System for ABOUT 350

[Synthetickiller]

My friend's computer died. It was a POS, though I won't hurt his feelings and tell him that. :lol:

He bought WoW but can only play it on his mom's computer. It runs slow and I think he should get a better computer and he agrees as well.

His aunt said they wanted to order a refurbished dell for 350 bucks. They say it has 1 gig of ram, though I don't know any real specs. I'm assuming its DDR1.

He already has a case, optical drives, floppy and a case.

I need a MOBO, CPU, RAM, and VIDEO.

Whats the best you can do to make it a gaming computer. I'm thinking 1 gig ddr2 is worth putting the money into, but you guys would know more than me about finding good deals.

 

[apt403]

so he wants to play game on this? just WoW, or other stuff too? is he going to overclock? and you said he already has a case, optical drives and a floppy drive, what about hdd and psu, do you have that covered too? whats the res on his monitor?

 

[WR2]

To meet your budget goal:
Athlon 64 3200+ $61
Foxconn K8MA-RS Socket 939 MB $54 before $10 rebate
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) $104
eVGA 7600GT 256MB $120 before $20 rebate
The $30 in rebates will probably cover the shipping charges.

 

[apt403]

To meet your budget goal:
Athlon 64 3200+ $61
Foxconn K8MA-RS Socket 939 MB $54 before $10 rebate
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) $104
eVGA 7600GT 256MB $120 before $20 rebate
The $30 in rebates will probably cover the shipping charges.

Since its a socket 939 platform theres no future for it, socktet 939 will probably be dead before march '07, but since its has a fairly strong gfx card i would say its a pretty good system.

I was going to suggest a c2d system, but it would have a slightly weaker gfx card and you have gone over budget by about $100.

 

[Dade_0182]

Kinda sounds like my budget (damn car service took all the rest)
I think the system that WR2 mentioned is just fine.
Get the specs of the other pc and we'll try to help from there.

 

[WR2]

You could get a AM2 option which maybe a better choice for future upgrades.
Athlon 64 3200+ Orleans 2.0GHz AM2 $80
Foxconn K8M AM2 MB $53
G.SKILL 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) $101

In any case you'll need to make sure the old PSU has the right connectors for the newer motherboards. And it should have 18amps worth of 12volt power for the 7600GT.

 

[apt403]

edit:

Fixed

that it is.

anyway, heres the system i would recommend.

E6300 - $181
Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe -$105
G. Skill DDR2-533 1gb - $107
X800GTO - $87

total - $480

little more life then a 939 system, but it costs more and the gfx isnt as strong.

 

[Dade_0182]

My bad, just browsed down and saw the quote without realising.

 

[Dade_0182]

Fixed

 

[Synthetickiller]

I forgot he also needs a PSU. Sorry guys, I threw this post up before going to bed.

Yeah, I want to convince him to buy a cheap 17" CRT or something, but he doesn't listen to good reason. He has something like a 14" CRT which is ancient.

He was talking about buying a video card later, so I'm not entirely sure still if he means his relatives will pay for the PSU, MOBO, CPU and RAM while he drops some cash on a video card.

The ram is supposedly dead, but I'm thinking that its his motherboard as his video is also going. If his ram is DDR1 and not really ******, He can just use what he had in there and buy an extra 512 and use the saved money for a better cpu or video card ( most likely, better video).

I'll give him a call today and ask him if he's still interested. He changes his mind more than women do (yeah, I know i'll get some flack for that one. :twisted: )


You guys did give me some good ideas. I was hell bent on a c2d, but thats not realistic.

Thanks.

 

[WR2]

There goes the budget.
I almost hate to say it but if the budget is really fixed he should be looking at something like a new Dell E521 system for $329 online. He could upgrade the CPU to Athlon 3200+ for $349 total. He'd be limited to onboard 6150 graphics and 512MB RAM but those could be fixed with later upgrades. Also he could get a 17" CRT monitor upgrade online for only $60 if he can squeeze his budget a bit.

 

[chaosgs]

A geforce 7600 is a huge overkill i played wow with my geforce 4000 mx on high settings.... so just spend $50 for a geforce 6200 le (IF your only going to play wow) which is STILL a overkill, after all my friend plays it on high settings with onboard graphics.