Best Budget gaming Rig

Core2Duo E6750
2GB DDR 800
Nvidia 650 SLI-Chipset motherboard
2*7600 GT's with 256mb ram in SLI
Western Digital 200gb hard disk
Coolermaster 500w extreme power
good aluminum case (maybe a NZXT hush or smth)
Arctic Cooling Freezer cpu cooler

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quakken

Heck, my ghetto two year old Gig of ram, x800pro, AMD3500+ can handle HL2 on medium settings. I would say that you should shoot for being able to run crysis on low-medium.

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so why the hell can't mine :(:(:( it can but it gets choppy in large areas with a lot going on.

Recommendation, don't bother with SLI, most of the time, it's more hassle than what it's worth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crenn

Recommendation, don't bother with SLI, most of the time, it's more hassle than what it's worth.

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but if you must go with 2 cards go sli vs crossfire. i have heard lots of stories of it not working out and being full of hassles.

Funnily enough, I'd already worked out how much a decent rig would cost me.
This is the cheapest higher end one, and I'm not sure how well it would play demanding games, but anyway:

CPU: AMD Athlon64 5000+ Black Edition 2.6GHz
Mobo: Abit AN-M2
RAM: 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2-800
HDD: 250Gb HGST Deskstar SATA
ODD: Optiarc DVD+/-RW (DL) SATA
GFX: 256MB XFX 7950GT
PSU: Tagan TG-380
WC: Alphacool Universal kit.
OS: XP Professional SP2 OEM.

Grand Total (Including VAT)? : £633.38 :banana:

I realise that It'd probably be better to build the WC loop myself, but in the interests of simplicity...

EDIT: actually, I don't think this is SLI compatible, but ah well...