Requesting advice for building a budget gaming PC

Yeah, I was on a bit of a hiatus. It's nice to be back.

The graphics card is THE most important component in a gaming PC. Rest assured that most of the time, the more expensive it is, the better performance you will get out of it. Of course, a good buy would take into account not only price but other factors such as the maximum resolution of the screen you'd like to use, and whether or not you can afford a power supply.

Regardless, restate your budget range, and what parts you'd like to re-use from your current system, along with details on these parts (posting pictures may help, if you're unable to find any model numbers or the like).

That'll allow us to give you better recommendations.

What processer is better?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=317828027&pf_rd_i=468294

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Bulldoz...=UTF8&colid=Z7835Z9XKQ6G&coliid=IG6SJKL5KZ4LP

I'm not sure how I would compare an older generation 4 core vs a newer generation 6 core. To me the FX-6100 would be the winner of that comparison.

New budget:
Currently:£250 (I have another £100, but that's only if something's JUST out of price range, and for personal spending shizz)
+£40 September - £290
+£40 October - £330
+£40 November - £370
+£40 December - £ 410
(-£60 GF's present)
£350

• Christmas (Max - £200)

Maximum by Christmas : £550
+ My Dad would probably help pay for some things, but that doesn't add anything to the total as it would only counter balance me going out at several points.

Yes, but I looked at a review, and realised that it's not true Hex-Core, it uses SMT doesn't it? And compared to it's older generation partner the Phenom II X6, it's beaten on all benchmarks, and I find SMT to be less capable than physical cores, I'm currently using the Intel i5 M460, using HyperThreading instead of the extra 2 physical cores, and even just hosting a private server on Minecraft via Hamachi has actually put all 4 'cores' at 100% and required me to turn my laptop off. I don't know if that's the reason or if my laptop is just crap, but they don't seem as capable from observation.

The FX 6100 Black Edition review I found here comes last in every benchmark test they tried. Whereas the Phenom II X6 is almost an even match for the FX 8150. And in gaming terms, the Phenom II X6 was far ahead compared to the FX's. The price on amazon is also good, so this is a very plausible option!

I have what I (In my 16 year old amature opinion) I think is a good list, still trying to find a motherboard, I'm trying not to go over £400, but what I'm hoping is that my dad will fill in what I can't, so our budget is now tied in with getting a motherboard and a case for £95.

Were you comparing the FX-6100 to Phenom II X4 or Phenom II X6? The Phenom II X4 is going to be roughly 66% the performance of the Phenom II X6. This is not to mention the power consumption differences between the two generations.

I was comparing it to the Phenom II X4, but considering the Phenom II X6 is only a few pounds more, I think I'll just go with it. I now have a rig in that amazon list, coming a few pounds over £400. Just a question - could I take RAM out of my old XP running PC and put it into my new one? I think it's 2 GB, so if I keep that and then then get 4GB then that'd be plenty, because I think 8 is good but not needed.

If that is what you want, I am more than happy for you.

That depends on whether or not you old machine uses the same memory standard of the new one you are building. Personally, I highly doubt they will be the same standard. DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory standards are not compatible with each other. More than likely your new machine will be DDR3 dependent and your old system uses DDR or DDR2.

Your Amazon wishlist link doesn't work.

Why doesn't it work?

It asks me to log in to view the wishlist. Maybe you could just post the details of the parts here.

I set it to give access to those with the link.

Post the perma-link to the wishlist then, not the generic Amazon link.

I made it public anyway now.

You still need to post the link to the wishlist; the link you've posted earlier goes to a generic wishlist link.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/Z7835Z9XKQ6G/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o_C-2_d

What brand is the current PSU you have? That's the only potential issue I see, aside from the mATX motherboard; I've seen heat problems with quad-core CPUs on mATX boards, although these were older boards and CPUs, and I suspect you might probably be fine with newer components. Someone else can give more/better insight into this, I guess.

Also, why buy the HD 6870? An HD 78xx series card would be a better buy.