Low/Mid range gaming pc for my gf ...

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mihow

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Sep 15, 2008
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I built my own system last year through the advice on these forums so I would like to ask for advice again. I am building my g/f a pc to play some of my games (tomb raider, GRID, Crysis etcetc) but mostly she will be playing WoW, watching movies and surfing the net. I want it to be low/mid range price and be able to play the newest games for a couple of years. There is no OS because I have that covered already, as well as the speaker/keyboard/mouse. Any suggestions would be great and if anyone could throw a link or two for a t.v that could double as a monitor for a fair price, please feel free to post.

Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 35$
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache 72$
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD 25$
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard 53$
Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YD 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB 70$
BIOSTAR VA4673NH51 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 77$
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 30$
Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply 60$

Also am I missing something? Cables?

Thankyou very much in advance!

-Mihow
 
You will be disappointed if you try to play Crysis on the HD 4670. Try getting a HD 4830, it's got twice as many processors and it's not much more.

You could get a TV tuner card and a monitor, rather than a TV. That way you pay about $250 in total and get to play at 1680x1050 rather than 1366x768.

Try to get a 2x2GB RAM kit. It makes a huge difference over 2GB in games.

In that price range I think you should consider an AMD CPU/MB combination. Here's one, for example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.172800
The E5200 can be very good but only if you buy a P45 motherboard and a good aftermarket cooler and learn to overclock. It will disappoint you if you use it at stock.

You probably won't need any extra cables. That DVD burner is SATA, right? The HDD is SATA. Most motherboards come with 2 SATA cables (or more). Pick a motherboard first and then you'll know for sure. BTW, I'd avoid Micro ATX boards. They cut too many corners just to keep everything small.


 
I'd go with this power supply OCZ 500w $60 it has free shipping which should save you $10 or so and has a $20 rebate if you use it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012

For graphic card i'd go with the HD4830 for about $12 more with free shipping (not counting any rebates)
for better performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127420

Hard drive - WD SE 320GB $55 free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074

good budget build though.
 

Huge is correct. Don't try, get 4GB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207 $37 (no heat spreader)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122 $42

Whats your price range on the tv/monitor. What the range of size you'd find acceptable? All the TV/monitors that I've seen under 32" that I've seen in retail stores have all seemed over priced to me, so if your looking for something smaller than that (like 20"-24") I would recommend buying a good tuner card which is no more that $99.

In WoW a 4670 will crush that game if you keep shadows and weather intensity down a bit. I wouldn't even try to run Crysis unless you want her to feel bad about the PC, with or without the 4830 the game isn't going to run smooth (25 FPS+) all the time even on medium.
 
Would that mobo/cpu combo be worth the extra 35$? Also, gonna skip the 4gb memory for now as im trying to skimp a bit on price. Again, WoW is gonna be the number one game in there for a while. I just want the newer games to be highly playable. Also, decided to switch out the video card for the one you guys recommended. As well as the power supply to the diff. company and the HD. Would the mobo/cpu switch make a big difference then? And also, where can I look for a monitor that can double as a tv. And as far as TV Tuner cards go I have no idea what to look for ... EDIT : not sure what the price limit is for monitor.tuner card ... she will handle that portion of it. Any advice for medium price range?
 
I agree with them. I built a rig a couple weeks ago with an E5200, and stock I definitely think it feels a little slow. It is on a P43, for an out-of-state friend with a tight budget (e.g. no additional cooler), so I'm not sure how far I should or will be able to push it; not too far I think. At least I got him a 4830 🙂.
 
I actually took a quick look on new egg and there seems to be some halfdecent tv tuner monitors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010190020+1301919996+1289717890&Configurator=&Subcategory=20&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
 
From what I've read, WoW likes lots of memory. Go with the 4GB; I've never played WoW, but I know it will make a notable difference elsewhere too.
Get DDR2-800 that will run at its advertised timings on the JEDEC standard 1.8V. I prefer Mushkin myself, but I know G.Skill and A-Data also make some that is CL5 or better.
 
You motherboard is fine, spending more money on a motherboard isn't really going to improve performance. $35 more into a CPU would though. Although if you have $35 to play with I would say you have $28 to play with and now you have 4GB of memory.

Also, it looks the next logical leap in CPU is to the AMD 710 or the Intel E7400 which are $120 ($48 more expensive than your current CPU).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010340343+4017&Configurator=&Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
 
Antec New Solution Series NSK4480 Chassis $90.53 shipped @buy.com (includes good quality PSU)
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-new-solution-series-mini-tower-case-w-earthwatts-380w-psu-silver/q/loc/101/204901695.html

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $53
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $73 FS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $44 FS
$5 off w/ promo code EMCLNNP29, while supplies last
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $55 FS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074&Tpk=wd3200aaks

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152

POWERCOLOR AX4830 512MD3-H Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $90 FS + $15MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131129
 
I would try to avoid the G31 motherboards. If possible, make the move to a P35. You should also get 2x2GBs of ram. 2x1GB might work, but DDR2 is cheap right now, probably not so cheap 1-2 years from now when everyone is making DDR3. The same thing happened to me with my S939 board, its stuck at 1GB.

I see others have already pointed you to the cheaper/better harddrives and 4830. Animals buy.com link is a good one, and saves you a couple of $$$.
 


Spending 70% more to get 5-10% performance improvement is not worth it.
 


From what I've heard 3-3.2GHz is easily attainable on stock cooling.
 
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