Best way to spend £500 on gaming rig?

[Guest]

Ive been out of the OC'ing loop for some time and dont know where to begin. Intel/AMD, ATI/Nvidia?
My current rig is NF7 @ 200x10 with 1Gb DDR and an ATI 2600xt it still runs some of the latest games but I still think its time to upgrade.

For £500 I will need:
CPU and cooler
Motherboard
Ram
1Tb HDD
Power supply
Case? are we still using atx?

 

[OmegaStalker]

It will be hard on that budget if i was you i would increase our budget some what.... i just bought all my new parts and it cost me £1200...

 

[Guest]

£500 really if my maximum budget. I just cant justify any more than that.

 

[theAnimal]

£500 really if my maximum budget. I just cant justify any more than that.

Intel is the way to go if you're OCing, although the new Phenom II is not too bad.

CPU: E5200
HSF: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
RAM: 2x2GB Mushkin, G-Skill, Corsair or Crucial rated at 1.8V
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F1, WD Caviar Black
Case: Antec NSK series or Sonata III (both come with good PSU)

What size/resolution monitor?

 

[Guest]

Thanks animal the minitor is a 19" widescreen @ 1440x900

I forgot I actualy need a new graphics card on that budget too!
Im looking at:


CPU: E5200 £62
HSF: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £20
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R £125
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB £73
RAM: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500 £44
HDD: 250Gb £40
No Case just PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 400w £47
Total = £411

Im pricing all this at www.overclockers.co.uk is there any where cheaper I could look?

 

[theAnimal]

Thanks animal the minitor is a 19" widescreen @ 1440x900

I forgot I actualy need a new graphics card on that budget too!
Im looking at:


CPU: E5200 £62
HSF: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £20
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R £125
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB £73
RAM: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500 £44
HDD: 250Gb £40
No Case just PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 400w £47
Total = £411

Im pricing all this at www.overclockers.co.uk is there any where cheaper I could look?

Edit: change the mobo to Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L and PSU to Antec Earthwatts 380W.

For that resolution, I'd say HD4830 or 9800GT.

Other sites to check:

ebuyer.com
dabs.com
scan.co.uk

 

[MaDMagik]

First of all forget 400w psu, and I would go with ddr2 800 memory instead of 1066, especially with that cpu. So:

Prices from ebuyer.com - great service every time, so good I cant believe its actually an UK firm

e5200 - £58.99

Freezer 7 Pro - £16

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L - £93 or Asus P5Q - £88

ASUS HD 4850 512MB - £112

OCZ Gold XTC pc6400 2x2gb - £41

Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB 32MB cache - £47

Hiper 530W Black Type M - £50

Works out £418, around 435 with delivery, so you got spare £65 you could actually go with better cpu. If i were you I would break the budget by 20 quid and go with e8400.

 

[OmegaStalker]

i agree with MaDMagik

 

[richardscott]

the one thing id sujest is getting 2hd's and putting them in raid 0 for performance. i got 3x500gb and they can read at 225mb/s really fast for loading times etc