Am considering upgrading my Media Center so it is capable of playing games.  Thing is ... have not got a clue what is required.

So ... can you let me know of a motherboard, cpu, ram and graphics card capable for running latest games at optimal settings (so they look as good as a 360).  I heard you can use the xbox 360 controllers on the PC, is this true?  The motherboard HAS TO BE mATX.  OS is Vista.

Also, budget is important, so as cheap as poss please.

Some linkies for the kit would be nice too.  

Thanks   :mrgreen:

Intel or AMD?  You probably have a preference.

Quote from: mrtAm considering upgrading my Media Center so it is capable of playing games.  Thing is ... have not got a clue what is required.

So ... can you let me know of a motherboard, cpu, ram and graphics card capable for running latest games at optimal settings (so they look as good as a 360).  I heard you can use the xbox 360 controllers on the PC, is this true?  The motherboard HAS TO BE mATX.  OS is Vista.

Also, budget is important, so as cheap as poss please.

Some linkies for the kit would be nice too.  

Thanks   :mrgreen:

Do you want us to wipe your arse for you too :D j/k

Personally, I reckon the Intel Pentium Dual Core 2140 can overclock massively and it pretty reasonable. http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127249

A 775 core 2 board mATX - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123837

2 x 1024mb XMS2 - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98708

nVidia Geforce 8600GT 256Mb - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127276

Seagate SATA2 250gb 16mb - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113433

NEC DVDRW 18x SATA - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125208/rb/0

And whatever case you want, oh and Vista (why??? as framerates drop compared to XP apparently, unless you want DX10)

Cheers
Tongy

Tongy ... I would like for you to personally come round and wipe my arse.  

Thank you sir!  

 :mrgreen:

if its going in an mATX case then surely its not being overclocked?  If not then hell probably be better off getting something that is out-of-the box more powerful than an X2 3600+.  

Personally i would wait 3 weeks, thats all.  The Agena/Barcelona release is on the 10th, and whatever way you look at it, the present crop of CPUs will divebomb in price.

I do want an out of box solution; not inclined to overclock and yes it does need to be mATX.  Not planning on doing this for a month or two, so will wait till then and repost I think.  May be better to wait judging by what you said.

Cheers

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM4MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Seems fantastic to me.

Quote from: bigstevehttp://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM4MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Seems fantastic to me.

heh, thats the Gigabyte version of my Asus board.  its a nice chipset, and it comes with a near 100% guarantee that itll work perfectly with the AM3 chips.