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Choosing a proc. and MB for gaming under $600

Last response: in Systems
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Hi - I'm trying to follow the sticky here. Let me start off with the background: My Dad is a gamer on a budget. He likes to get the best machine he can for the money and play games like fallout3, Oblivion and Black and White. I built him a PC about 2.5 years ago for around $800 and unfortunately, the Northbridge fan died and killed the machine. He is going to reuse some parts for the time being - but he needs new MB/Proc/Memory.

What I'm wondering if at this point in time - whats the best way to go? I proposed to him 2 routes from globalcomputer.com: a Core 2 Quad 9550 with MB and Ram for $400 or a i7 920 with MB and RAM for $600. He is thinking that in 2 years its going to be outdated and he'll need to upgrade so he'll just go with the socket 775 Quad. I'm wondering if at this point its worth the extra $200 to go with the i7?

So, which way should I go? Or, shoudl I go with an AMD being as I'll see more performance out of a video card improvement?

Thanks for all the help ahead of time! Below is what he has:

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Very soon - machine dead BUDGET RANGE: Under $600 at extreme most

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Games

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor (22" HD LCD with HDMI and DVI inputs), Case, Optical drive, HD, Floppy, Power supply (Ultra, X-Finity, 500-Watt, SATA Ready), Video card (EVGA GeForce 7950 GT/ 512 MB / SLI / PciE)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Globalcomputer or newegg (although - I'll go anywhere if I have too)

PARTS PREFERENCES: None

OVERCLOCKING: No SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: AS good as we can afford - Probably highest at monitor max - 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I put awesome blue LEDs all through it and he hates them. Of course they are staying!

This combo and the ram below will blow both the intel builds out of the water for performance on a budget
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Unfortunately all of the good ram is currently out of stock but it should be back in a few days. Also given that that isnt a very strong PSU, you should upgrade it for the 4890.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

All of those bring the total cost of the upgrade to $550, AMD very often maintains their backwards compatibility so you should just be able to throw a new processor into that board with no problem in a couple of years. The current line of AMD processors can still use the socket released back in '06.

Cool - thanks for the reply. I had a sour taste in my mouth from that machine. I built it with a socket 939 - AMD Athlon 64 4000 and it was outdated as soon as I built it. I didn't even think to look that way.
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