My brother is looking to build a new gaming PC this summer for around $500. I am trying to help him and give him some suggestions. After searching online sources, it is amazing how good of a PC he can build for a little more than it cost me to upgrade a CPU, MB and GPU a little over two years ago. He will probably be playing at the 1280x1024 resolution. Therefore, he does not need a super high end rig. I have done the research on both Tom's and Anand as far as benchmarking of the CPU and GPU go, and these appear to be very good for the resolutions and quality settings he will be using.
So here is what we have tentatively decided upon:
This build comes to just over $500. What do you all think about this build? Does it appear to be pretty solid?? I have also looked into some of the Intel chips but they are a little too much for the performance gains.
Consider getting 4gb of ram instead of 2. It'll let you disable page file, and 2 gb of ddr2 comes to around $35 more anyway. Everything else is good as is. You can't do much better on that budget.
Well, he already has a case from my old computer that I gave him. It is an older Antec case, very solid, with a couple of extra fans in it for him as well. He might buy a new case, but I think he is set on using the one he already has. If he does decide on a new case, I have read in a review, I think in Tom's $500 build system, that Antec has a pretty good case that comes with a 380W Earthwatts PSU combined for about $75, which will be perfect, if he decides to go for it.
It's 130, but 30 dollar rebate, and being the superclocked 8800gs, I think it's close in performance to the 9600gt. Read online for some benchies. Might be another option since your on a budget though.
I will check on the CPU cooling. IIRC, you may be right. Tom's had a good one in their $500 build, and it was only 15, I will let him know about that one. And, I will inform him of the 8800GS. I think you are right in that it is very close to the 9600GT, so it would save a few bucks to get the 8800.
