>$700 Gaming Rebuild

Boomer Jetson

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Sep 1, 2010
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PLEASE HELP ME REBUILD MY COMPUTER INTO A GAMING MACHINE

I love computers, but I do not know anything about the insides of one. Therefore, I am asking all of you for help.

My mission is to clean out the insides of my tower and rebuild it to be a gaming machine. However, I must accomplish this by staying under $700.

I have a very old monitor, but it works.

I have a cheap 3 year old sound system, but it sounds great.

I have a basic keyboard and a basic optical mouse.

I'm not too worried about the above parts, but I might need to upgrade the monitor. If you have advice, please DO NOT add the monitor in the rebuild/pricing.

The current components are old, but I'm wondering if I can keep some of them. By using CPU-Z, this is what I know:

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with a Socket 754

MOBO:
ASUSTeK model - K8N-E-Deluxe Rev 1.xx

RAM:
3 slots with 512mb DDR in the first 2 and 256mb DDR in the 3rd

GRAPHICS CARD:
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

OS:
XP Pro Service Pack 2 with DirectX 9.0c

CASE:
Thermaltake Xaser III (it has like 4 fans, but I bought it from a computer store and I don't know how to work the stupid thing)

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Now, I'm not a fool, I know that pretty much all of the components are obsolete and are going to need to be replaced/upgraded. However, I'm pretty sure I can keep the case and rebuild the insides.

PLEASE, be specific with your assistance in recommendations for parts. I am a noob.

Any help/advice/builds/recommendations is/are APPRECIATED! Thank you!
 
You'll have to change everything except the OS and case really. Even then, Windows 7 would be a good idea. The Thermaltake Xaser III is decent enough.

This is from newegg.com.

AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz - $139.99
ASRock 870 Extreme3 - $89.99, $2.99 shipping
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) OCZ3BE1600C8LV4GK - $84.99 after rebates
Gigabyte GV-R583UD-1GD Radeon HD 5830 1GB - $169.99 after rebates
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1 TB 7200 RPM - $74.99
Corsair HX650 - $99.99 after rebates
ASUS DRW-24B1ST - $22.99

Total = $685.92

You're missing a new operating system just so you know. In terms of gaming, you're not missing too much although newer DirectX 10 only games won't work, and you won't be able to play some games in DirectX 11 mode which looks pretty good.




 
I don't know what monitor you have or what Hard drive....... I used a new machine on an old monitor once and it didn't last long. The opsys put a $100 drain on other components.... and for a video card.... a 5850 won't fit the budget but would run much cooler.... so.... says $702.00

Vid
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333
PS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031
ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134792
opsys
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
mobo/proc combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.480326