[New System Build] $300 Gaming PC

hmm well that is pretty tight for components, GPU aside.
Try something like this:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116072

Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145184

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] wd3200aaks

Dvd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136152

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147095

PSU and Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.175053

Cheapest I can do comes to $375 after shipping and rebates Hopefully you have an OS, otherwise that will cost you another $100. Do you have any components you can scrounge from a previous system?

Without $100.00 more this is virtually a dead horse. Nothing that could be built for that price range would either support that video card or do it justice.

Save 100 more and then use xthekidx's answer and you will have a decent gaming machine for a little while

Rosewill R604-P BK case $40 with free shipping
It's a better case, less expensive (shipping included) and most important about 1.1 longer and has a removable hard drive cage, if necessary, to better fit that long 9800GX2 video card.

xthekidx's combo'ed PSU is a notch less than the 600W PSU recommended for 9800GX2. To get more power (48ams vs 38amps +12V), get a rebate and save on PSU shipping charges I'm suggesting:
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W $70 plus $20 rebate and free shipping

GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+ AMD Motherboard $75 plus $10 rebate
Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz CPU $60
WD Caviar 160GB SATA HDD $42
4GB RAM listed above.

With tax and shipping to my zip code that comes to $367 before $55 in rebates. If you live in a NewEgg no-tax state your total after rebates will be $288

Good finds on the PSU and Case, I would swap those in instead in my build. However I disagree about the Mobo/CPU. The E5200 overclocks higher than the Kuma and gives better results in games. The limit on the Kuma tends to be about 3.4ghz or so, I have seen people get the E5200 up to 4.0ghz, and on top of that the E5200 runs more efficient cores clock for clock. If you had them both at the same clock speed the E5200 would be much better. The CPU will bottleneck that Card and if you want to run Crysis, then you should go with the E5200.

The HDD is cheap, but the one I used is only $12 more and has twice the capacity and is a faster drive, you get much more for your money with that one.

Yeah but a CPU cooler can be bought later when he has the cash, its not imperative to the build. You can OC an E5200 to about 3.2-3.4 or so on stock cooling. The Kuma runs hotter and you probably can't go over 3.0ghz on stock cooling

Its like $20 more for an E5200 than the X2 7750...which is well worth the price difference IMO. Neither of the builds we suggested can be fit in his $300 budget...you have to wait 6 weeks or so for those rebates to kick in and if he can only spend $300...doesn't sound like he has the money to spare.

As for megamanx00's build, The mobo is very limited, and screwing it onto a piece of plywood is just brokeass IMO lol.

No, don't sell it. Hang onto it and earn a little more money then make your purchase.

Here is a more recent head to head review of the E5200 and X2 7750, including overclocking.
At stock X2 7750 in slightly out in front of the E5200 and at max overclocks they change position.
But even at max OC (not in the OP's budget) the 2 CPUs aren't that far apart in performance.

BitTech x2 7750 -vs- e5200 review

WR2 you are right that the 7750BE is more affordable now, but I'm working on the assumption that the higher potential of the E5200 will be realized later when the OP gets $40 in his pocket and can afford a CPU cooler that will unlock the E5200's engine. If he will just build this thing and not touch it after that, then the Kuma 7750 is the better option to be sure. Maybe its just my mindset but I always think of the upgrades potential when I'm building.

Fair enough. My point was though that its not really possible for him to do this without expanding his budget, so once he did expand his budget...yeah. And I don't think I have seen a more unballanced system with a 9800 GX2 + 7750 BE or E5200 lol.

What size / resolution monitor do you have (or are planning to get in the future)?
How do you feel about overclocking?

TheGuruof3D got the kuma to 3.2 on stock cooling.


http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd- [...] e-review/3

There's nothing to it. Just move up your FSB to (12.5 x 266) and your running it that cpu at 3.2Ghz @ 1066 FSB. That ram will clock right along with it. It's a piece of cake.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128380 $79.99
GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819116072 $72.99 Free Shipping*
Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231209 $44.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341022 $79.99 Free Shipping*
OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

I will add that i run an e5200 on a Gigabyte 965P DS3 Rev 3.3 with a stable 3.87Ghz @ 1.36v and it makes my 260GTX scream with no bottleneck so i am sure it could feed your 9800x2 ok.. but you will need a good powersupply to get stable clocks.

In Vantage i score 13,115 points but my 260GTX 192sp overclocks as well as the e5200 does @ 756/1512/1270 and is running at peak vs other 260's like it so it's a good choice for sure.

You guys think too inside the "box"

Think outside the box and see what you can get with $300 (complete gaming pc that runs current games on high settings)

Not a bad deal at all if you are on a budget!

http://gamechalkboard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96

4gbs of Corsair ram
E7300
P5n-3 SLI
9800 GTX SSC Edition
580W Power Supply
Modified Dell Case and a used 80GB HDD
Free windows XP too.