Hey all, I came here for advice a while ago when I was building my first PC which (thanks partialy to some guys on here) turned out great, so I decided to come back again for more help. Anyway my friend is wanting a cheap gaming PC. The main reason being Empire: Total war. With a budget of £450 (this really is the limit, I had to push him to put a bit more money into it already) this is what I came up with: Intel E5200 dual core 2.5GHz - £57.37 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Inte...t-775-Wolfdale-Core-2x25-GHz-2MB-Cache-Retail Asus P5KPL-AM iG31 - £42.54 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus...R2-1066(OC)-667-800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX-VGA 512MB HD4850 - £122.97 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...GDDR3-GPU-625-MHz-800-Cores-2-x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV 4GB Corsair DDR2 RAM (800) - £43.57 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-...800)-240-Pins-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-5-5-5-18 550W Powercool PSU - £36.69 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=953275 320GB Hitachi Deskstar HDD - £37.25 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-...T7K500-SATA-300-7200-rpm-16MB-Cache-85-ms-NCQ LG DVD drive - £15.51 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-GH22NS30-22x-DVDR-16xDVDDL-DVDplusRW-x8-RWx6-12xRAM-SATA-Black-OEM XClio Coolbox case - £28.69 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xclio-CoolBox-Black-Midi-Tower-Case-with-Grill-Front-Panel-w-o-PSU Vista Home Basic 64Bit OEM - £70.71 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Home-Basic-SP1-64Bit-1Pk-OEM-(DVD) That brings the total to about £455. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance all.
CPU, Graphics, DVD and RAM are good. The rest of the hardware is not. The motherboard is unlikely to be at all reliable. Get this one instead: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Giga...(x16)-DDR2-1066-667-800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX The PSU is positively dangerous - get this instead: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400W-Corsair-Power-Series-PSU-ATX-PS-2-UK-Version-3-year-warranty 400W is plenty for this system, don't worry. Hitachi HDDs have had reliability issues in the past, go with one of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-...-Caviar-Blue-SATA-300-7200-rpm-8MB-Cache-9-ms The case isn't especially well made or cooled either, despite the big fans. You will actually do better with one of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coolermaster-Centurion-RC-532-BlackplusSilver-Trim-Case-w-o-PSU and adding an extra fan for the back: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120m...ve-Bearing-Ultra-Quiet-(17dBA)-Retail-Package If that works out slightly overbudget, drop the graphics down to an HD4830 - you'll save money, ad it's still a good performer.
