Best Gaming PC's for a given budget

Vic said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. Alternatively I've stumbled across this, slightly cheaper PC:

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Gamer_Infinity_i7_Andromeda
Click to expand...

Cheaper isn't always better and as much as I loathe Overclockers their spec if better.

X58-UD3 rather than the X58-UD5 motherboard
DDR3 memory not as good 1333MHz rather than 1600MHz which may limit your overclocking

On the plus side you get a 3 year limited warranty but not heard of that company before.
You get a GTX 275 also which is slightly faster in some games than the 4890.

They want an additional £89 to overclock it 20% to 30% if you don't want the hassle of doing it yourself.

£15 more for Corsair XMS3 or £20 more for 1600MHz memory.

Pros and cons to both systems... you could try playing them off each other - might get additional value for money.
 
Blazkowicz said:
the split power plane was a requirement afterall.
I've checked Gigabyte's site, they tell very clearly which mobos support AM3 and which don't ; all their AM2+ mobos support it, and a handful of AM2 mobos do.
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Actually the split power planes isn't really a requirement. I think that's more of a marketing thing imposed by AMD, if you want to sell it as a AM2+ board it needs to have split power planes, but not necessarily HT 3.0 (for instance boards with AMD 740G which is a renamed rs690).
In fact I was wrong that no "true" AM2 boards have bios updates for AM2+/AM3 cpus. Case in point gigabyte. The quite popular GA-MA69GM-S2H / GA-MA69GM-S3H boards - nowhere does it say AM3 ready, but if you go look at the supported cpu list (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2579#anchor_os) it in fact lists all AM3 cpus (except the A II regors which is a pity but it's a start).
Guess I should have gone with gigabyte instead of asus...

Actually AMD says all cpus work with AM2 right here:
http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/43375.pdf - look at the single plane stuff.
Some interesting observations:
- NB voltage and frequency are fixed with dual plane boards
- NB frequency is still fixed in single plane boards, but voltage obviously will change with core voltage. To achieve this AMD both lowered the NB frequency and limited the amount of downvolt in lower cpu p states. In case of the 45nm cpus the voltage difference can be quite large.
- TDP will therefore be higher in single plane boards. In highest p-state because NB is overvolted, in lower p-states (particularly the lowest one) because cpu voltage can't be lowered that much. The difference can be quite large (factor of 2) and in fact even larger for instance for the A II X2 when cpu is in c1e state.
Anyway, clearly this shows it should work, even officially, and the board manufacturers are just unwilling to adapt their bioses.
 
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Think I'm going to go for the Overclockers simply because the spec is slighly better, and because I've bought from there before. Tahir, have you have a bad experience with them?

Overall, I'll be spending sub £1200 for what I consider a good gaming rig:

- Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz Overclocked to 3.80GHz!
- Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel
- Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
- LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound professionally hand installed by our technicians

Plus:

ATI Radeon 4890 1024MB
Vista 64 bit
Antec 900 case

£1,109.84 including delivery.

I am however waiting until 26 June, or whenever Overclockers start offering the Windows 7 vouchers.
 
Can anyone recommend a manufacturer that makes pretty quiet PCs for this sort of price? I'm finding it surprisingly hard to get reviews on good, silent/quiet PC gaming rigs.

I was looking at Mesh because their XGS cases are apparently well treated to avoid resonance and transmitting vibrations, and they get an engineer to tweak performance and add quiet CPU cooling, but nothing is said about silencing the GPU and 4890's are apparently quite loud. I need something quiet for recording music and because hairdryer fans are annoying!

I'm reluctant to build anything myself, and was thinking of going i7 as I imagine Intel see it as the future and I don't want to have to get a new motherboard etc if I choose to upgrade... A Windows 7 upgrade option would be a nice bonus!
 
Well its only an upgrade but I finally bit the bullettoday and got my upgrade. The old GTS 640MB had stopped working properly anyway and with Fermi months away, this looked like the perfect time to stump up.

So £700 plus a bit of loose change got me:

Core i7 860
4GB DRR3 1600Mhz
Gigabyte P55p UD4 (Micro ATX and comes with Dolby Home Theatre support -essential)
Radeon HD 5850 1GB
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD
650w PS to power it all

I also got my copy of Win7 x64 recently so I'm going to build a completely new system from the above.

I can't wait to start showing some of those games that were putting the hurt on my old system who's boss :D
 
Fair enough.. Mind sharing your opinion of an adequate investment on a PSU for that rig would be? I'm looking at a similar build and certainly didn't have $140 budgeted just for the PSU.
 
RancidLunchmeat said:
Fair enough.. Mind sharing your opinion of an adequate investment on a PSU for that rig would be? I'm looking at a similar build and certainly didn't have $140 budgeted just for the PSU.
Click to expand...

I recall now, at the time it was the cheapest PSU i could find on newegg worth a damn that had 2 PCI-E plugs. At load, the system in the first post would probably draw 300-400 watts, maybe higher. That wattage is about right if he wants headroom for a future upgrade. Now you don't care, a 450 watt PSU, high quality of course, would be fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151057 this'd be fine. if you want to go a bit higher: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151034

Before you buy your system, check to see what plugs your video card will use. some use 2 8 pin plugs.
 
an update about my AM3/AM2 rant : now old gigabyte AM2 boards have had a BIOS update, and I'm running an X2 245 in mine. a cheap and huge upgrade ;)
 
Grats to you then! :D AMD CPUs really are excellent value for money these days, especially since I hear they made a new low-volt rev of the PII that fixed the errata with 4 DIMMS of DDR3-1333 RAM as well! :)

If I were to go hunting for a new PC today, I'd almost surely go for a PII black edition, they're cheap, fast and unlocked. Win-win. Too bad AMD's still losing money tho, I truly hope they can turn things around soon.
 
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