Help me - Budget Gaming Rig
Author
Alright, so I've built my own computer before, but the last one I did was almost four years ago and I'm out of the loop to what's considered a decent system at the moment.
I've a budget of $500-600 and I've already got my monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc... I do not have a hard drive (although the new one does not need to be large... I've got a 250gig external that I use for large files), or anything else, as I'm still going to be using my old system as a server. And also, I don't want a CD/DVD burner... a standard optical will do fine, as my laptop has CD/DVD burning capabilities.
While I'd love to spend $1000+ on this machine my budget is what it is, and I can't go over it. So... I'm guessing that some of you have recently built some machines and are in the know, so what should I get for my budget gaming system? Specs, links, advice all welcome.
You can get a hell of a computer for $600 these days. I'd head off to some place like Newegg, get a decent AMD64 and a good video card (my 6600GT is doing quite well, though it's starting to age), and stack it up with RAM.
Your prices might change if you already have drives and a case for the box.
Your prices might change if you already have drives and a case for the box.
Barebones Kit: ASUS Vintage V2-AH2 AMD Socket AM2 AMD Athlon X2/Athlon 64 FX/Athlon 64 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Barebone - Retail
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800CUBOX - Retail
Ram: Patriot Signature 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD21G667KH - Retail
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Optical Drive: LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHW-160P6S-04 - Retail
Grand Total with shipping: $637.04
Is this close enough to your budget or do you want me to try to make it less?
This machine should be good for a while. I didn't know exactly what you had that you were going to reuse, so I put together the whole tower.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800CUBOX - Retail
Ram: Patriot Signature 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD21G667KH - Retail
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Optical Drive: LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black ATAPI/E-IDE Model SHW-160P6S-04 - Retail
Grand Total with shipping: $637.04
Is this close enough to your budget or do you want me to try to make it less?
This machine should be good for a while. I didn't know exactly what you had that you were going to reuse, so I put together the whole tower.
I like shaes recomendation. You could use that as a base for your own desicion. Look at RAM and other video cards and maybe mobo's too. See what you need/like on Newegg.
Some things I recomend:
Your mobo will NEED PCI-e if you want gaming.
I would recomend a Radeon X1600 or better. Or an nVidia GeForce 6800 or better.
The Atlon 64 X2 I think is a great idea. Socket AM2 is the latest AMD socket. Some people have had problems with Athlon 64 X2's and gaming. I never have.
If you want to go the Intel route then I believe thier Core 2 Duo is the latest and greatest you can get with them. I have heard those are excelent with gaming.
Good luck.
Some things I recomend:
Your mobo will NEED PCI-e if you want gaming.
I would recomend a Radeon X1600 or better. Or an nVidia GeForce 6800 or better.
The Atlon 64 X2 I think is a great idea. Socket AM2 is the latest AMD socket. Some people have had problems with Athlon 64 X2's and gaming. I never have.
If you want to go the Intel route then I believe thier Core 2 Duo is the latest and greatest you can get with them. I have heard those are excelent with gaming.
Good luck.
A lot of sites are saying that even the low end Core 2 Duos are beating some of the top end Althon 64s.
Well, I would reccomend buying a barebones kit from MSI or ASUS. Though they are a little expensive (~150$) They include a desent case, motherboard, and powersupply. Often when buying cheap cases+PSUs, you are rolling the dice. Often they turn up snakeeyes. Buying one of these barebone kits is usually cheaper than getting a good case, PSU and motherboard. The cons are that they are mATX and often aslo include integrated video, which can be turn off. So it is really up to you whether you feel lucky or not.
As another note, I reccomend for a video card wither 1600XT or higher from ATI or 7600GT or higher from nVidia. The 1600XT is 30$ cheaper hence my choosing it.
I would also reccomend the AM2 over the S939 because it will offer more upgrade opportunities down the road because S939 is discontinued and AMDs next generation of processor is rummored to be backwards-compatable with AM2. Plus DDR2 is about the same price as DDR so that is not a reason to choose S939 over AM2.
On another note, I would not reccomend a 4200+ over a 3800+ if it means rolling the dice. In fact, that extra cash is better spent on a faster video card. Usually the video card is the bottleneck, not the processor, in video games.
I will work up an intel version, but it is likely going to be more expensive because Intel motherboards are more expensive.
As another note, I reccomend for a video card wither 1600XT or higher from ATI or 7600GT or higher from nVidia. The 1600XT is 30$ cheaper hence my choosing it.
I would also reccomend the AM2 over the S939 because it will offer more upgrade opportunities down the road because S939 is discontinued and AMDs next generation of processor is rummored to be backwards-compatable with AM2. Plus DDR2 is about the same price as DDR so that is not a reason to choose S939 over AM2.
On another note, I would not reccomend a 4200+ over a 3800+ if it means rolling the dice. In fact, that extra cash is better spent on a faster video card. Usually the video card is the bottleneck, not the processor, in video games.
I will work up an intel version, but it is likely going to be more expensive because Intel motherboards are more expensive.
Drop the 4200+ to a 3800+** and with the extra money get a better gfx card.
**The 3800+ can be overclocked to 4200+ speeds on stock voltage (what's 200Mhz?). Infact, I managed to get it to 2.4Ghz (from 2Ghz) on stock voltage.
**The 3800+ can be overclocked to 4200+ speeds on stock voltage (what's 200Mhz?). Infact, I managed to get it to 2.4Ghz (from 2Ghz) on stock voltage.
Author
Okay, so going back to an am2 socket with the 3800+ processor it looks like this:
Case: $29.99 COOLMAX CS-480-Black W/O PSU Black Steel/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU: $20.99 Sunbeam PSU-BKS-480-US ATX12V 480W Power Supply
CPU/Motherboard Combo: $218.98 AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor / BIOSTAR TFORCE 550 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 550 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
RAM: $139.99 GeIL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
Video Card: $112.99 SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Hard Drive: $43.99 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Optical: $18.99 SONY Black IDE CD/DVD-ROM Drive
Grand Total: $580.92
With Shipping: $611.50
Should I maybe not go with the DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ram and go with something slower and put a little more into my video card? I do like multitasking, so having the nicer ram I think is a better thing since the video card that I'm getting is decent already... but tell me if I should think otherwise.
I did not want to go to the Intel processors because of price, I don't need a *great* machine, most of the time I'll be playing Shadowbane and maybe an occasional 1st person shoot 'em up.
Currently my only machine is a Powerbook G4 with a 1.33ghz PPC processor with 512 ram and a 64mb crappy video card, so a full blown pc with the above parts should really blast my laptop out of the water...
So, any more comments, suggestions, advice?
Case: $29.99 COOLMAX CS-480-Black W/O PSU Black Steel/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU: $20.99 Sunbeam PSU-BKS-480-US ATX12V 480W Power Supply
CPU/Motherboard Combo: $218.98 AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor / BIOSTAR TFORCE 550 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 550 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
RAM: $139.99 GeIL 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
Video Card: $112.99 SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Hard Drive: $43.99 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Optical: $18.99 SONY Black IDE CD/DVD-ROM Drive
Grand Total: $580.92
With Shipping: $611.50
Should I maybe not go with the DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ram and go with something slower and put a little more into my video card? I do like multitasking, so having the nicer ram I think is a better thing since the video card that I'm getting is decent already... but tell me if I should think otherwise.
I did not want to go to the Intel processors because of price, I don't need a *great* machine, most of the time I'll be playing Shadowbane and maybe an occasional 1st person shoot 'em up.
Currently my only machine is a Powerbook G4 with a 1.33ghz PPC processor with 512 ram and a 64mb crappy video card, so a full blown pc with the above parts should really blast my laptop out of the water...
So, any more comments, suggestions, advice?
TBH, I went for the cheapest RAM I could when I built my gaming box. I haven't noticed much of a speed issue with it, though if you're using a glitchy chipset you might.
Also, Biostar.. I don't have any experience with them. I tend to buy only from Asus as I've seen lots of people get screwed over by MSI and Gigabyte.
I am constantly surprised by how ridiculously cheap computers are. A year ago, I bought an AMD64 3000+ with a case, motherboard, RAM, videocard for $900CAD. Now you can get an entire goddamn machine that beats the tar out of it for $660CAD.
Also, Biostar.. I don't have any experience with them. I tend to buy only from Asus as I've seen lots of people get screwed over by MSI and Gigabyte.
I am constantly surprised by how ridiculously cheap computers are. A year ago, I bought an AMD64 3000+ with a case, motherboard, RAM, videocard for $900CAD. Now you can get an entire goddamn machine that beats the tar out of it for $660CAD.
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