Build me a cheap Gamer PC

[bashy]

Hey everyone. I play mainly WoW and other games that don't need too much hardware. I don't mind playing any game at the highest settings but it has to run smoothly with average graphics at least.

Like I said, I mainly play WoW but I do want a PC I can upgrade in the future. If anyone knows a cheap monitor as well I'd appreciate it.


Thanks

 

[Why_Me]

Hey everyone. I play mainly WoW and other games that don't need too much hardware. I don't mind playing any game at the highest settings but it has to run smoothly with average graphics at least.

Like I said, I mainly play WoW but I do want a PC I can upgrade in the future. If anyone knows a cheap monitor as well I'd appreciate it.


Thanks

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice

Better yet just post a budget, what country you live in.

 

[bashy]

I'm from the US, Budget ranges from 0-600 I'm willing to pay a few bucks more for the right reasons.

 

[xthekidx]

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127420
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074&Tpk=wd3200aaks
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&Tpk=antec%20300
MB/CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.181198
Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152
OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231219&Tpk=G%20skill%20hk

That is all you need to get it up and running, and on stock cooling you can OC to around 3.2ghz safely. If you are willing to spend a little more and get a CPU cooler, you can OC much higher probably to around 3.8-4ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185093&Tpk=scythe%20mugen%202

That will Play WoW quite smoothly on high settings. $622.

 

[Why_Me]

The monitor runs a resolution of 1680 x 1020...up from the 1440 x 900 that those size of monitors usually run. The cpu can be over clocked (12.5 x 266) 3.2GHz @ 1066fsb. The heatsink also comes with a tube of Tuniq thermal compound. The vid card is a steal at that price also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106 $49.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150070 $4.99
MASSCOOL FD12025S1L3/4 120mm Case Fan - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012 $59.99 ($49.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS 500W ATX12V / EPS12V Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.181196 Combo Discount: -$10.00 Combo Price: $112.98
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835207006 $29.99 ($19.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
Sunbeam CR-CCTF92-4 92mm Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler W/TX-2 - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150357 $129.99 Free Shipping*
XFX GS250XYDFC GeForce GTS 250 512MB Core Edition 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Free Call of Duty: World at War w/ purchase, limited offer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122 $42.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074 $54.99 Free Shipping*
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 $24.99 Free Shipping*
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488 $99.99 Free Shipping*
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009127 $129.99 Free Shipping*
Acer X193W+BD Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2000:1 (ACM) - Retail
High resolution 19” monitor

Total: $715.89 | $659.89 w/rebates *not including shipping

 

[xthekidx]

Decent cheap monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009127

Edit: Why_Me beat me with the monitor. As you can see we pretty much used the exact same parts, he opted for a cheaper MB and a slightly better GPU, and a lesser cooler. I think my build has more potential for overclocking with the better MB and cooler, but his GPU is better. If you don't mind going over the budget, swap in his GPU into my build. The case I used has free shipping and is all around a better case, the Ram I used is the exact same price but faster with tighter timings. His cooler is probably sufficient and cheaper, but the one I used cools better and will allow a slightly higher OC, and has a backplate, which reduces the strain on the MB. I have experience with the MB he used and I am kinda disappointed with it, the P43 board has more bios options and is worth the price difference IMO.

 

[oricblack]

I can agree with xthekidx on his build, only thing i would change is the RAM and possibly a dofferent GPU
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814161252
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176

Hope this helps!

 

[Why_Me]

I can agree with xthekidx on his build, only thing i would change is the RAM and possibly a dofferent GPU
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814161252
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176

Hope this helps!

Your not really serious with that vid card you posted are you?

 

[xthekidx]

I can agree with xthekidx on his build, only thing i would change is the RAM and possibly a dofferent GPU
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16814161252
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176

Hope this helps!

Why would you use those components instead? The 4830 is twice the GPU as the 4670 for $20 more. Corsair ram is way overpriced, the Modules I chose are faster than the ones you chose and $30 cheaper.

 

[oricblack]

Why would you use those components instead? The 4830 is twice the GPU as the 4670 for $20 more. Corsair ram is way overpriced, the Modules I chose are faster than the ones you chose and $30 cheaper.

Actually I see my mistake on the GPU, so thgats a my bad, but Ive had really good luck with that particular RAM, idk, Corsair has always been my prefference.

 

[xthekidx]

Corsair makes good ram, and they know it so they charge a high premium for it. The fancy heatspreaders they use on that ram is more marketing than anything else, and it can interfere with other components, particularly a CPU heatsink. G. Skill is excellent ram at an excellent price, they don't mess around with excess garbage to drive up the price for minimal if any improvement other than aesthetics.

 

[oricblack]

I can see your point and dont get me wrong, I have nopthing against G.Skill at all, actually with my last build it came down to either corsair or G.Skill, both the same specs, but the Corsair had a nice 20 MIR, at the time it was a steal. got lucky on that one I guess

 

[bashy]

Didn't know WoW got so intense though some office-dell pc could run it smoothly nowadays since it's pretty old, the price is good though.

 

[whitefang]

WoW doesn't take a good PC, if you want a cheaper build. (and I am kind of noobish at this so it probably won't be great)

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor - Retail

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157148
ASRock N68PV-GS AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153052
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply - Retail

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125260
GIGABYTE GV-N95TD3-512I GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

Total comes to $497

 

[xthekidx]

WoW doesn't take a good PC, if you want a cheaper build. (and I am kind of noobish at this so it probably won't be great)

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor - Retail

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157148
ASRock N68PV-GS AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153052
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply - Retail

GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125260
GIGABYTE GV-N95TD3-512I GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

Total comes to $497

The MB and PSU are not good, the CPU is ok, but the E5200 would be better for overclocking. Nvidia chipsets are garbage, and Only Toughpower thermaltake psu's are worth a darn.

 

[bashy]

Should I really switch to Vista? I use it on my laptop and honestly, I like XP Pro better... Not sure if the 64-bit support is as good though?

 

[whitefang]

You won't be able to use 4GB of ram unless you use vista or you have a 64 bit windows XP.

Also, say you have a 1GB video card, that cuts down your main memory also, since windows XP can only read 3.5GB of ram you would be left with 2.5GB of ram

Atleast that's what i've always read

 

[xthekidx]

That is correct. If you know what you are doing, XP 64bit can work out well, but you have to have all the right drivers ect and its not that well supported by microsoft, Vista 64bit has much more support, and performs better in gaming than XP does.

 

[bashy]

Funny.. When Vista came out and nobody knew how to work with it they were like (ZOMG XP is so much better its like 150% better in gamez!!111one), guess I'll have to go with Vista then. Any big differences between them or am I just fine with the regular Home Vista one (don't really wanna spend too much on the OS)?

 

[xthekidx]

Home premium 64bit is the best option.

 

[ray_07]

Okay, first-time poster here, who is prepping to try his first build. I'm looking for almost the exact same thing as the original poster: I'll use the build for some casual WoW play, some on-line course work and my wife will surf the net, store photos and music, etc.

I like xthekidx's build, but Whitefang's build is a bit more in my price range. To this point, I've pretty much decided that the e5200 is the way I want to go, until I saw this Atholon chip.

Anyway, my question then is would I need to overclock the e5200 to get the performance I needed for smooth WoW play and everything else I listed above? Or would it be okay at stock speed? I wouldn't mind overclocking, but I have no experience in it, so it makes me a bit nervous.

Or, would it simply make more sense to go Athalon and pair it with a better motherboard?

I know that's a lot, but like I said, I'm new at this...

Thanks for your help in advance. I can't tell you how much I've learned from you all reading all your posts.

 

[whitefang]

It would be better if you started your own thread, you'll get more replies and it's rude to jump onto some one elses thread.

however, the e5200 is plenty for WoW, wow doesn't need a very good PC at all.

 

[Helloworld_98]

and the e5200 is just as good as the 7750 stock except it overclocks a bit further.

 

[ray_07]

Thanks...

And my apologies for thread jumping. I'll know better next time.

 

[whitefang]

Ray_07 start a new thread and use this template.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/page-261222_31_50.html