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Gaming PC Build


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Kind of a long shot here guys, my laptop has finally given in on life so i am now looking to build my first gaming pc from scratch.

 

Normally only play FM but have around 200 games sitting in my steam library that i couldn't play due to the integrated graphics being far too crap to play them. Not talking about playing the latest games in ultra high settings but want to build something that can play the games ive missed on pc in the past 5 years comfortably well.

 

So basically my question is do any of you have any experience in building a system that could give me some pointers? I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of building it but not 100% confident in picking parts that are compatible with each other. sorry for waffling on haha.

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I have some experience I guess... It's pretty easy really, anything you are un sure on I might be able to help with but normalLy a swift Google solves anything.

 

My number one advice is although they are cheaper than ready made ones. Don't skimp out. buy quality even if its more espically since you'll have no garuntee on the overall system, just individual bits.

 

Might sound silly but make sure your cooling system is up to scratch and you sort out the heat sinks as this is often the reason for breakages :)

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Don't, Just buy one. When I first made mine I spend around £650 on it. A couple months later I decided to buy a top of the range graphics card for around £175 which then didn't fit as I needed a new power pack, Another 100. Then I decided to get a liquid cooling system which was also a problem.

 

Although it is a top spec pc, id of rather spend the £1000 on a ready made one.

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Places like Overclockers have good deals on built systems which you can customise to suit your needs. My last build was 6 months or so ago and though I built it myself there only a marginal difference in price compared to a pre built system.

 

I used a mini atx case for the first time and loved it

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-123-BX

 

Lots of room to work with during the build and plenty of space for future upgrades. Looks cool as *** too ;)

 

Definitley spend a bit of cash on a solid state drive for your operating system and to be honest at the moment I wouldnt worry too much about getting the latest graphics card. Mine is over a year old and in a decent rig with plenty of memory runs everything that Ive thrown at it on ultra settings with ease.

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Thanks for all your help guys, that part picker website has come in particularly handy.

 

For now I've managed to fix the girlfriends old laptop so that will do me while I slowly build a new pc.

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I'm a bit late to this but I have always built my own machines (bar a couple) and I go all the way back to 1981's UK101 kit, when RAM cost £20k per MByte - and yes, that's right, £20,000 per Meg!

 

So, as general policy...

1) Forget about trying to future-proof your build. New developments are going to render your purchases obsolete within months, rather than years. You might expect that this won't apply to the case but I assure you it will.

 

2) Do not, whatever you do, skimp on the power supply. Buy a reputable make and view £60 for 500W as a minimum spend. Trying to economise here really isn't sensible.

 

3) Shop around, shop around and then shop around some more. Personally - and you have already indicated that you are up for this - I like to buy second-best components. Whatever has been newly announced on the processor, motherboard, graphics card, hard drive and peripherals fronts, buy the one that is being superseded. You'll save a lot of money and you'll still get top-notch performance until such time as software catches up with the new technology.

 

4) I don't think that I'm disagreeing with BoroNut if I advise you to use the stock cooling system, ie the one that comes with the processor... unless you want to get in to overclocking, that is.

 

5) In fact, forget about overclocking altogether, because it's more bother than it's worth in my experience. First off, if your system develops any kind of problem, you will never be quite sure whether overclocking is to blame. Also, the time and frustration you will spend on, say, a water-cooled system can be saved by directing the cost of the cooling system towards a CPU upgrade. Common sense, really.

 

6) I'm sure you must already know this but compatibility is an issue when you are deciding what motherboard/CPU combo you are going to buy. You need an Intel chipset mobo for Intel processors and an AMD chipset mobo for AMD processors. Here again, I usually go for the second-latest generation of motherboard and CPU. Also, when looking at processor core count and clocking, there is usually a power/price sweet point and that's the one to go for. Assuming that you will be buying a separate graphics card, avoid mobos with built-in graphics or trouble surely awaits.

 

7) Did someone mention SSDs? Solid state drive prices are tumbling and I have Windows 7 installed and running happily in a 48GB partition (currently half-full), with the rest of my 128 GB SSD given over to Linux. A SSD is probably the best upgrade you can give any system and the speed will definitely impress you if you have never seen Windoze boot from an SSD before. If you go this route you will need to install games and other disc hungry software on a separate internal HDD.

 

8) Some gotchas to watch out for with the case:

Plastic split-pin pillars that lock the mobo in place once it is installed. Whoever thought of those things is an idiot so get rid of them on sight or you'll never get the mobo out again!

Poor design that doesn't provide enough space to install your 215mm graphics card. Doh!

Control and I/O panels sited stupidly.

No floppy drive cage when it would be nice to have one for installing card readers and the like.

Chunky Molex connectors on the case fans when your mobo has miniature headers that provide power and speed control.

No doubt others will be able to add their own little niggles to this list.

 

Finally, modern circuitry is astonishingly robust and it's very rare indeed for electronic components to fail. It's the motorised stuff that will give you your problems - the fans and disc drives.

 

Oh yeah, be sure to have a magnetic Phillips screwdriver to hand.

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Something I forgot to mention that has the potential to be a big problem: Modern graphics cards are very power hungry and, as well as drawing juice from the card slot, they now have a special socket that takes power direct from the power supply unit. Some boards have two of these connectors.

 

Make sure that the PSU you buy has the connectors that your graphics card needs.

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