Making my own gaming computer

[Bluewolf]

Yes, I want to undertake this task. I want to earn £600 (it may not be much but a start) up and then order all the parts, bits and bobs. I may be still talking about this by this day next year but hey even if I change my mind I can always use the money for later. Anyway I am intending to make a gaming computer and I would like advise on:

1. Is there any website that has instructions on how to do it for newbies?

2. Any good sites to order parts from? Perfer it if it was within the UK or had UK branch.

3. Is there anything you would suggest in general or any warnings I should know?


I am planning to have it on a really basic Windows OS or Ubunti (Windows DOES play games better due to the surport). I was thinking a reasonable CPU, a common duel core as its more GPU that will be needed to be good. RAM should be 2-4 tbh and I think a sound card would do good as well. I have a monitor atm that I could use and a mouse so money saved there.

Thank you for the replies!

[Starglider]

2. Any good sites to order parts from? Perfer it if it was within the UK or had UK branch.

Dabs and Scan are both good on price and service. You might save another 5% going on Google Shopping or a price comparison site (e.g. computerprices.co.uk) and chosing the absolute cheapest supplier, but it generally isn't worth it.

Is there anything you would suggest in general or any warnings I should know?

It's actually relatively hard to kill computer parts with static, but no point being reckless. Don't touch the pins (particularly on CPUs) and touch something grounded (e.g. a radiator, ideally an unpainted part) before you assemble anything.

600 pounds will get you a pretty good computer these days, if you don't need a monitor. Really only 'hardcore' enthusiasts and engineering people need to spend more. But if you won't have the money for several months it's pointless asking for component recommendations now. Come back and ask again when you're ready to buy.

[Minischoles]

Yes, I want to undertake this task. I want to earn £600 (it may not be much but a start) up and then order all the parts, bits and bobs. I may be still talking about this by this day next year but hey even if I change my mind I can always use the money for later. Anyway I am intending to make a gaming computer and I would like advise on:

1. Is there any website that has instructions on how to do it for newbies?

2. Any good sites to order parts from? Perfer it if it was within the UK or had UK branch.

3. Is there anything you would suggest in general or any warnings I should know?


I am planning to have it on a really basic Windows OS or Ubunti (Windows DOES play games better due to the surport). I was thinking a reasonable CPU, a common duel core as its more GPU that will be needed to be good. RAM should be 2-4 tbh and I think a sound card would do good as well. I have a monitor atm that I could use and a mouse so money saved there.

Thank you for the replies!

A site I just ordered a PC from is called pcspecialist.co.uk, you can basically custom make any PC you want and its pretty damn cheap (I just brought one from there thats able to run most current games at reasonable settings for £500 including delivery costs and VAT), you can chop and change pretty much everything you like, including CPU, RAM, Graphics Cards, cooling systems power supply everything. It'll reccommend if you need to change anything (for example on my rig I had to get a bigger power supply for what I wanted, which then they suggested getting a bigger fan and heat sink put in as well to avoid damage), and as an added bonus for anyone new to making/servicing PCs, in the pack of stuff they send along with the PC, comes a little manual that tells you how to safely install everything you'd ever want to on a PC.
They build it for you, test it all works and its up to their standards of quality, and despatch it using DHL in the UK, all told took about 2 weeks.

As for the parts themselves, I'd recommend ebuyer.com for that, has a huge variety of things and its cheap as well.

[Napoleon the Clown]

If you shop around, you can do pretty well with that much. Even more so if you've currently got a machine to pull some basic parts from, such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, optical drives, etc.



As far as building goes, the hardest part is making out the tiny-ass letters on the motherboard when you're plugging stuff in. So long as you can read the print, you'll be fine.

[Bluewolf]

Ok, thank you. I am keen on an nVIDIA card as I have heard a lot of good things about them.

[Starglider]

Ok, thank you. I am keen on an nVIDIA card as I have heard a lot of good things about them.

Nvidia cards were substantially better for several years, but frankly ATI/AMD has them beaten at the moment (in particular ATI drivers have improved massively over the last couple of years). The only thing I can think of that Nvidia is ahead on is that SLI works more consistently than Crossfire does (while still having lower price/performance on average). But that only really matters for insane hobbyists who enjoy in spending hundreds of dollars for a few more FPS.

[DaveJB]

nVidia are better when you start spending more than £200/US$300 on a card, but below that price point ATI's options are generally better. I think the Radeon 4850 has the best price/performance ration for someone who isn't a framerate whore.

As for other recommendations, I think a Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz), a decent P45 motherboard, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive would make a nice starting point for a gaming system; you can increase the specs of each component depending on what your budget is.