Budget (light) gaming computer w/ plans for upgrades - <$400

[shayan]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my 5-year old P4 system (it's dying) with something cheap and somewhat upgradable, as I'm on a very tight budget right now. Currently, I'm a full-time student with not a lot of free time, so I generally use my computer for music, watching movies, etc., though I do play World of Warcraft regularly and plan to play games with higher hardware requirements when I get some money to spend (which will be not any sooner than Fall 09, I think).

So I was looking at IGP solutions, as I've heard good things about the 790GX chipset and I think that will be enough to play World of Warcraft @ 1200x1024.

Like I said, I do plan to upgrade my system later in the year with a better processor (looking at the Deneb Phenom II) and better video card. Here are the components I've picked:

SAMSUNG HD642JJ 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Bare Drive) - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152134

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=N82E16820231122

Antec earthwatts EA500 500W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138130

AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300

Okay, so altogether (there are a couple of bundled deals in there--the PSU and case and mobo and CPU are packaged deals), including shipping, it'll run me $375, which is an awesome price point for me right now.

However, I have some questions. I don't know if that RAM is the best for the money, as I've heard mixed things about its OCing capability. Is there any better DDR2 for $40ish dollars?

Also, should I be concerned about the motherboard? I've never used a Biostar board before and I'm a little concerned about the lack of regular PCI slots. Currently I use a PCI soundcard and a wireless ethernet adapter in my PCI slots and it looks as though at least one of those will be blocked by the video card. I'm not up-to-date on the sizes of newer video cards, so I'm not sure if there is enough space to have both of those cards installed when I install my video card. Looks like I might have to get a wireless USB adapter? Are there any other major issues with this motherboard?

Lastly, I plan to drop a quad-core in this system later in the year or, if I feel like I can wait, maybe next year. Can someone shed some light on how long I can expect to be able to use the AM2+ socket to upgrade my CPU? I realize I won't be able to use DDR3 RAM with this motherboard, but does anyone know how long I can expect AMD processors to support the AM2+ socket? Or is this a crappy upgrade plan on my part (i.e. should I get a different motherboard, etc? I don't know if there are any AM3 boards in my budget w/ onboard video right now)?

Oh, I forgot to add, I'm not sure if the case/PSU combo I picked is the best and cheapest available to me. I've heard great things about the Earthwatts series and that Antec case (last time I built, I picked a case with shitty airflow and I want to avoid that this time), so that's what I picked. Is there a better case or PSU available for that price point? I also forgot to add I plan to OC the processor and the RAM, and will try my best with the stock heatsink/fan initially.

Thanks a lot.

 

[drippyfausett]

Well I have heard these get recommended quite a bit and they have a little better timings than the ones you posted for $5 more http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731 mushkin
I have also heard lots of people using that MB

Also I heard good things about that case as well on a tight budget I'm sure its hard to beat.

 

[drippyfausett]

Also I forgot to mention I would probably get this HDD it is one of the fastest 640gb hard drives on the market if i remember correctly. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 caviar black it gets recommended alot here.

 

[xthekidx]

This is the best DDR2-800 Memory for the price to my knowledge:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231219&Tpk=g%20skill%20hk
Super timings and low voltages for a very reasonable price.

 

[shayan]

Great, thanks a lot. I'll look into adding that RAM and hard drive.

Any input on CPU/motherboard choice? Has AMD said how long they plan to support AM2+?

Also, has anyone here had any experience with IGP before? The IGP on that board is listed as a Radeon HD 3300, and I used to play games on a 9800 Pro before it died, so I think it should be sufficient considering I still play the same games.

 

[xthekidx]

For most games that are 2 years old or more, the HD 3300 on the 790GX chipset should be fine unless you play on a 24" monitor.

AMD will not be releasing any more AM2+ CPU's after 2009. They are supposed to be releasing a 3.6ghz PII CPU Q4 this year, which is going to be the end of the road for AM2+, after that all AMD CPU's will necessitate the AM3 Platform.

At your price point, the Antec 300 and EA500 is probably the best you can do for case and PSU.

 

[Outlander_04]

Shayan why not do this a slightly different way .

if your case/psu/HDD are all ok why not just add the biostar/720 be combo and the 4 gig of RAM .
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.165025 is $209
+
RAM

You wont need a heavy duty psu since theres no power hungry gfx card . and theres room in your budget for some of the other upgrades

 

[shayan]

Cool. Hopefully the last AM2+ Phenoms are decent, because it looks like that's what I'll be stuck with.

The case I have right now is extremely cheap with horrible airflow. I've been ghetto cooling it (with the side panel off and a fan blowing on it) for a long, long time. I suspect the power supply is dying as well (though I'm not 100% sure on this), which is what is prompting me to spend some money on some new parts.

This time, I'd like to buy a decent case and a solid PSU to last me through several builds. Also, I do plan to upgrade the onboard video near the end of the year, and would hate to have to buy another PSU at that time.

I have a 160 GB Samsung drive that I could reuse, though I was hoping to plug it into my new system and run Ubuntu on it (running dual boot right now--sort of a hassle since Windows can't read EXT3).

Anyway, I would love to get the 720 instead of the Kuma Athlon, but I am on a very tight budget and don't see how it would be possible under $400. Are there any other sites besides Newegg I should be looking at? Froogle? eBay (always a little bit scared of ebay)?

 

[Outlander_04]

$209 for cpu and mb
$42 for RAM
$135 case and psu

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.176947

TOTAL = $386

 

[xthekidx]

That is a pretty good deal outlander found...slightly better PSU, slightly worse case...but a 720BE/790GX mobo included in that price with case/psu/ram is awesome. not to say that the centurion 5 is a bad case though, its quite decent for what it is.