<$650 Budget gaming PC!

0.o your my hero thanks so much. how long do you think the GPU will fair?

edit: how much is this all combined? also, this is my first time building a computer. anyone know any good sites where there are step by step introductions?

that gpu is too expensive for u get like a 4850 and go for intel e5200 still good

Intel is not a good budget builder and thats on a dead end platform. The athlon is great deal right now and can be upgraded later. Hes looking for something that will last 2 years. That 4850 is going to be playing low settings in 1yr.

It comes to around $650, and there's a little room to cut back if absolutely necessary.

This is the link I recommend in my guide
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/13671/1

I agree on the 4870, but you can save about $30 by getting the 512mb version. At the resolutions you'll be gaming at, it won't hurt performance any. Not in stock at newegg right now, but lots are available cheap other places.
I would also consider the 550BE.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Over 80% of these can be unlocked into quad cores, and easily overclocked to 3.6ghz.

ok so how should i decide between the 3 processors for the 3 people who gave me 3 different ones?

Only two processors were recommended, one thing recommended was a GPU, You should stick with that Athlon.

the difference is the x4 620 performs similar to the 550BE at stock settings, depending on the app
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-ii-propus,24...
But the 550 wins in game benchmarks, and if you unlock the other two cores to make it quad core it will perform basically the same as a PII 955. Plus it is one of the better overclocking AMD processors. So I would choose it because it is basically the same performance overall stock, but has the potential to be a much stronger chip with the cores unlocked.

i say go with e5200 cuz its like $70 and AWSOME it crazzzy overclocker

is the ram good for its price?
also for the video card people say it overheats

Do you have any references for this statistic?

Personally, I would skimp on the power source/case to save some extra dough. There are cases with power sources going for the less than the price of the bare case recommended above. 650W is excessive for a this set up. Just make sure the power supply has the PCIe power connector and I think you should be good to go.

The ram is good. Yes the 650w is a bit excessive but DO NOT SKIMP ON QUALITY. A 550w would probably be fine from a good name manufacturer.

Just did a quick google, and found this

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/15828/35/

That is slightly lower at 73% than other stats I've seen....but I'm not going to spend all night looking for them. So, for the sake of verifiable data and accuracy, I will restate

At least 73% of these can be unlocked into quad cores, and easily overclocked to 3.6ghz.

ive heard of overclocking before, but what is it exactly? also, how do i overclock and how is there a percentage of overclockage/

Overclocking is clocking your processor high than the manufacturer intended. Just because they intend it to run at 2.8ghz doesn't mean it wont run fine at 3.4ghz. IT is done by going into the BIOS(Basic Input Output System) which you can get into by usually pressing delete(may be different on your mobo) at the start up screen. If you need to know more/how there are very detailed guides just do a quick google. Overclock percentage is the percent the processor is clocked over the base speed. So say you had a 2.8ghz processor and you overclocking it 20%, it would be at 3.34 ghz.

OCing the BE AMDs is pretty easy...there is even a utility called AMD overdrive to help you if you don't feel comfortable messing around in the bios. But check out this for the basics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tYAnALjzo

are all the parts given by jbaker compatible? also, is there any upcoming thanksgiving/black friday sale for these parts or anything similar?

Yes all the parts given by jbaker are compatible and excellent parts.

Hi,
I need the same sort of machine for WoW. I have tried to follow the equipment listed but as I'm in the UK it's a little difficult.
I have the following list of items that I believe to be similar, could anyone please check through and point out any compatibility issues?

AMD Athlon II X4 630, Quad Core, S AM3, 2.8GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 95W, Retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-Athlon-II-X4-630-Qua...

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P, AMD 770, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1666(OC), SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/GIGABYTE-GA-MA770T-UD3P-...

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(2x2GB)-Corsair-TwinX-XMS3-DDR3-PC3-10666-(1333)-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24

512MB MSI HD 4770, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3200MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 640 Cores, 2x DVI/ HDTV, CrossFireX
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-MSI-HD-4770-PCI-E-...(x16)-3200MHz-GDDR5-GPU-750MHz-640-Cores-2x-DVI-HDTV-CrossFireX

500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500Gb-Samsung-Spinpoint-...

550W Powercool 80+ Green Dual 12v Rail V2.2 High Efficiency Black PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550W-Powercool-80plus-Du...

Sharkoon Venga ATX black - Front I/O (2x USB 2.0, Audio line-out/in ports)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sharkoon-Venga-Economy-A...(2x-USB-20-Audio-line-out-in-ports)

Regards,
Ant

^Above build.
Build is fine just don't get that PSU.
Get this one, its much higher quality. You can drop down to a 450w if needed but make sure it is Corsair.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550w-Corsair-VX-Series-P...

anyone know of any sales for the holiday season?

Dangit, just realized I need a case.
However, I do not need Windows 7 as I already have it.

Thanks for the fast reply Sonic.  

I was wondering if I should go for a motherboard with crossfirex support? Dabs.com have one for 40 quid more.

Gigabyte AM3 AMD 790GX ATX DDR3 Audio & Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-am3-amd-790gx-atx...

Am I better off going for Crossfirex support and buying another MSI HD 4770 at a later date or waiting and just buying 1 more expensive gpu in the 1st place?

Regards,
Ant

What do you guys think if I replace
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... ?

I found a combo deal that would replace both the GPU and the PSU. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...
it has the 5770 Radeon and a 700 watt PSU. I know, that even 650W is excessive, but if I get the deal i can shave off around 10 dollars, and get a better PSU. What do you guys think?

I don't need Windows 7, so I have room for better quality stuff up to the <$650 mark

you'll get some grief for this power supply, but this is a pretty good combo deal....I don't know the resolution you need, but if you add a 4670 to this it will game pretty well on those online games you play at lower resolutions, and give you great upgrade options for the future.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?I...

Ok so http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
(It's the HDD) is out of stock. Anyone know of a good and cheap compatible HDD?
Also, is this combo compatible with the rest of my computer? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...
The computer I will build has all the parts jbaker posted except the ones I have posted right now.

Here's a good HDD for $60, and a bit more space than the Samsung (If the Samsung comes back in stock before you buy you can still go with that one as it has little better performance, though this performs very well too).
The combo should work just fine; when looking at psus, one of the critical things you should look at is efficiency. The higher the efficiency, the cleaner the power, and thus the stabler the system. Most psus that are 80 Plus Certified are decent psus, so that combo should work fine.

Edit: lol i didnt see the link in "here"

how is the Samsung better? just wondering how can you tell. The HDD that you linked me is more expensive than the Samsung too. Is this the closest good deal/buy Ican get near the Samsung?

Get the spinpoint f3 off of zipzoomfly.com they have it in stock for same price. Newegg will have it restocked in a few days, they are always fast.

is http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product... the one ?

ok, so here are the parts so far:
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128392

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227478

XFX HD-487A-ZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150436

Rosewill R901-P BK Triple 120mm Cooling Fan, Mesh Design Front Panel, ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147125

Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827118030
Samsung HDD
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product...

GPU+PSU combo http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

all comes out to 668

any cuts i can make to get this under $650?

Im willing to make cuts for the dvd drive.
any cheaper subsitute?

The Samsung is newer and runs with a single platter as opposed to the WD which has two platters. Generally speaking, less platters = greater performance. There are exceptions to this, of course, but in this case the Samsung is the winner over the WD in question.

Yes thats the one from zipzoomfly. As pepperman said above, its newer and faster.

any cheaper dvd drives i can get? im not really worried about burn speed or etc.

You can get drives cheap, burners run 31-33. Just make sure you get SATA.

This one will save you a few dollars, plus it has free shipping; if you buy anything made by Sony, you usually pay a premium for the brand (like Mac, but not nearly as much). LG is a respected company for optical drives.

Wait I'm confused. I just wanted a cheaper alternative to the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... .
I didn't know that there is a whole 'nother accesory for burning

That is a burner, a plain dvd drive is cheaper, I didn't know which you were asking abou.t

Do you want a dvd burner, or just a dvd reader? If you want the burner, you can go with the one I posted or look at newegg (or similar retailor) and look at dvd burners. If you just want a dvd reader, you can get one fore less than $20 such as this one. Personally, I'd recommend spending a few more dollars to get a burner.

Hey guys how does this loook as the final final build (lol)

Edit: Here are all the parts, as I realize the link doesn't work:
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
DVD thingy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Looks good; good luck with the build and if you have any other questions during/after building feel free to ask.

One last thing: does my mobo have a intergrated sound card? Do these parts come with cables?

Your mobo does have integrated audio, and all the basic cables that you'll need will come with the mobo.

Dont get a e5200 there are many other awesome overclockers besides getting a e5200 is a dead end you wont be able to upgrade

Hey, I'm thinking of switching out http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
What do you guys think? I get free shipping and a 4 gb usb flash drive with this

SAMSUNG HD502HJ 500GB SATA 3.0 7200 RPM 16MB Buffer Hard Drive Retail

AEROCOOL AeroRacer Pro - BK EN52474 Steel/Plastic Mid Tower Case Black Retail

and --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 x ($18.99) DVD ROM SONY | DDU1681S-0B % - OEM $18.99


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1 x ($59.99) PSU OCZ|OCZ500MXSP 500W RT - Retail $59.99


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1 x ($119.99) VGA XFX HD-485X-YDFC HD4850 512M RT - Retail $119.99


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1 x ($99.00) CPU AMD|ATH II X4 620 AM3 R - Retail $99.00


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1 x ($79.99) MEM 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM - Retail $79.99


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1 x ($149.99) MNTR ACER|LCD 23" 5MS P235HBMID - Retail $149.99


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1 x ($79.99) MB GIGABYTE | GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD770 - Retail $79.99


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All compatible right?