Build me a (HL2) gaming machine!

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

I was looking on eBuyer.co.uk yesterday to cost up the components for building a new machine ready for HL2 in September/October. Then it occurred to me I hadn't the foggiest about what to buy for it, as I've been out of the PC tech loop for over a year.

Anyone got some idea how to build a new base unit (with hard drive, DVD burner, CPU, mobo and video card) which'll be close to or under the £1000 mark?

 

[Jagermeister]

Lose the DVD burner if you want a good HL2 gaming rig for under £1000

 

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

Heh good point... what core components would be good for it though? I honestly have no idea who's leading the hardware pack these days.

 

[TrueWeltall]

Well im getting a Dell 4600 with all the goodies and save 400$ but thats just me. Go with a Nforce 2 mobo and a bart chip

 

[Dave]

Well im upgrading in the Summer to this..

Intel Pentium 4 3.0CGhz

Abit IC7-G Max-2 Advance

OCZ 512mb PC3200

Processor speaks for itself, motherboard is pretty much top of the range. Memory is the best make available, and fast too. I totalled it at around £620, so you got just under £400 to share between a Vid card (most likely an ATI Radion 9800 Pro. which can be gotten for around £300) then you got the rest to spend on a speedy Hard Disk, bearing in mind it doesn't have to be huge, this is just to play HL on, right? :E

 

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

Well, buying such a thing (just) for HL2 wouldn't be very forward thinking of me.

Hard drives aren't really a problem though. You can get a decent 120GB one for about £70, although I've been advised to stay away from IBM/Hitachi's 'Pixie Dust' models 'cos they wear out faster than their peers.

 

[Ridic]

theres a very slim difference of waht is the best and what is great. dont get a machine with 3.0 GHz, it would waste ur money. like i stated in a different thread. i could run aa 2.0 Ghz machine faster then someone could run a 3.0GHz machine. processor speed just dosnt matter like it used too. but my recomendations for a cpu is anywhere from 2.0-2.8GHz, what ever u can afford, get at least a gig of ddr ram. pc2100 or higher is good. im getting a new pc too and it comes out to almost $1,100>

Athlon XP 2400+ $98.00
Abit-Kd7 motherboard $87.50
Crucial Micron 2048mb PC2700 RAM $248.00 (for FOUR 512 sticks)
Antec 430W True Power Supply $82.99
Radeon 9800 pro 128 meg $395.00
Western Digital 120 gig special edition $121.00
Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW Drive $43.00
Sony DDU1621 DVD-Rom Drive Black $39.00
Hercules GameSurround Fortissimo III 7.1 $46.00
3.5" Floppy Drive $11.00
Vantec's Aeroflow CPU cooler $32.00

Total w/o case- $1079.49

no matter what speed u get, i recomend AMD, if this pc will be for gaming it be better to get amd considering they are faster then most pentiums at there match speed. for a video card....well depends. if the minimum req for hl2 is a tnt card....then u have plenty of options. im getting a 9800 pro cause i want things pretty. i dont know what HL2 will preform like on any system yet, but i bet you could get a good 50-70 fps on a medium style setting with a 9500 pro.

 

[Ridic]

its just so funny to see people wasting their money on things that they think is the best where no game needs, and when it dose, the price will be down. my system im getting can run faster then any brand name 3.0GHz computer. maybe if u got like money out the shizam, then go ahead and buy the most expensive shiznit u can find. whatever u do....dont buy a brand name pc, im sure u wont though.

 

[Dave]

Yeah, I was thinking that, may as well get a 2.8 AMD Set-up, much, much cheaper than the Intel method, and not much drop in performance, either. And the saved pennies can go towards a 9800 Pro.

Also, Brand name pc's suck, yeah. But they are freakin' cheap sometimes. Cheaper than i've seen getting all the components seperatly, even if they're all OEM. :\

 

[Ridic]

Originally posted by Dave
Yeah, I was thinking that, may as well get a 2.8 AMD Set-up, much, much cheaper than the Intel method, and not much drop in performance, either. And the saved pennies can go towards a 9800 Pro.

exactly dave....amd is cheaper and u definitly wouldnt see a decrease in performance at all. of course cpu speed matters but its mostly ur other stuff that makes or breaks a good pc....for instance-my brother has a 1.3GHz machine and his pc boots up twice as fast as my current one which is 1.7Ghz...but my computer is a brand name one that dosnt exactly own when u look inside

 

[Dave]

My computer was a brand Gateway, couldn't tell now though, looking at the oh so pretty Lian Li case

 

[Ridic]

yea lian li are nice, i was thinking of buying one. im in the process of looking for cases now. its a bit harder since i need to find one without a power supply.

 

[Dave]

As far as I know, hardly any Lian Li or Coolermaster cases come with a power supply. Lian-Li are nice and cheaper alternative to Coolermaster.

 

[TrueWeltall]

Originally posted by [Hunter]Ridic
no matter what speed u get, i recomend AMD, if this pc will be for gaming it be better to get amd considering they are faster then most pentiums at there match speed.

Yeah right, Intel = faster fsb + raw power + money
AMD = slow fsb + Moderate power + heat

If your spending atleast 1000+ go with intel.

 

[Ridic]

some antecs, and thermal takes come without psu's. i was going to buy the antec whatever because it was really nice with a metalic color and a side panal window....then i realized it had 10 drive bays....wtf am i going to need 10 disk drive bays.....what a waste of case.

 

[Ridic]

Originally posted by TrueWeltall
Yeah right, Intel = faster fsb + raw power + money
AMD = slow fsb + Moderate power + heat

If your spending atleast 1000+ go with intel.

fsb speed dosnt really matter....its not noticeable unless u got like 100 or lower....and yes, if u do get an AMD get a cpu fan in too.

 

[Jagermeister]

 

[Dave]

Uh, Hunter, why on earth do you need 2GB of Ram?

 

[Ridic]

cause i get ram for free so i might as well fill my mobo up as much as i can.

 

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

No way am I buying something branded hehe. The last time I bought a branded computer was eight years ago.

But I've noticed that the Athlon '2800+' and the 2.8GHz P4 are competitively priced (£163 vs. £218). Which one's the best to go for? Also, what's going to be the most upgradable in the future? I've got the impression that the Pentium is better in performance terms and the extra bus speed obviously makes other components run faster.

 

[Ridic]

well still amd is cheaper....um i dont know, but my buddies athlon xp 2200+ smoked his friends P4 2.2.................so i dont know, but id go with pentium ( and a cpu fan--$30)

 

[bonanzaguy]

BOOOOO!! AMD + ATI == t3h pwnz0r

 

[Jagermeister]

The best proc to get for you money would be an Athlon XP 2500 Barton. The cheapest I've seen'em for is $96. I got mine running at the speed of a 2800 just by increasing the mulitpliers alone. If I wanted to... I can easily overclock it to a 3000

You too, Ridic. Ditch the 2400 and get 2500. It'll still be within your budget.

 

[Ridic]

ill look into it....

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by Jager
The best proc to get for you money would be an Athlon XP 2500 Barton. The cheapest I've seen'em for is $96. I got mine running at the speed of a 2800 just by increasing the mulitpliers alone. If I wanted to... I can easily overclock it to a 3000

You too, Ridic. Ditch the 2400 and get 2500. It'll still be within your budget.

Surely it would be easier to up the FSB instead?

 

[Jagermeister]

Originally posted by Dave
Surely it would be easier to up the FSB instead?

Yea, of course, but I only have PC2700 RAM and if I rasied my FSB I'd also have to increase my memory timings and increase the memory voltage, which I don't want. When I upgrade to 3500 RAM I'll go over 400MHz FSB.

 

[Dave]

Ooh well. /me gets out Silver Paint.

 

[[Re4lity]Jeff]

CPU		-	P4 2.667GHz			£162
512MB RAM	-	Crucial DDR3000			£70
Motherboard	-	Abit IC7			£111  (dabs.com)
Video Card	-	Radeon 9800 Pro			£345
Hard disk	-	Maxtor DM9 Pro 120GB 8MB Cache	£100
Floppy drive	-					£5
DVD ROM		-					£30
Case							£20
(DVD Burner)	-	Panasonic dual format		(£160)
Total		-					£845 
							(£1005)

What say you all? I can still fit a DVD burner in just over £1000.

 

[subs]

and dont forget the 24" trinitron monitor and Creative labs 6.1 megaworks to go with that uber fast pc.

 

[Jagermeister]

What kind of case did you get for £20?

 

[Dave]

A ridiculously cheap and horrid OEM one I imagine. Still, I assume the PSU is included within the £20 for the case? :E

 

[Murray_H]

£20? it better not be beige....

 

[Dave]

You might want to rethink the PSU actually.. Cheap 300w PSU - £20 minimum.

I'd hate to think of what you are getting with your £20 case, but I bet it won't be able to power a 2.6Ghz and ATI Radion 9800 Pro.

 

[Ridic]

ur machine wont run with a 300w machine, id bet ull get horrid restarts and random shut downs. thats why i orderd a 420W psu seperatly.

 

[Jagermeister]

True. You cannot go low-budget when it comes to picking out a power supply. It's one of the most important components in your PC. You have to look for a name brand a PSU and not generic.

Here's a list of good PSU mfg's. Just do a google search for them.
ANTEC
ENERMAX
PC POWER & COOLING

 

[Dave]

I have a 350w Enermax. Whats d'yu guys reckon the limit of what that can handle is?

 

[Ridic]

im seperatly buying an antec true power supply 420W. the only reason that i didnt want to buy one with a case is because only limited cases have that high of a psu. plus, i want to get anycase i want.

 

[TrueWeltall]

486 @ 50mhz with 16 megs of ram, any faster and it will sink

 

[Dave]

Hahaha :smoking:

 

[Ridic]

its funny how people react to things now a days. Its funny how many people are followers and how little leaders there are. Anything someone sees, they have to have it to brag...Anything people see or hear that is cool or funny, automaticly relate it to themselves when talking to people even if its a lie. They make up lies just so people that they have never met will think they are cool because something was funny. id bet u dont have a 486 and are just posting that because of what the guy said in the 22 min video. it was funny. people tkae it and lie about things and its not funny. maybe u do have a 486, i dont care but u wouldnt have posted that if that guy never made a comment about them. little things just piss me off like that, and know i have finally figured out why i am looking forward to HL2 single player more than multiplayer.....i dont think i like most people. maybe u were just joking, but i just want to kill someone. not just because of 1 stupid comment but because of how stupid people are. jesus everyone is stupid including myself and i hate it. mankind ****ing sucks, or at least america, now i know why ever other country practicly hate america.