Gaming Machine with ~$325 and spare parts

[Firewind]

This is my budget for a gaming machine. It is a secondary machine which will mostly be used to play older games or newer games at lesser settings.

The parts I already have are a 550w power supply, a case, a sound card, and a hard drive (5400rpm).

What MB/processor/memory/video card should I be looking at with this budget?

 

[g-paw]

IF you only have $325 to spend, you'll need onboard video. Below is an example and comes out to $350. You could save if you don't get a dual core CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813127013
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103735
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820134114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103631

 

[LabaR]

Onboard video for a gaming rig? are you serious? go with this...

Intel Pentium D 915 Presler 2.8GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80553915 - Retail (combo)
BIOSTAR 945GZ Micro 775 LGA 775 Intel 945GZ Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (combo)
Combo = $160.99

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) System Memory Model KVR533D2N4/1G - Retail $71.99

EVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $119.99 - $20 MIR

This is decently upgradable in the future, if you need to cutt back on anything maybe get a 7300 GT card.

Also if you can afford it get possibly buy some artic silver 5 and good heat sink.

 

[NamelessMC]

Labar had the best suggestion, but I'm gonna go on a limb and tweak it a bit.

You could get a motherboard that'll last longer in case you decide to upgrade in the long run, and it'll also over-clock really nicely.

www.mwave.com was used for my bundle suggestion:
Intel Pentium D 820 Retail $95.88
Gigabyte 945P S3 $81.62
Kingston 1GB DDR2 533 $66.25
Total: $243.75

The bundle ends up being cheaper than Labar's suggestion, is a little less powerful, but you get a much more concrete motherboard base and you can easily over-clock this processor to 3.5+ gigahertz.

The thing is, you get left with a little under $100 for a video-card.

If you want, you can buy my 7600GT off me. I'm selling it for $85 shipped. It's the BFG OC'ed version, I've only had it for about a month now and haven't over-clocked it. You get a pretty much brand new 7600GT without having to wait for a rebate and I guarantee it'll run good for you.

If you can't afford that, you can either bump up your budget to get the 7600GT new for your build, or you can get maybe an X800GTO2 if you can find one, or a 6600GT.

 

[yquo]

Processor
90 usd AMD Athlon64 3500+ or
99 usd AMD Athlon64 3800+

Motherboard
56 usd ECS nForce4 or
58 usd ECS ATI Xpress 1100

Memory 80 usd 1 Gb DDR2 667

Video Card
90 usd after rebate EVGA 7600 GT or
93 usd after rebate BFG Tech 7600 GT

 

[Firewind]

These look very good. Thank you very much.

 

[ethel]

If I was in your position I'd definitely try to squeeze in a hard disk, as that 5400rpm disk has definitely seen better days and will take ages to load games and new levels.

This one's a good deal, 80GB, 8MB cache and only $44:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106

Oh, and definitely get the dual-core 3800+ from the above build as it's dual-core for so little more.