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"Thinking of building my own PC..."

I've done it before, but I'm a bit out of step with what constitutes a good PC. It's mainly for gaming, as I've got a half-decent laptop for work with the following specs:

P4 2.66GHz processor
40GB HDD
512 RAM
GeForceFX 5200 64Mb graphics card
DVD reader/CDRW

So I'm guessing that the minimum to incorporate future gaming needs would be something like:

P4 3.5GHz+
200GB+ HDD
2Gb+ RAM
Hefty graphics card (blimey they're expensive!)
etc.

Is that about right for a starting point for the next generation of games? The motherboard would have to be future-proof too. I remember building a PC before with ISA slots, then everything went PCI! Looking through SR's range of components and PC's, it seems I could get a half-decent PC for £500, then beef it up for another £300-400 - is that what people normally do? I'm quite capable of starting from scratch and waiting for it all to come together...

Cheers for any advice.

Suppose I'll have to learn how to overclock then!

There's a difference between future-proofing and performance. No, nVidia aren't going to stop supporting it, but SLI flopped the first time as well. One X800XL will cost 25% or so more than a 6600GT and give about 75% more performancewise.

If you don't want to overclock then fair enough. Personally I do, since I can get far far better performance for what amounts to very little cost wise once you factor in slightly more expensive components. At the moment AMD don't have a standard Athlon 64 that runs at 2.6 GHz, the first to do so will probably be the 4200+. Yet that 3000+ Winchester will probably go that fast.

It's your money.

Notorious Biggles wrote:
> For what it's worth, SLI isn't the next big thing. Two cards, 1.8
> times the performance of one. When it's even supported.
>
> ATI also have a version of SLI coming out at some point.

But Nvidia are hardly going to stop supporting it now that they're pushing it, and I'm trying to future-proof as much as possible - so that I don't have to spend another £7-800 in 2 years, even though that's hardly a lot compared to what I've seen some people spend on hardware! Hence and PCI-E and SLI.

I looked up the mobo you suggested, and it seems to be one for people that want to tinker with overclocking, which I don't really want to do. One review pointed out the SLI version, but I haven't looked up the price yet.

I'll probably do it quicker, dpending on how my money is. I think the idiots at the Student Loan Company have mis-communicated again and are going to pay about £700 into my account at the end of the month, even though they knew I withdrew in January. That will be interesting.

For what it's worth, SLI isn't the next big thing. Two cards, 1.8 times the performance of one. When it's even supported.

ATI also have a version of SLI coming out at some point.

I played around with some figures over the weekend.

3000 Winchester Retail £106
DFI Ultra-D £109
Connect3D X800XL £212
Maxtor Diamondmax 200GB £70
AOpen DVD-RW retail £41
2 x 512 MB TwinMOS UTT £94

Total £686

This is what I came up with so far. You still need a monitor, and a case and power supply. I recommended these components because with some overclocking, you'll have a system that outperforms something based on the Athlon 64 4000. It would play everything currently out at absolute top settings and everything due out for the next year or two at top setttings. It would last for years.

Buying a piece here and a piece there however is inherently a bad idea. If it takes six months to finish buying all the components later and greater technology will be out. Also, if one component is faulty, it will take six months before you discover this and that could feasibly cause problems with returns. Far better idea to stick £100 a month in a savings account and then come back in the six months and let us spec you up again.

Nimco wrote:
> Let Mr Biggles help you out.

Please don't tell me you name your penis...

Let Mr Biggles help you out.

RAM: Scan.co.uk (around £70-90 for 1GB of PC3200 RAM - Dual Channel is so sweet. Look for the 'Elixer' range).

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 if you're going AMD, 7200.8 if you're going Intel, simply because NCQ just isn't worth it with AMD.

PSU: Tagan TG-U01 480W Whisper PSU. 28A 12V rail... Oh yeah.

CPU: P4 3.2+ or AMD 64 3000+ will do ya good things :D.

GPU: nVidia 6600GT or 6800 Pro. SLI will be big, hopefully. But don't go down the route of getting two 6600s over one 6800, the 6800 has more pipelines and they both run at the same speed, so the 6800 actually works out faster...

Motherboard: Err.. Haven't looked recently. There's a nice one that's both AMD and Intel compatible. But be sure to get SLI (PCI-E, obviously), and for the rest, ya can't really go wrong. Be sure to get SATA though.

I only want to look at pretty games.