building a new rig for friend

[jhyukkang]

hellow.
my friend want to buy or build a new computer. his budget for the tower is 800 dollars.
he is choosing between hp, cyberpower, or build. (if he want to build it, i will be doing it, because he sucks.. ^^)
yeah..
can i have some recomandation??
he will use it for 1 year and upgrade slowly..
he wants graphics card under 120
the brand of cpu and gpu doesnt matters. can you just put system specs?? please??
thanks alot.
by the way, he was thinking to get Athlon 64 X2 6000 and geforce 8600gt or gts

 

[WR2]

he will use it for 1 year and upgrade slowly..
he wants graphics card under 120
by the way, he was thinking to get Athlon 64 X2 6000 and geforce 8600gt or gts

You didnt mention what resolution you friend will game at now and if he's thinking of upgrading his monitor.
That is important information. X2 6000 + 8600GT does not seem a good balance for gaming. More GPU and less CPU for better gaming.

At the moment Intel is a slightly better performance/upgradeable option. Something along these lines:
Core 2 Duo E4500 2.2Ghz $125
COOLER MASTER 92mm Hyper TX2 CPU Cooler $22.00 ($2 after $20 rebate)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L $90
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400 $75 ($50 after $25 rebate)
Seagate 7200.10 250GB $65
Samsung 20X DVDRW/DL SH-S202G $28
GeForce 8800GT 512MB $270
COOLER MASTER RC-690 ATX Mid Tower Case $80 ($35 after $45 rebate)
CORSAIR 550W PSU $100 ($85 after $15 rebate)
[:wr2:2] $855 or $735 after rebates.
The brands are just suggestions but the $$$ distribution is about right for each part in a balanced gaming system.
Upgrades to CPU (3.0Ghz Quad), GPU (2009 GPU) and 4GB RAM are about all that will need upgrading to keep his PC in top gaming form for ~3 years.

 

[Onus]

What is his total budget? Does he already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers? Does he have an operating system?
"...budget for the tower is $800" sounds like he has everything else, so does he?
What games does he want to play?

 

[jhyukkang]

he wants to play bioshock really badly... and he already has a monitor 17", and all external stuff.
today i gave him some choises on cpu and gpu which is core 2 duo e2180, e4500, and e6550
geforce 8600gts, radeon hd 3XXX, and geforce 8800gt
i think those will be over his budget..
what do you think??

 

[zenmaster]

Does he require a Copy of Windows or does he already have one?
That is $100 that is important in an $800 Budget.

 

[jhyukkang]

he has xp pro sp2

 

[dwthor02]

i would scrape for a 8800gt....ill will be worth it if he was wanting to play bioshock and in my opinion that is only worth playing it if the pc can max the game out or at least come close

 

[jhyukkang]

instead of e4XXX will x2 6000 and 8800gt be a good match??

 

[dwthor02]

6000 is a solid chip i have a 6400 and works just fine

 

[jhyukkang]

is this cooler good??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200014

and here is my final choice;
athlon x2 6000+
2gb ddr2
geforce 8800gt(wait, is this one better or hd 3850 is better?)

and one more question
im not sure which mobo to buy. i want to use pc2 5300 ddr2 rams, on that cpu can you guys recomend me some good mobo??