Decent Gaming PC? Need help to possibly lower price

go for a amd 710/20 build since it'll save you enough for an os and be more powerful.

i take it you're not overclocking, right? also, you might consider this combo for an extra 10 bucks you get a quad core processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

I won't be overclocking, and I'd rather stick with Intel, personally. Is the Quad Core going to be a significant increase over the Dual, or is it just a bit of future-proofing? With Tax and Shipping, I'm already a good $100-200 over my original budget...

Also, if I do decide to spend the money, about how long will this build last? How well will it play games (use the typicals--Crysis, Fallout, etc)?

Most games don't support multi core yet. You'll get better performance with the higher clock speed of the core2duo.

I like your build, only change I would make is swap out PSU for this one. It's about the same price but it's single rail and more powerful.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If you aren't going to overclock, there's no need to buy thermal paste because the stock intel heatsink comes pre-applied with thermal compound. The stock fan does a decent job cooling if you aren't overclocking, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Awesome, thanks for the tips =)

I'm still quite a bit over my budget however, but I'll see how my taxes wind up and may be able to go for it anyway.

I'm also curious: will this build last me quite a while, or will I be looking to update again shortly just to keep up with games? Again, I'm not going hardcore--I want to play Fallout, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, etc. (Especially Diablo III when it hits!) although I may just buy this if it will last me a few years, even if not at max settings.

While that is technically true, those games that require (and will require in the future) the most cpu power will be multithreaded.

However, for the low budget a dual is prob. the way to go.
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Buying a E5200 and overclocking it to 3 ghz (can easily be done on stock cooling) would save you quite a lot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

How about this? Cuts ~$50 from the price. Will it still work well with my setup? I'm a bit afraid of Overclocking--let alone I don't know how. I'm fairly new to PC's and gaming (typically I play on consoles).

EDIT: I may have found my sweet spot! Someone helped pull some pieces out to make them a bit cheaper--now I'd just like to know how well it will perform--or at least how well everyone else feels the build is =)

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx...

The E7400 is about 20% slower than the E8400.

Personally, CPU is not the place I would be looking to cut cost. If you want to save some money, I would downgrade your graphics card a bit since you will only be running a resolution of 1440 x 900. A 4830 would save you $80 and would run the games you want to play just fine.

This system will last you a couple years, although at some point you will probably need to upgrade the video card.

Excellent! Thanks for all the help, I'll probably be placing my order shortly--at least within the week!

And keep in mind ANYTHING is better than what I'm using now--about a 5 year old Dell with half a gig of ram and 80gig HDD, basically no graphics--you get the idea. If it saves me money, I can take a slight high in performance for now.

On a side note, anyone know a good monitor that will be around the same price I have chosen?

I would go with the PSU I recommended. With the shipping costs, the less powerful one you selected ends up costing about the same and the rebate isn't as good.

For the extra $10, that's fine. I'm still looking at monitors, but I may just hold out for a decent deal on one.

Don't place your order yet.....  

That case is decent, but doesn't have the greatest of airflow but it is set up to add one more 120mm case fan to it. Also if you add an aftermarket heatsink for that E7400 you can bump it up to 3.16Ghz @1333FSB and get more out of it. It's a very mild overclock and it's free...well add a $30 after market heatink to it...Asus, and Xigmatek both have decent ones at that price. I changed the mobo, but it's just as good as the one you had selected(and this mobo will overclock just fine), I also changed the PSU to knock off another $10 to that build. It's a decent one, and it runs two 12v rails @ 25A not to mention it's "modular" which is a good thing seeing how that case you chose is going to be a tight fit. I changed the HD to a 500gb and the best change of all is the monitor. It's a 22" widescreen and it runs at a higher video resolution than the one you had previously chosen. I also added the thermal grease...MX-2 is non conductive, no set up time, and it does take your temps down on the cpu. Heat = bad.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $34.99
COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $4.99
MASSCOOL FD12025S1L3/4 120mm Case Fan - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $79.99
OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $79.99
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Product of preference with 2 Oz Copper PCB & DualBIOS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $119.99 Free Shipping*
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $44.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $169.99 Free Shipping*
SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $69.99 Free Shipping*
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $24.99
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $99.99 Free Shipping*
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $159.99 Free Shipping*
Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

Total: $896.98 (not including shipping and rebates

Below is a decent low profile heatsink ...and looking at that case a low profile is the only one your going to be able to fit into it...but this one is decent, and it you can screw it in, ...it doesn't use the bs push pin set up.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $29.99 Free Shipping*
ASUS V72 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail

^
|900 after shipping esp for the monitor that will easily be over $1000

If you aren't over clocking i would stick with a P43 board.

I'd stick with the 19" monitor and downgrade gpu to 4850 or 9800+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... 10 dollars cheaper and faster I doubt you can fill 500 gigs i barely fill half of my 1 TB hdd and i riped all the seasons of stargate sg-1 on it.

I'd also consider downgrading cpu to a 7200 along those lines.

You have to make some sacfrices becuase you are buying a monitor and os which sucks a large amount of money

Why would you stick to the 19" monitor ? The 22" is the same price, same specs except it runs at a higher resolution. I would think that the 22" is the better deal...or did I miss something ?

I think I'm pretty happy with what I have so far, but will take into consideration a second fan--probably something I will do after assembling and seeing how it does.

I swapped out the HDD, as I really won't notice the difference--500gigs is plenty, as I'm only using 80 as of now (somehow...).

As for the monitor, I'm going to keep the one I have for now just due to price reasons. I won't be purchasing just yet, I'm still waiting for taxes. I'll also keep an eye out for any good deals, and hopefully others will make mention of any decent monitors they see as well  

Here let me help you out. The monitor I posted has a higher resolution than the one you chose. I'm not being sarcastic, but it's like..lol...why would you spend the same amount of money for a crappier monitor? ..not to mention the one I posted has free shipping.

As far as the temps in that case...well lets do the math. The case is cheap ($35) for a few reasons, one of them being the size of the case. Small case, ATI 4870, one case fan....ya I think I would go for broke and spend $5 on another 120mm case fan. You can pick one up at just about any pc shop...bestbuy, fry's, etc... When you game that vid card is going to get warm...the temps on that processor will also..sans the reason for the thermal paste and case fan...unless you just plan on sticking to surfing the net...wich in that case you won't really need that vid card.

Key words here are...; Gaming Rig

I didn't mean the other $5 fan, I already added that =)

As for the monitor, it's $30 or $40 more than the one currently in my basket. Re-check my link, everything should be updated  

The monitor I posted is going for $159 + free shipping. We don't really count much for mail in rebates on this board for the fact most of us know the odds of actually getting that rebate within the next year. Key words "Free Shipping, same price, higher resolution".

But your build looks good so far.  

Bah! It seems the tower I had selected has sold out. About how long does Newegg take to restock items? If not, anyone have a suggestion on a tower that is roughly the same price?

EDIT: How about this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Seems it comes with two fans, also--so I could get rid of the extra I have on order, correct?