Well.... I've been out of the self build rig game for a couple of years, so I'm not up to speed on good combinations of components for a decent gaming rig.

So what would you guys recommend ?

Budget is decent, but I want good value and lots of bangs per buck

Case wise, needs to be a decent size but run as silent as possible

Don't need anything other than the base unit build as everything else is fine

So guys, fill your boots

Edited 30 August, 200916 yr by auroan

Well If gaming is your aim I think a quad of some description is a must now with most games scaling very well with multiple cores. Something from the current generation Core 2 Quad (Q9*** or Q8***). They have pretty low power consumption so produce less heat than some others or the older ones (Q6600 G0 which I have).

If running Vista/Windows 7 then your going to want a minimum of 4GB Ram.

Graphics card wise I think you want to be speding a couple hundred and get something decent. Along the lines of a GTX 275/285 or HD 4890 if ATI is your desired choice.

I think you can't really go wrong with an Antec P180/182/183 case as they are very well built and designed and are capable of cooling some high end components with VERY little noise.

If it really is silence you're after then you will probably struggle get really silent unless you get an aftermarket cooler on the graphics card. If you want to hear silence with one of these cases just bob round and see my build... it's hardly audible at all!

Although the best for gaming would be a Core i7 and GTX 295 your going to be talking £900+ by the time you've got a decent mobo and RAM and PSU etc.

Oh yeh... power supply... the Corsair ones are very popular amongst silent pc enthusiasts so probably around a 700w one of those would be up to the job.

Phil

Edited 30 August, 200916 yr by philje123

Cheers Phil, Good for me to start with. I only mention quietness because my current 2/3 year old setup sounds like a harrier at times when it's running at full pelt.

Lol.. as do most older PC's I come across.

If you need any more help I'm not far away and always happy to get my hand stuck inside a PC. I have some great ways to route cables in the tower if you go for an Antec! hehe

You got anywhere in mind to order your parts from?

Phil

Usually use ebuyer or dabs, never had a problem with them. I'll list my current spec once I go back upstairs after the BTCC finishes.

Doing as much exploration work as possible at the mo. As they say PPPPPPP

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(prior preperation and planning prevents **** poor performance)

This is my current spec

Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Ultimate

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+, 2010 Mhz, 2 Core(s),

2.00 GB Ram

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT - 256.00 MB

MSI K8N Diamond Motherboard

SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616Q

SONY DVD RW DW-D23A

CREATIVE SB Audigy

Maxtor 6Y080M0 76.33 GB

SAMSUNG HD160JJ 149.05 GB

Thats not too bad really.

You planning on selling it to fund the new rig or just sell it when you no longer have a use for it?

If you plan to play new games etc though it definately isn't quite up to the job even with a little upgrade here and there.

Yeh Ebuyer and Dabs are good. Very competitive. Another one to check is Scan (Computer Hardware - All - Scan.co.uk). They're based near Bury and they are pretty competitive too with a nice range of stock and also have a few more specialised bits too that you can't normally find on Ebuyer and such.

I have also ordered from them to collect before when I have been in the area anyway.

If your wanting a decent CPU cooler I have a Xigmatec HDT-S1283 thats sat doing nothing:

XIGMATEK

Phil

Ta, I've just got Wolfenstein and Call of Juarez 2, which is what's prompted this little investigation

Hehe. No fun is it when you install a game and struggle to get it to run smoothly.

To be honest it may be overkill but if your PSU is up to it and you're going to upgrade anyway then the purchase of a new graphics card would give you a huge improvement.

Even in todays games it's still the GPU that's taking most of the strain. Even while running Prime95 with all cores at 100% I can still play a demanding game at a very smooth framerate (the odd stutter here and there) which shows it's mostly down to the GPU not the CPU so it would see a big gain prbably even on that slower Athlon 64.