Salvage PC.

[varun706]

I am salvaging my dad's old comp. These r the parts I've chosen to put on my dad's old MoBo.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz CPU
Kingston KVR800D2N5/1G 1GB DDR2 SDRAM 800Mhz x2
ViewSonic VX2253MH 21.5 LED monitor
ASUS GeForce GT520 1GB DDR3
Corsair CX430 PSU

Currently the mobo is an Intel D945GCNL. Can this run most of the games smoothly?(Excluding:Battlefield 3). If any, feel free to suggest me alternatives.

+I want to keep the budget under 385$.

 

[sosofm]

I sugest you to keep the Video card,power supply and buy this :
CPU : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103993
Motherboard : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176
RAM : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104206
Total : $174.97

 

[sosofm]

If you want more extreme :
CPU : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Motherboard : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
RAM : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226095
Total : 383$

 

[holdingholder]

If you want t o play games smoothly you should probably ditch that whole setup, that motherboard only supports 2 gb of ram which won't really cu it right now, also that video card won't play any modern game very well beyond low settings.

 

[bgrt]

As another guy said, if you want to game, you'd have to invest in a board that supports >2GB memory. If it's just for productivity, a Core 2 Duo setup with a $30 video card for HD video acceleration and Flash acceleration is fine. CPU + budget card + DDR2 RAM + PSU will cost about $150, then add the monitor, $100 more. If you want a modern gaming system you'll need a completely new setup.

 

[tsnor]

Agree, build a new system in the old case using new MB, new CPU, new Memory, new video. Keeping old optical drive, disk drive.

+1 SOSOFM for <$200 AMD build. He may still need the power supply and the video. Depending on the vintage of his other parts, he may really need a new hard drive also. (Glad to see the MB you choose supported IDE (Pata) odds are his current disk is an IDE drive.

For the i5 build (which is the right answer) you selected 8GB memory. He probably doesn't have a 64-bit OS. If he's a student he can get a cheap copy of win7 64-bit from microsoft.

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For OP, "ASUS GeForce GT520" won't game. Read this and pick a card at your price point. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3085.html IF you want to play games, consider $100 HD5770, HD6770 as minimum especially as you add up to a few hundred in other parts.