Looking To Build A Cheap Online Gaming System

[manooly]

The current parts I have are a PNY NVIDIA 9800gt 512MB video card, a BFG 550w PSU, an AMD 9500 Phenom 2.2Ghz processor.

I'd like to put together a cheap online gaming system for my brother. He will mainly just be using this to play World of Warcraft on. Is it worth saving/using these parts to put something together for him? He'd also like a new 22" monitor also. I'll take any recommendations or input you might have.

I know I'll need...

- gaming case/chassis
- motherboard
- possibly RAM (I think he has 3GB in his current system)
- 22" or above monitor
- 500GB HDD or above
- CD/DVD player/burner
- I know i'm missing something.....

I did just recently put my own first PC together successfully. It is an Intel Core i5 750 system with an ATI 5870 1GB video card in an Antec 1200 chassis. It is running flawlessly at this point.

I can talk more about pricing after I figure out if I should proceed with these parts.

Thanks!

- manooly

 

[allix24]

If all he's playing is WoW, then you should be good for the 3 parts you have. on the RAM note, is it ddr3 or ddr2? you probubly know about the compatibility with your motherboard, but ill throw it out there. If you give me a budget i can help you more, i cant type much now but in 15min i have my lunch break and can help. good luck!

 

[manooly]

Thx for your reply! It'll be DDR2 RAM. To be honest on the budget, I'm not sure. I haven't even told him that I'm considering this. How about coming up with some decent, not too expensive parts and we'll go from there.

I've seen on this forum that they have good budget gaming systems for $1,000 and under. I'd obviously like to go well below that.

Thanks so much!

- manooly

 

[allix24]

ok, Sorry for the long wait, i had to run for something. heres what i suggest if your keeping those parts:
Ill set your budget for $600-$700 Which will be plenty because you have the most expensive pats already
Your Am2+ and ddr2 restrict you to a small number of boards so dont be surprised by the low price
CPU: Yours
MB:ASUS M4A77D ATX Socket AM2+ DDR2 AMD 770 SB710 PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
RAM: Yours
GPU: Yours
Case: Lancool PC-K62 Black ATX Advanced Mid Tower Case 5X5.25 4X3.5INT No PS USB Audio
DVD: LG GH24LS50 24X Super Multi Lightscribe SATA DVD Writer OEM Black
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium OEM
Hard Drive: http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=31000&promoid=1223&vpn=WD1001FALS&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD
Monitor: LG W2442PA-BF 24IN Widescreen LCD Monitor Black 2MS 10000:1 300CDM 1920X1080 1080P HAS Tilt HDMI DVI

Again sorry for the late response, I took some time to think. Also If you wanted to make your budget a little bigger you would find alot more if you upgraded your Cpu and mother board to am3. This would probably mean upgrading the ram to. The total cost is: $604.48
The case is made by Lian-Li, which is basically the best quality of case out there. Again if you wanted to upgrade you RAM, CPU, and MB, just ask and ill help with that.
-allix24-

 

[Mr Pizza]

Please tell us a budget. Well below $1000 doesn't really give us guys at Tom's Hardware a good idea of what you are looking for. Better yet, please fill out this form

 

[manooly]

Thx for the info Allix! Any suggestions for upgrading to a new CPU, RAM and am3???

BTW: I do love the look and features of the Lian-Li case!

Thanks again!

- manooly

 

[allix24]

The case is Lian-Li, its just one of sub companies, like Nissan has Infiniti and Toyota has Lexus. So for new parts im going to recommend you use the an am3 mb as it offers the best selection of CPU's in he lower price bracket.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core
MB: MSI NF750-G55 ATX AM3 750A SLI DDR3 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 1PCI HDMI Sound SATA GBLAN Motherboard
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline Stiletto 4GB 2X2GB PC3-10666 DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Memory Kit

I had to use newegg to find the CPU as NCIX wasnt co-operating. If you were to order, make sure you pricematch between the 2 as the numbers im giving you are base price. The CPU is a quad core so he'll get better preformance, and the motherboard supports SLI if he ever wanted to get another 9800 to boost preformance. The RAM is DDR3 so it will be faster. The new price in total is: $801.91
The nice thing about NCIX for American customers is that theres no sales tax.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

As a guideline,
grab an am3 mobo, stick an amd 435/440/445 in it, 4Gb of reasonable ram and a one Gb graphics card in,something along the lines of an Radeon 5xxx,
go for a cheaper case than lian li, haf and coolermaster do nice cases for reasonable cash
Dont bother with quadcore for WoW, dual/triples are plenty and your graphics card is going to be the biggest investment in the system, but worth it.
Moto