Gaming rig....

[#1]

Really after any help and info please.
I want to buy the parts to build myself a gaming pc, I don't really want to spend anymore than about £1200 but have no idea where to start looking for parts and what I will need to play all the latest games and up and coming next gen titles, any help would be much appreciated......

[#2]

I buy all my kit from http://www.scan.co.uk. If you look at http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ they have a rig builder so you could use that to find out what you need/want for £1200, then source the parts elsewhere.

[#3]

I've always found www.aria.co.uk and www.overclockers.co.uk to be pretty good too.

[#4]

I have found both Scan and Komplett are good and the RMA system worked well in both case.
The only slight problem with Scan is that their warehouse tracking system is a disaster so you can order an apparently in stock item and it suddenly isn't.
Have a read here http://forums.hexus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=88 for some other views. Note that Scan have their own forum which is a great help if you hit problems http://forums.hexus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=49

[#5]

Thanks for all the help everyone, am currently looking through all the websites etc and trying to decide which parts to go with!!

[#6]

Whatever it is it should include a quad core e6600, from the reviews and forums I've been nosing through this one is the way forward. There's also a low power edition which (if you like that sort of thing) offers ridiculous overclocking potential. Try to avoid the extreme range, it's not worth the markup from what I've been reading - it's pretty much twice the price and definitely not twice the performance.
Hope that helps,

[#7]

Not sure about the Q6600 recommendation, I'd wait until they bring out a low-end higher-FSB quad core CPU, the two pairs are just getting bottlenecked at 1066MHz
I got an E6750 just after they came out (£113 for it, and it overclocked well past the £170 E6850 ;D)
On the site front, I've had experience with ebuyer, scan and OCUK and have found ebuyer to be as good as flawless, the delivery times are accurate, the RMAs are done without question and their prices are almost always the lowest. OCUK are also good (they have more extreme hardware than ebuyer) and scan also often have good stuff, although as Oldjim said their stocking system is completely rubbish.

[#8]

True, but the low power edition is a lot happier to have it's FSB forced upwards and if you get a mobo with intel's P35 or X38 chipset (with a budget of £1200 why would you not?) and some fast RAM you can go crazy. Just a thought.

[#9]

I realise it's probably too late and that no one's bothered any more, but with Asus' new Maximus Formula I saw a a Q6600 G0  clocked from 2.4GHz to 3.9GHz per core. FSB was lifted to over 1700MHz so it appears that the FSB doesn't get in the way if you have an intel 3x chipset.

[#10]

I am about to make this but a water cooled(or phase change if i feel adventurious)  version with a different case. It uses a TEC cooler.
CM Stacker 832
EVGA nForce 680i SLi
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600(get the the GO stepping SLACR rev)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-8500 1066MHz
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX
Samsung SpinPoint T 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Coolermaster Real Power 850w Modular Power Supply
Titan Amanda TTC-NP04TZ TEC CPU Cooler
9x Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12025L 120mm Fan - 3 Pin
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
That will set you back £1200 and it CAN be overclocked to:
CPU - 3.7GHz
RAM - upto 1333GHz (better that DD3 at the mo because of lower timings)
GPU - 630MHz Core - 2250GHz RAM (flash the firmware)
James Barlow

[#11]

hi john!
I would wait until the new year if you can with the new quad core CPUs and the new 9800GTX GPUs ect coming out soon,
And with that you can see if they are worth the money (if not) then all of the parts will be alot cheaper. bonus anyway you look at it.
Plus not only that if you are going to run in DX10 then atm theres no point at all with the GPUs as they cant run the games at a steady 20fps let alone any higher in max settings (company of heroes, lost planet ect).
With places to buy them from the best are Scan, Overclockers and aria and if your going the whole hog and going to water cool your beast then Vadim are the best (But not the cheapest).
What ever you do tho have fun building it as theres nothing better then owning and PC you have build your self.

[#12]

Quote from: orbrey

I realise it's probably too late and that no one's bothered any more, but with Asus' new Maximus Formula I saw a a Q6600 G0  clocked from 2.4GHz to 3.9GHz per core. FSB was lifted to over 1700MHz so it appears that the FSB doesn't get in the way if you have an intel 3x chipset.

just got both :D, just waiting for pump and tubing,for w/cooling.
hope to have it running by next weekend.