping in another card down the road. what os will you be running, and what type of user are you? also, i am not familiar with artic, can anyone attest to the quality of the psu?
Just a gaming rig I guess, thats the most i'll be doing with it anyway. I can't really afford a massive upgrade but as it is at the moment im on a 6800 gt with a 3ghz processor and 1 gig of ram so this upgrade will be pretty significant for me if you see what I mean lol. I'm not interested in SLI in the future as I simply cannot afford it. My monitor supports a maximum of 1280 x 1024, crap I know but what can I do hey! Just looking for a rig that can play games for now, obviously won't be able to handle intensive games for years to come but just as long as its alright for now and a year or two, that'll suit me.
well, at that res you might be ok anyway. just realize that you put yourself in a little bit of a future-proofing bind and if you're fine with it then cool. I'd personally go with the 4830 card, and use the extra that you would have spent on the gts 250 on a better board (say the ep45-ud3p) with x-fire capability, so you could drop another 4830 in down the road if need be. oh, and btw, welcome to bit-tech.
Hmm, thats an option, and you reckon 600W would be sufficient to run 2 4830's? Would 2 4830's be sufficient to last a good few years in the gaming world?
i would get these if i were in your place http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-...800)-240-Pins-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-4-4-4-12 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Giga...(x16)-DDR2-1066-667-800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Inte...t-775-Wolfdale-Core-2x25-GHz-2MB-Cache-Retail http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...R3-GPU-575MHz-640-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP £245.17 have fun
all day long my friend. built a couple rigs just like that (dual 4830's with a corsair 620). more than enough power.
