# Making gaming purchase. Specs OK?



## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

I'm planning on buying a new gaming system next week but I'm not sure if the specs are suitable for online gaming. The types of games I'm planning on playing are BF2, warcraft, EVE online and other, mostly FPS, games.

The specs quoted to me are as follows:

Motherboard: Asrock AliveNF6G-VSTA 
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
RAM: 2Gb DDRII
VGA card: N7300Gb 512Mb

Before you advise me to get a better set-up, please keep in mind this is a *budget* gaming system, intended to keep me going until I can afford something better. I'm just seeking people's opinions before I go ahead and make the order.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

That looks good enough for those games, probably not on high settings though. Is the graphics card a GeForce 7300 GT or GS? I don't know of a GB model. What PSU are you going for?


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

Not sure about the PSU or card. I've emailed the company and they'll get back to me later. All I know is that the card is 512MB.

Question: I plan on using my old hard drive for now until I can afford to upgrade to a newer one. Could it cause any problems with game performance? It's five years old now.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Run the diagnostics utility from the drive manufacturer's website. This will find any errors and, if you use advanced mode, will try to fix any it finds. I'm assuming it's IDE and not SATA or SCSI. Do you know if it's 5400 or 7200rpm, and the cache size?

If you're going to be installing lots of games, remember to leave at least 15% free space on the hard drive to prevent system performance from dropping, and defrag regularly.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

I wont be loading lots of games onto it; it's only 30GB! I'll get a new one soon when I can afford it. I usually only have 1 or 2 games installed at any one time.

The manufacturer is Maxtor. Is *this* the diagnostic tool that I'll need?

I received a reply from the computer guy just now and he said 'GB' was a typo. The card is actually an N7300GT. He also said he could do an 8600GT for the same price. I have no idea which is better.

The PSU is made by EZcool but he didn't specify which model.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Yes, SeaTools (either for DOS or Windows) works for Seagate and Maxtor drives.

I'd go for the 8600GT. See this *comparison chart* for more details.

See if you can get some more details about the PSU. Is this a prebuilt system from a shop or is it from ebay?


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

The guy said the PSU is 400W and that there is nothing else to know.

Wow! The 8600GT certainly looks to be the better card. I guess I'll opt for that.

Technically the system is an upgrade because I'll be keeping the case,hard drive, DVD drive and floppy drive from my present system. It's being done by a small computer company based in Somerset.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

They're obviously keen to make the sale if they're prepared to upgrade the graphics card at no extra cost. Try and push them for a PSU upgrade as well. It's not suitable for a gaming system with either an AGP or PCIE graphics card.

EzCool 400W:
+3.3V - 20A
+5V - 30A
*+12V - 15A* (PCIE cards need at least 26A, and AGP at least 18A)
-5V - 0.5A
-12V - 0.5A
+5vsb - 3.8A


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

The guy says he can do an EZcool 550W super silent PSU for an extra £11. I tried to haggle him down to £150 for the lot (He wants £168).


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

The 550W has 24A for +12V. Still not enough for a PCIE card, and EZCool are low quality units, even for a budget system. If you fit this PSU, it might run ok for a while, but eventually you'll see temperatures increase, graphics artifacts and games crashing.

The EZCool 450W is about £18, and the 550W about £25. Personally, I wouldn't pay less than £50 to power a PCIE card.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

How long do you think it would take until I start seeing artifacts and such? I mean, I'm going to be getting an entirely new system in 12 months or so. If it holds-out until then, I'm happy.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

It could be days, weeks or months, depending on the quality of the rest of the components and how much gaming you do. If the PSU is underpowered it could also damage the graphics card and push system temperatures up.

26A is the recommended minimum for all PCIE cards, so I wouldn't accept 24A.


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## oldmn (Oct 16, 2005)

Poor video quality should be the least of your concerns when using a low grade PSU Insufficient or poor quality power can damage components. So after things start going noticeably bad the damage has already been done. So it is better to bite the bullet now and not have to deal with other problems later.
When building a system I like to have at least 10-15% more power available then I calculate is required.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

I'd recommend something more like this *Corsair 450W* for £40 which has 33A/+12V, 85% efficiency and active PFC.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

Thanks for the heads-up on the Corsair. Koala! This whole PSU issue has convinced me that the company can't very reputable if they're prepared to sell PSUs that will damage peoples' systems. I've decided to shop around a bit.

What components would you recommend for a maximum spend of £160? Remembering that I'm not savvy enough to build the system myself; I'd have to get a company to do it for me.

I'm thinking along the lines of:

Ahtlon 3200/3400+ 64bit
Mobo with minimum FSB of 800Mhz + on-board sound
Something like an 8600GT card
A decent PSU like the corsair


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Examples:

*PNY GeForce 8600GT 512mb PCIE* - £53

*AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (OEM)* - £33

*AM2 motherboards* in the £35-105 price range

I can't find anything suitable that's cheaper than the £40 Corsair PSU. Shop around your local small computer stores (not the big ones like PC World) to see how much they charge for a build if you supply the parts. Or we can help you if you decide to build it yourself.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

Yesterday I phoned several local computer companies and asked for a quote on the same specs as the original quote and none of them could compete. Right now I'm borderline as to whether I should go with the original offer with an EZcool 550W or whether to build the system entirely myself. My budget has gone up to £210 so I've decided to get a new hard drive as well; my old one is ancient 5400 technology.

The only problems with building the system myself are a) I practically need to be baby-walked through the whole process and b) I can only make online purchases using paypal which limits the places I can buy from. I'm thinking that ebay might be a good idea?


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

I can probably stretch the budget a bit, but not much.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

I've just been doing some research. Building the system myself I could have a nice gaming machine for a reasonable price.

If I were to buy all the components from Misco.co.uk (Who accept paypal, hooray!) I'd only have to pay one lot of delivery charges.

All prices inc' VAT.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ OEM processor *£32.99* 
PNY GeForce 8600GT 512Mb PCI-Express graphics card *£52.99*
Motherboard, undecided *£40*
PSU, undecided *£40*
2BG DDR2 RAM, undecided *£30* 
Western Digital Caviar 80GB SATA 300 7200rpm 8MB *£28.19*
Delivery charge *£9.99*

Total= *£234.16*

This is a little over my original budget but it's got to be worth a few extra quid to get a decent machine.


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

Mate, i have a 520W Corsair (HX520W) modular that is less than 1 year old you can have for £40. I just upgraded mine to a 750W Corsair.

Also check www.scan.co.uk for you items too. they are very good.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

Thanks for the offer mate but I'll probably get the _new_ Corsair 450W for just over £40 which is more than enough for an 8600GT. I'll keep it in mind though.


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

No worries.


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## cdfreelancer (Feb 28, 2005)

I started a new thread on this subject.


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