$500 gaming rig?

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I'm building a system for a friend who games a fair bit but needs a system for about $500. To afford a decent video card socket 745 seems to be the way to go in this price range. After some research this is what I've come up with;

BIOSTAR TForce6100 Socket 754 GeForce 6100 Micro ATX MB $69
AMD Sempron 64 3000+ Palermo Socket 754 Processor $76(when bundled with the MB)
G.SKILL 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) $72
eVGA Geforce 6800 256-P2-N384 Video Card $99(after rebate)
Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 HD $95
IN WIN IW-Z720T.J300BFU2AD Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Case 300W PSU $38
NEC Black IDE/ATAPI 16X DVD±R DVD Burner $38
------------------------------------------------------------------
Total = $487(all prices from newegg, shipping not added yet)

How does all this look to you guys? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Quote :

I'm building a system for a friend who games a fair bit but needs a system for about $500. To afford a decent video card socket 745 seems to be the way to go in this price range. After some research this is what I've come up with;

BIOSTAR TForce6100 Socket 754 GeForce 6100 Micro ATX MB $69
AMD Sempron 64 3000+ Palermo Socket 754 Processor $76(when bundled with the MB)
G.SKILL 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) $72
eVGA Geforce 6800 256-P2-N384 Video Card $99(after rebate)
Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 HD $95
IN WIN IW-Z720T.J300BFU2AD Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Case 300W PSU $38
NEC Black IDE/ATAPI 16X DVD±R DVD Burner $38
------------------------------------------------------------------
Total = $487(all prices from newegg, shipping not added yet)

How does all this look to you guys? Any suggestions would be appreciated.



I have had nothing but across the board problems with BIOSTAR, and most review sites do not give them very high marks. Trade in the BIOSTAR board for this one:
Asus K8N-VM- $61.00

EDIT- I cannot read, you do have a video card.
Never heard of that brand of RAM, I like Corsair or OCZ. Also since RAM is dual channel is it better to get matched pairs (in this case 2x 512MB) Here is the Corsair matched oair:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231046
$66.90

Reply to shadowduck

Yeah, the motherboard was one of the things I wasn't certain about. That Biostar board got 5 stars average rating based on over 100 reviews(plus -$10 on the processor) so I figured it was a decent choice.
As for the ram, I've read that socket 754 boards don't support dual channeling so I'd rather keep a slot free for an upgrade to 2 gigs at some point. A gig of Corsair ram with the same cas latency(2.5) cost 40 bucks more so I figured I'd go with the cheapest that is well reviewed.

Reply to jyjjy

Quote :

Yeah, the motherboard was one of the things I wasn't certain about. That Biostar board got 5 stars average rating based on over 100 reviews(plus -$10 on the processor) so I figured it was a decent choice.
As for the ram, I've read that socket 754 boards don't support dual channeling so I'd rather keep a slot free for an upgrade to 2 gigs at some point. A gig of Corsair ram with the same cas latency(2.5) cost 40 bucks more so I figured I'd go with the cheapest that is well reviewed.



You are right, my error that board does not support dual channel RAM. So here is 1GB Corsair for $67.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145505

As for ratings on Newegg, they tend to be inaccurate.

Reply to shadowduck

The Corsair ram is higher latency tho... I've read that for gaming lower cas latency can be signficant.
I've never heard of GSKILL either but it hasn't got a single bad review out of 23. Is it worth it to go with the Corsair over the lower latency stuff(plus it has a heat spreader) at a similiar price?

Reply to jyjjy

Quote :

The Corsair ram is higher latency tho... I've read that for gaming lower cas latency can be signficant.
I've never heard of GSKILL either but it hasn't got a single bad review out of 23. Is it worth it to go with the Corsair over the lower latency stuff(plus it has a heat spreader) at a similiar price?



Go for GSKILL... Did not see the heat spreader.. thats nice. After you build the system, run Memtest86 and make sure everything check outs ok.

Reply to shadowduck

That all looks quite nice to me for the money spent...

With a PCI-e slot, he might be able to add a 7800GT for $250-ish a few months down the road which would double his gaming framerates....

I'd also have him add another GB of mem at the earliest opportunity..

Reply to mdd1963

What about the case? Is a 300W PSU enough?

Reply to jyjjy

Quote :

What about the case? Is a 300W PSU enough?



No, not at all.. I recommand 500W PSUs to most people, but you can probably get buy with a 400W. Antec will sell you a 550W for $89 with a $15 MIR to make it $74.

Reply to shadowduck

"What about the case? Is a 300W PSU enough?"

For that rig, it would probably do, but I personally would rather have a quality 400-450 watt unit....

Reply to mdd1963
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