custom rig for a friend.

[juliett_lima]

hey-o all!

I'm wondering if someone can help me put together a shopping list for a friend who wants to make a budget gaming rig? I was going to base it around an nVidia GeForce 8500GT, with ASUS Smartdoctor to give it a bit of a boost. I can find one of these for about £30 perhaps.

however, i know very little about motherboards, sound cards and hard drives (RAM ain't a problem ^^) could anyone suggest an appropriate motherboard and sound card for a budget rig?

tl;dr - looking for a compatible rig setup using an nVidia GeForce 8500GT video card, on a budget of £300 ($350? $400? don't remember current conversion rate)

thanks a lot ^^

EDIT: if this can be put together for less that £300, say £250 or £200 that would be awwweeeesoooome #scooter

 

[Irode]

for some reason i assumed this thread was going to be about someone you knew who had given his gaming rig a name and spoke to all the time :S

Ha, I had to look at it for a few seconds to see it but your right!

OT: I can't particularly help you but I am also looking for a budget gaming rig so any help in the £500 area would be very much appreciated.

 

[Hateren47]

I couldn't find a 8500GT from the site I usually compare prices on but I would suggest you go for a Radeon HD 5570 instead, which was cheaper than some of the 8600GT on the same site. It's a lot more powerful, has DirectX 11, support for 3 monitor (I would think) and still only needs a 400W PSU.

You don't need a sound card any more, specially if you are on a budget

And if you are willing to go full on AMD I would suggest something like a ASRock K10N78D or any MB with an AM2/AM2+/AM3 socket for future upgrades. An AM2/AM2+/AM3 mainboard will take any of these processors Phenom II X4 / Athlon II X2 / Phenom II X3 / Athlon 64 / Phenom FX / Athlon X2 / Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX and Sempron. It also takes the cheaper but older DDR2 RAM.

AsRock's MBs also has the nice InstantBoot feature.

Edit:
Phenom FX is any of the Phenom CPUs.

 

[Wobbleflops]

I would suggest going with ATI gfx cards, as they're normally of a similar quality to Nvidia, whilst also being slightly cheaper (Or they were when i bought mine)

As a budget gaming rig, i'd look at probably getting him an Intel Core 2 Duo, with motherboard bundle, or its AMD equivelant (I'm not too hot up on the AMD's, as i haven't used one for years)
Anything less than the Core 2 Duo wouldn't really be powerful enough to play any modern games.

As far as RAM goes, i'd say look at getting him 3GB or 4GB (4gb would be better for gaming, but also means you'd have to get him a 64bit OS)

£300 is a very tight budget, but i'll see what i can find, and get back to you

 

[Frequen-Z]

for some reason i assumed this thread was going to be about someone you knew who had given his gaming rig a name and spoke to all the time :S

Ha, I had to look at it for a few seconds to see it but your right!

OT: I can't particularly help you but I am also looking for a budget gaming rig so any help in the £500 area would be very much appreciated.

Umm, I too would like to be placed on the help list I'm on a budget of £500 or so too.

 

[Wobbleflops]

for some reason i assumed this thread was going to be about someone you knew who had given his gaming rig a name and spoke to all the time :S

Ha, I had to look at it for a few seconds to see it but your right!

OT: I can't particularly help you but I am also looking for a budget gaming rig so any help in the £500 area would be very much appreciated.

Umm, I too would like to be placed on the help list I'm on a budget of £500 or so too.

I'd be able to help you build an average gaming rig with a £500 budget, however £300 is cutting it fairly tight to get anything that will be any good.

 

[Frequen-Z]

for some reason i assumed this thread was going to be about someone you knew who had given his gaming rig a name and spoke to all the time :S

Ha, I had to look at it for a few seconds to see it but your right!

OT: I can't particularly help you but I am also looking for a budget gaming rig so any help in the £500 area would be very much appreciated.

Umm, I too would like to be placed on the help list I'm on a budget of £500 or so too.

I'd be able to help you build an average gaming rig with a £500 budget, however £300 is cutting it fairly tight to get anything that will be any good.

That'd be quite helpful of you. I get paid in a couple of weeks, when I have some exact numbers, I'll throw you a message begging for help

 

[Hateren47]

Are the games that the friend is likely to play actually compatible with an 8500 GT? I remember rejecting the 8600 GTS because it was just too slow in the GeForce 8xxx series.

In terms of processors, go for a cheap dual-core AMD Athlon X2. Micro-ATX motherboards are cheaper than full ATX ones, so an inexpensive AM3 motherboard won't steer you wrong. Just about all of them have integrated sound, so you won't need to spend extra for a discrete sound card. Just make sure that the sound chip has decent drivers for it - that can be a problem with integrated sound.

It would have to be at least an Athlon II X2 in an AM3 socket.

 

[Irode]

for some reason i assumed this thread was going to be about someone you knew who had given his gaming rig a name and spoke to all the time :S

Ha, I had to look at it for a few seconds to see it but your right!

OT: I can't particularly help you but I am also looking for a budget gaming rig so any help in the £500 area would be very much appreciated.

Umm, I too would like to be placed on the help list I'm on a budget of £500 or so too.

I'd be able to help you build an average gaming rig with a £500 budget, however £300 is cutting it fairly tight to get anything that will be any good.

I'm not really set on £500 so i can go a bit higher, but I'm trying to get my parents to buy a part of it (I have the resource and I'm going to use it damn it!) so i do need a bit of a bargain mid-ranger i guess.

 

[Hateren47]

Are the games that the friend is likely to play actually compatible with an 8500 GT? I remember rejecting the 8600 GTS because it was just too slow in the GeForce 8xxx series.

In terms of processors, go for a cheap dual-core AMD Athlon X2. Micro-ATX motherboards are cheaper than full ATX ones, so an inexpensive AM3 motherboard won't steer you wrong. Just about all of them have integrated sound, so you won't need to spend extra for a discrete sound card. Just make sure that the sound chip has decent drivers for it - that can be a problem with integrated sound.

It would have to be at least an Athlon II X2 in an AM3 socket.

Yeah, that's what I meant. My terminology has got a bit rusty recently - I haven't had to start looking at technical specifications personally since I got my graphics card for Christmas.

Yeah I was just correcting you so juliett_lima wouldn't get the wrong CPU for her friend.

Edit:
Haha that name reminds me of this song.

 

[jasoncyrus]

hey-o all!

I'm wondering if someone can help me put together a shopping list for a friend who wants to make a budget gaming rig? I was going to base it around an nVidia GeForce 8500GT, with ASUS Smartdoctor to give it a bit of a boost. I can find one of these for about £30 perhaps.

however, i know very little about motherboards, sound cards and hard drives (RAM ain't a problem ^^) could anyone suggest an appropriate motherboard and sound card for a budget rig?

tl;dr - looking for a compatible rig setup using an nVidia GeForce 8500GT video card, on a budget of £300 ($350? $400? don't remember current conversion rate)

thanks a lot ^^

EDIT: if this can be put together for less that £300, say £250 or £200 that would be awwweeeesoooome #scooter

Invest in something better than that. It pays to go with the best you can afford since a good one will last for upto 5 years as a norm.

 

[Wobbleflops]

Sorry i took so long to reply, i went to eat and then came and priced up some stuff

I've put together a very basic gaming computer, without peripherals (Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor etc.)

I would post the screen shot, if i knew how, so if someone could tell me how to do so, i will share with you what i have put together

 

[juliett_lima]

Are the games that the friend is likely to play actually compatible with an 8500 GT? I remember rejecting the 8600 GTS because it was just too slow in the GeForce 8xxx series.

In terms of processors, go for a cheap dual-core AMD Athlon X2. Micro-ATX motherboards are cheaper than full ATX ones, so an inexpensive AM3 motherboard won't steer you wrong. Just about all of them have integrated sound, so you won't need to spend extra for a discrete sound card. Just make sure that the sound chip has decent drivers for it - that can be a problem with integrated sound.

yeah, my old 8500GT works a dream on anything i care to run past it (with ASUS assistance) ^^ which is why I'm starting out with it (a la comfort zone) and oooooooya i forgot about integrated chipsets. . . no need for a sound card then yep yep yep.

thank you for everyone's help ^^ taking it all onboard and eagerly awaiting further exposition. . .