Some1 help me With this CHEAPPPPP build

[mega1268]

Ok im building a GAming computer for my brother on a very tight budget. around 300 dollers. But i have a harddrive with XP on it. Power supply and dvdrw drive. i was messing around with a couple different setups. i think the best cheap system is the 3600+ x2 setup is the best 1 with a 7600 gs.
Can some1 help me out here. All parts will come from newegg.

 

[jeff_2087]

You could probably get a 7600GT and still come under budget. A X2 3600+ Windsor combo with a board is around $120, and a 7600GT is $110, and 2 sticks of 512mb DDR2-800 would be around $60. So, $290.

But then there's a $20 rebate on the 7600GT so if you use that it ends up being $260, so if you could probably get 2GB of RAM because two 1GB sticks are $110, so with 2GB of RAM it'd still be $310.

 

[mega1268]

those 120 Combos are for micro MTX. Are those any good? What kinda case can i get with that with a decent power supply? And most of those have onboard video dont they??? i dont want onboard video

 

[jeff_2087]

Yeah most of them are microATX. That's not a problem, they'll still fit in a normal ATX case. I assumed you already had a case and power supply. Cheap boards are often mATX because it saves money to make a smaller board, but you don't get as many PCI slots and such.

I haven't looked at the exact boards but yeah they probably have onboard video. That isn't a downside though because they also have a PCI-E slot for a graphics card. You can just disable the onboard video and use the 7600 for graphics.

Overclocking on these boards would likely be poor. You'd have to spend a bit more to get a good overclocking board.

 

[mega1268]

A micro MTX fits in an normal ATX mid tower? that doesnt make sence does it. Also the power supply i have is a decent 1 i bought awhile ago and never used and it doesnt have a PCI express 6 pin power. But i noticed The 7600gs doesn't have any power cord. Are these cards powered off of mother boards.

 

[jeff_2087]

Sure, a micro ATX (mATX or sometimes uATX) is 9 by 9 inches, a full size ATX is 9 by 13 inches. So a mATX is like a full size ATX with the bottom part chopped off. The screw holes line up with those on full ATX boards.

Both the 7600GT and the 7600GS are powered from the motherboard so you don't need to worry about plugging it into anything (well except the PCI Express slot obviously). The PSU just needs to be about 350W with 18A on 12v.

 

[mega1268]

is this setup suffiecent to play LOTRO/WOW HL2 source on decent settings? FEAR all those games. on a 19inch widescreen

 

[jeff_2087]

I dont know what LOTRO is but it the 7600GT can play WoW and HL2 on max settings at 1280x1024 (not big AA/AF for HL2 though). The 7600GS might have some trouble playing HL2 on max and get constant good fps, the GT is significantly faster. The GS could play on decent settings for sure though.

 

[Newf]

Ok im building a GAming computer for my brother on a very tight budget. around 300 dollers. But i have a harddrive with XP on it. Power supply and dvdrw drive. i was messing around with a couple different setups. i think the best cheap system is the 3600+ x2 setup is the best 1 with a 7600 gs.
Can some1 help me out here. All parts will come from newegg.

AMD X2 3600+ 1.9GHz AM2 Retail $72+0 4/19/07
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103046

Biostar TForce 550 AM2 ATX $80-10+6 4/19/07
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138026

Wintec 2x512 DDR2-800 5-5-5-12 1.8v $60+5 4/19/07
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161067

EVGA 256-P2-N550-T2 7600GT $110-20+6 4/19/07
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130073