$500 gaming pc help?

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Th3KaNgSt3R

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Sep 29, 2009
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Well I saw this guide about a $500 gaming PC that was made back in April or so. Here are all the parts from the guide:

Videocard: PowerColor AX4870 512MB
CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz Wolfdale
Motherboard: MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775
Memory: Crucial 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 800
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVDR
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB
Case and Power Supply: Rosewill TU-155 II 500 Black

So I was wondering. Would this PC would be good enough to run almost all games right now? Because their might be new better parts since it's been a couple months since this guide was made. Also I don't need that good of an optical drive so I can just get a cheaper one and use the money other parts, what parts should I use that on?
Thanks in advance

P.S. It doesn't have to be $500 😀
 
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That's not always the case.. Some people reported that they got the items with a lot of packaging missing while the other (more) said it works good and has the necessary items..
The Retail version is about $30 (before MIR) more and the open box seems to be out of stock..
 
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ahh, got it. yah buying a returned item. I know what you mean about spare parts. I think I have about... 5 old back plates, a dozen IDE cables (of varying quality), a power switch, a few system speakers, 4-6 SATA cables (and I have never even had a SATA HD), odd firewire (1394?) attachments (and never had a firewire before), even a few odd sized case fans. and prolly one ton of screws.

Now if I could just figure out how to wire my old 12" laptop screen to a Desktop to use as a free duel screen I could use my most expensive and least valuable spare part!
 
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"CPU: Specs. (2.8 GHz, BE, 6MB C, & Triple Core) $124 / $??? (MIR/promo/combo etc.)
AMD Phenom II X3 720"

$124 > $99
While X4 >X3 the Propos has no L3 cache. The X3 at a higher market price should be faster/better/more valuable.
I don't know why and don't care. With the i5 750 out this is not an issue for me at least until Bulldozer appears.
 
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heh. um. I will have to come back later with specs on the laptop display. its an old (active matrix?) Display from a '95 generic import. I don't even know how many pins it has - When I junked the old laptop, I saved the memory(not much of it, maybe 256), processor (P100 - ha ha hah), the display, and the hard drives. never used any of that stuff, but you never know.

Yah I don't think there is any way to hook it up either, but a LONG LONG time ago, I saw a case mod that had a small screen on the front, maybe 6" by 6", not even sure what he used it for, or how he got it connected.


But to answer your question:
Asus P4S800D-X
PNY Verto GeForce 6800

And, I think the ONLY way to do it would be to some how adapt the wrong number of pins to a duel screen cabable video card via some adapter. I havn't really looked that hard. If there WAS a way, I would find someway to mount it to the side of my main display, and use it either for Facebook, IMs or out of game browsing depending on what I was doing.

Its pretty easy to just duel screen, but I figure hey, I have this Worthless screen that I prolly originally paid half of the price of the laptop for in 1995, might as well see if there is ANY use to it!

(I "think" I paid about $2000 or so for this laptop in 95, it was a state of the art P100, 800 MB Hard drive, touchpad, gamepad joystick built in the the wrist rest, generic import. I think the 2 Hard drives I have from it are Toshiba. But as I recall from doing the various options and builds half the price for the unit was in the screen - it being a "new" active matrix screen )
 
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Getting power to the display will be the trick I think.

As for the x3 vs x4, price isn't always about best performance. It usually is more about manufacture cost. And BEST performance is extremely subjective. The reality is, if you use your computer for gaming, and that performance adds the most value, the x3 is the better choice. Being a BE, it adds further value to an OCer too. But if you are a editor/renderer, then the x4, even with the lower cache is a better choice for that price point. Its not fair to compare a $100cpu to a $200 cpu. So for the budget, a production user will place more value on the x4 and to them, has the best performance and therefore value at that price bracket.

Here they are benched head to head. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=106&p2=83

The quad takes the SOLID victories on the production benches and the tri takes it on single threaded and games. Saying one cpu is better than another without even asking what the purchaser places value in is nothing more than fanboyism.

budget production = 620x4
enthusiast production = i5
extreme production = i7
budget gaming = 720x3
enthusiast gaming = quad (amd or intel)
extreme gaming = i7
 
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It's not fanboyism because i didn't say a company is better than the other but 2 products from one company....
And where's the OP to ask him what he need?!! Is it you "hlbuchanan" but forgot the account details??!!

Edit| The link you provided proves the X3 a clear winner with 20:11 wins! (Please comment on that because they didn't say which is the blue and which is the orange!! I took the X4:blue)
 
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Wow Psycho, what put you on the defensive? You weren't the one that said the x3 is better because it cost more. It was Newf I was responding to.
 
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The key to which cpu is which is on the top of the chart. And you are correct, that the x4 was the blue. You are incorrect as to which cpu lead in more benchmarks. The tally is actually:
620 19
720 13
Take a second to actaully look at the tool you're reading. The longest bar isn't always the better performer. Just like the charts here, some are time benchmarks and lower is better. It says so on the left under the benchmarks title. So if you want to say that the cpu with the most wins is the better cpu, then the Athlon 620 x4 is the CLEAR winner.
 
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I'd agree, the x3 is the way to go for this user. I was just getting sarcastic to your clear winner comment based on benchmark victories alone. As I said above, the x4 has a solid win in production apps, but the x3 is better for single threaded apps and games.
 
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The X4 also, being $25 cheaper, provides almost enough budget to get a psu that maybe won't explode trying to feed the monster graphics card.
I personally would not try to build a powerful gaming system for around $500. Given the constraints from the OP, this is the best I can do. I just hope he is not hooking up a 15" crt and a rubber ball mouse to it...

I don't think Fanboy is really fair. The Propus chip seems to be a fantastic bargain compared to other AMD offerings at up to 30% more money, and there are no Intel options near its price. A gaming system in the $800-900 range is where either company's cpu offerings become solid choices. The more you spend, Intel systems just make more sense. The less you spend, AMD has an edge. I agree that Phenom gaming benchmarks are their strongpoint, but beyond benchmarks you still have to deal with lower effeciency and heat issues (sounds like the P4 problems of the past?). If you read through posts here at Tom's, it seems that more folks are trying to decide between 2 Intel sockets rather than 2 companies offerings.
 
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