Hello,

My friend is in need of a new computer, He currently has a 2002 Dell which is extreme slow and plays almost no games. He is slowly going to buy items to make his gaming more enjoyable, first a new desktop than a monitor and so on.

He is mostly going to play these games: Battlefield 2, World In Conflict, Comand & Conquer Generals.
He also wants his computer to be as fast as possible for budget of $1100.


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Processer: $230 w/ Heatsink & Fan
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037


Memory/Ram: $60 w/ Heatsink
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel TWIN2X2048-6400C5DHX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145175


Video Card: $260 w/ Fan
EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130319


Motherboard: $150
ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131232


Case: $85
NZXT HUSH Black SECC Steel/ Aluminum/ Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811146035


Power Supply: $125
Thermaltake Purepower RX W0144RU ATX12V / EPS12V 600W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153049


Hard Drive: $175
Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136011


Optical Drive: $40
ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827135156



TOTAL: $1125


WHAT DO YOU THINK?
SUGGESTIONS?

Oh Ya, my friend only wants Intel, Nvidia, and he wants a Raptor.

you dont need a raptor if you're saving money, get a seagate 7200.11 500gb drive or something and put the money towards a better component.

I would suggest putting any extra money from ditching the raptor to get the E8400 ($220) or Q6600 ($299) processors.

OR

Get an 8800GTS 512MB graphics card over the GT for a bit extra.

If i can't convince u of anything there, then what you have chosen should suffice, but all I'm saying is you could save some $$$ by ditching the raptor which seems to be out of place in that system and would not be the bottleneck. Put it towards something else.

No your card is good, gts bad choice, save a little on mobo, raptor rocks but you could save money. If you can save a little on those and get nicer case. Oh ya could go with 2 gb of ram instead of 4

Get 2gb not 4gb of RAM if you are going 32bit Vista/XP. 32bit systems can only read up to 3gb of RAM. 64bit can read more. Generally speaking, most games only use 2gb of RAM anyway.

Can you get an 780i MoBo for the same price? 680i's are an old technology and can be hot. Really hot. Like cook a steak hot.

Skip the raptor. Quick load times but will barely change your FPS. Get a 250gb SATA and spend the difference on a better processor.

I haven't purchased my builld yet, but you should change the following


Faster Processor - Core 2 Duo E8400
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6819115037

Better Motherboard - This is the 780i from eVGA, only a bit more expensive but worth it (You picked out a 680i)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188024

Better HDD - This is a 7200.11 320GB Seagate, I believe it is almost as fast as the raptor and has much more space
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148288

For the RAM just get 2GB, almost nothing needs more and 32bit windows will only use 3.33 of it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146565
OR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231114

If you end up with an extra 100 the G92 8800GTS is a better card than the 8800GT, but is a lot more expensive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130312

Also, your friend is going to be doing pretty much every game with this kind of budget FYI. I can play BF2, C&C Generals, and C&C Tiberium Wars with no lag on a 4 year old gaming PC.

The TT PSU only has 23.3 amps on the +12v rail which is not enough for a high end vid card. Their web site lists it as 29a, but the label on the PSU only lists 280w on the 12v. 280 divided by 12v = 23.3 amps.

The PSU is also not SLi capable. I point this out since you picked an SLi board.

This would be a much better choice. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139004

Depeding on how much of a budget your friend is on, you might benefit from an AMD setup instead, I'm thinking you could have maybe a 5000+ black edition, which should overclock decently for the price of that processor you quoted. Also as someone said, lose the raptor, look into some of the new seagate drives, some are faster, as well as cheaper and more storage space.

Example....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103194

AMD 5000+ Black edition, 99.99, of course you need a cooler, but still not bad.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128075

Gigabyte AM2/AM2+ mobo, 149.99

For myself, I'm running a Gigabyte mobo and an Athlon X2 5200+, very very nice motherboard, I'm very happy with mine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820134586

Kingston memory ddr2 1066, is a little pricey at 79.99, but if you look around at the specs on that board it might take ddr2 800, or you can look into another board, b/c most amd boards take the ddr2 800, which is a lot cheaper.

So that is another option to consider, your saying budget system and your friend is supposed to be saving money here, AMD would do that job just fine, get him a reasonably fast chip, take some off that motherboard but leave him some expandability, then your saving him money and he may not have to wait on that monitor and what not.

Judging by the parts he listed he can afford the intel processor

Perhaps, but he is talking about a budget, and his friend wanting more for his money, just throwing out an idea. As AMD is still great performance for less bucks.

And a lot less performance...unfortunately

Thanks for the suggestions, I forgot to post this...but my friend wants 4GB of Ram I told him he dosent but thats him, I'll tell him about the PSU, Processer, and mobo changes.

AND Thanks for the coments.

Please continue to post suggestions, ill post a the new components soon.

^^ Question...will he run SLI

If not don't waste money on the 680i motherboard. Also don't go by the "later it will be cheaper" deal, because by the time it happens, buying the better card will be better than SLI. Get a nice P35 motherboard instead (or X38 to go crossfire but thats the same deal as SLI).

Also, don't get a Raptor. They're outdated and not worth it. Get a seagate or a WD AAKS drive. I have the 32o gig which was $80.

Based on the above, using the saved cash, upgrade to an E8400 or Q6600 and if you can, push the G92 GTS. The GT runs very hot and loud (I know from personnal experience)

On another note, try to get a better wattage PSU. I can personally suggest the Corsair 520HX. Its modular which is nice

Edit: Run off my system if you want (hardware config). It was $900 so you can upgrade off that.