Custom Gaming PC for $1,200?

[KageKingu]

Hey guys, I'm looking to build a new PC for running top of the range games in full detail smoothly.

Can I build a system like this within a budget of £800? (approx. $1,200 as of writing)

I am looking for a build with SLI, using an AMD processor and (1 or 2) XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Graphics Cards (I heard it is a very good card).

Any help as to which components I should buy would be highly appreciated
Thanks, Luke.

 

[GThomp6654]

Although it's buying a system, rather than building it from scratch, would something like this....

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Titan/Gladiator+Titan+Gaming+Partner+?productId=32514

be any good for what you are looking for?

ps. I am aware once you add the vat it's actually £850, so not sure if it would be too far over you're budget anyway

 

[KageKingu]

Thanks a lot GT, that's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.

Only issues I have are that: 1) I really prefer AMD for gaming, and 2) I'd like to put it together myself because I find it easier to upgrade when the time comes

Also, if I wait an extra month I can up my budget to around £1200 ($1800 approx.), which will cover monitor and OS costs as well as VAT.

Do you reckon it would cost much more to buy the parts seperately and replace the CPU with an AMD Phenom X4? I'd have to switch out the mobo too ofc but I think the nForce 750a SLi is cheaper anyways.

Thanks for your input on the subject, I appreciate it!

 

[GThomp6654]

I find that they are cheap for many parts, so it may be worth you going through their products and adding things to the basket that you are after, that way you can get the exact system you would be after and it shouldn't cost you anything until you actually place an order

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

£800 will get you a far more powerful system than the one linked to on Aria. Oh, and AMD used to be the performance king, but for the past two years, they haven't released anything that can compete with Intel's offerings at the same price.

I'd recommend this build:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £130.03
• Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £94.98
• Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty - £40
• Sapphire HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £246.21
• Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail - £69.94
• Antec Nine Hundred 900 - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU - £72.57

Grand Total = £653.73 including VAT and without shipping. I leave the rest of the items upto you. This PC performs far faster than the one you were recommended and all parts are of excellent quality with no compatibility problems whatsoever.

 

[LinkedKube]

Thanks a lot GT, that's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.

Only issues I have are that: 1) I really prefer AMD for gaming, and

Clearly you havnt been looking at bench marking threads for the last 2 years, right now intel is the way to go for performance. There's a reason why amd's high end processors have drops 40% in price since 2006

 

[KageKingu]

Thanks for the replies.

Is there little point choosing quad-core over dual-core at the moment then? And does SLi make that much difference?

I'm looking to make the best machine with my budget (which I've upped to around £1200), so is Rage's build a decent one to get or could I take it up a notch?

Once again thanks for all replies, appreciated

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Yep, quad-core vs dual-core is pretty much useless, gaming-wise. And SLI scaling varies from game to game, so where you might get fantastic performance in one game, another may actually not give you any performance increase from the second card.

And for your new budget, here's the new build I suggest:

• Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £94.98
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33GHz 1333MHz FSB Socket 775 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed - £199.41
• OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory REAPER EDITION CL4 - £60
• Sapphire HD 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £387.65
• Antec 650W Neopower Modular PSU - Blue LED 12CM Fan - £66.30
• Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Full Tower Case - No PSU - £110.65

Grand Total = £918.99 including VAT and without considering shipping. The rest of the items are upto you. All parts are of exceptional quality and will work together perfectly well, and will form a top-of-the-range PC that rips through anything you throw at it.

Note: If you don't have a monitor supporting at least a resolution of 1600x1200, you may want to go for the GTX 280 or GTX 260 instead. eVGA, XFX and BFG are the top three companies for these cards.

 

[KageKingu]

Thanks Rage. This is the setup I will probably use when building my PC

Thanks a lot for the replies everyone.