My finished spec

[pinin__prestatyn]

Started off with an aim for a budget build (sub £500) and using as much of my old socket A rig as possible. £900 later and I think I'm done. Not the best rig out there but I will nevertheless (is that all one word?!) have to remove my jaw from the floor when I install the first game. Spec:

Conroe E6600
Gigabyte DS3 motherboard
2 X 1GB geIL 6400 Ultra low latency RAM
Sapphire X1950 PRO gfx card
2 x 160GB SATA 2 Hard disks in a RAID 0 formation
19" Gamers LCD monitor
Microsoft wireless mouse + keyboard
500W psu
Black ATX case
Sound blaster audigy sound card


Think I did well for the money! just got to put it together now!

 

[smokeyjoe03]

Started off with an aim for a budget build (sub £500) and using as much of my old socket A rig as possible. £900 later and I think I'm done. Not the best rig out there but I will nevertheless (is that all one word?!) have to remove my jaw from the floor when I install the first game. Spec:

Conroe E6600
Gigabyte DS3 motherboard
2 X 1GB geIL 6400 Ultra low latency RAM
Sapphire X1950 PRO gfx card
2 x 160GB SATA 2 Hard disks in a RAID 0 formation
19" Gamers LCD monitor
Microsoft wireless mouse + keyboard
500W psu
Black ATX case
Sound blaster audigy sound card


Think I did well for the money! just got to put it together now!

Just a couple of things:
1: Wireless Mouse and Keyboard are a no no if your buying your PC for gaming as they require batteries or charging at really inappropriate times.
2: Some games only support ATI or Nvidia so go with they're brand graphix card.
3lease use ASUS motherboards, they outrank anyother make by a long way.

However that does sound like an ideal spec for a serious gamer.

I recently bought new comp. Lovely case with 5 fans and coloured LED's, ASUS digital home motherboard (with 7 usb 2.0's) and an ATI 512 PCI-E x 16 Graphix card. Also got 19" TFT monitor and colour coded mouse and keyboard, cost me £420

 

[Stu DemonD]

Not a bad spec, but I wouldn't have RAID 0 as my boot drive anymore - I used to, but had a few issues, so have since moved that array as a non-bootlable GAMES drive only.

Then again, I currently run 5 [need to re-add my 6th once I sort a caddy out] HDDs in mine.

As for the ATI comment, the Sapphire X1950 is an ATI card :chin:

 

[Hellcat]

ASUS aren't any better than others. My MSI Platinum Edition was the AGP board to beat when it was released.

Not seen any tests to decide if Raid-0 is actually any faster than a single drive, or a 10,000RPM sata drive.

 

[pinin__prestatyn]

I'm just going off what the serious gamers are using on OCUK, the Gigabyte DS3/DS4 is reliable and loves overclocking. It also compliments the ultra fast RAM I have.

Current spec is above but not installed the DS3 yet (still using the DUAL-VSTA which only has a PCI-E 4X slot) and just half a gig of slow as fook 333 RAM. But I've just got 9,000 3D marks with this rig. I'm impressed!!

Going to give RAID 0 a go and see if it works. I have nothing to lose, just two fresh HDD's with nothing of importance on them. Also going to have a go at o/clocking the E6600.

It's all good! (he says)

 

[pinin__prestatyn]

Oh - my brother has two 80GB 10K rpm Raptors in a RAID 0 array - fccuk me you don't wait long!

 

[pinin__prestatyn]

Some sample screenshots:

Half Life 2

Far Cry

Everything @ max. It's

 

[Liam]

Far Cry is an ace game, is that instincts you playing?

Liam

 

[pinin__prestatyn]

instincs? no it's just HL2. I have episode one but not played that yet.

HL2 = Best FPS apart from DOOM :worship:

 

[Hellcat]

Ah, put the netgraphs on! I wanna see FPS!

 

[Stu DemonD]

instincs? no it's just HL2. I have episode one but not played that yet.

No, Liam meant is it "Far Cry: Instincts"

 

[thefishdude]

got to love sapphire 1950pro they love to eat steam games alive