What to get for a budget gaming system?

[Executor66]

i've never actually built a computer from parts only, and i want to buy a relatively decent gaming computer but i'm on a tight budget. what would be the best price/performance build that wont cost a fortune. if $500-$600 decent?

 

[billydomaks]

If you ever want to upgrade in the future, I would reccommend AMD, mainly because the Intel products in that price range have older motherboards not compatible with DDR3 and other newer technologies.

Well, I am about to build one...today. And these are the most recent deals on parts I am looking at. I am torn between the cpu's athlon II x2 250, athlon II x3 435, and the Phenom II x2 545. All are nice, but the 545 is the only one with L3 cache, but the performance differences are not too great.

Here's my build minus the motherboard (you would need a socket AM3):


Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Intellipower-Desktop-WD10EADS/dp/B001IEZX3G/ref=dp_return_1?ie=UTF8&n=172282&s=electronics

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724&cm_re=x3-_-19-103-724-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103726&cm_re=x3-_-19-103-726-_-Product

GPU:
Any ATI 4850/4870 under 100$ (or 5xxx if you can afford it)

I would stay away from nvidia till they release some new cards and the price per performance levels come back up (or should I say down.)

 

[Executor66]

i should also state that the games i play are pretty old, like BFME2 or Battlefield 2. The only latest game that i play is Sims 3. So as long as i'll be able to play those at relatively high graphics and smoothly at the lowest cost of parts. Thanks for the above info though.