Looking to build a cheap, but powerful gameing computer.

[ZGN]

Hello, I have picked out some hardware and have looked up the specs, everything seems good, could everyone tell me if this is a powerful computer, that is worth the price, and, is it all compatible? CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 260 (65W) Dual-Core Socket AM3, 3.2GHz, 2MB L3 Cache, 45nm (ADX260OCGMBOX) - $69.99 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Socket AM3 AMD 970 SB950 Chipset Dual-Channel DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz 1xPCI Express x16 slots 8-Channel HD Audio GLAN 6x SATA 6GB/s 2x USB 3.0 14x USB 2.0 ATX - $84.99 Hardrive: Western Digital RE4 (WD5003ABYX) 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 64M Buffer (OEM) - $109.99 Memory: Patriot Viper Xtreme Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz CL11 DIMMs (PXD38G2133C11K) - $64.99 Graphics Card: Gigabyte (GV-N550D5-1GI) nVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Chipset (900MHz) 1GB (4100MHz) GDDR5 DVI/HDMI/VGA PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card - $129.99 PSU: PC Power & Cooling (PPCMK3S500) Silencer Mk III Series 500 Watt Modular 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply - $59.99 Case: MSI Interceptor Series Nighthawk ATX Mid Tower Case USB3.0 (IN-9390) - $79.99 Please Tell me what you think!

 

[mace200200]

Good start but heres what I would do differently:
Most importantly buy an AM3+ board, it'll work fine with any AM3 CPU, and gives you more room for upgrades. It should cost about the same as an AM3 board as well.
Second, Athlon CPU's aren't very good, I would upgrade to a Phenom II, I run the 945 and it's very decent, payed $105 for it.
Third, save yourself all the money on RAM get 2 2GB sticks that run @ 1600MHz, you wouldn't be hard pressed to find a kit like this for under $40 I never use more than 4GBs, (probably has something to do with the fact I run 32bit OS, but I don't need it I should say).

Good job on a PSU by the way, most new people pick out the worst pieces of junk but that one is very decent.....This isn't your first one is it?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[mocchan]

OMG Mousemonkey!!! I just wrote a huge wall of text and I just lost it LOL!!! -gets back to typing-

Anyway back on topic :lol: ...I would recommend a few things.

1) Change your motherboard. It's an AM3+ motherboard, but if you do some research, it can lock itself up in a Checksum BIOS error after a few months use. My brother personally uses this board and it's given us lots of headaches due to this.

2) Change your RAM. I would prefer to get 8GB of 1333Mhz or 1600 Mhz.

3) Instead of an Athlon, Opt to get something like a Phenom II X4 965. It'll perform MUCH better and it'll give you a bit of overclocking ability as well.

4) Change your GPU to a Radeon HD6850. It's almost the same price as a GTX550Ti, if not cheaper, and it'll perform quite a bit better. http://www.hwcompare.com/9711/geforce-gtx-550-ti-vs-radeon-hd-6850/

Other than that, I think you're all set

 

[kevin83]

If you skimped on aesthetics and went with a rosewill 218-p-bk with 450w psu, switched to the much faster pentium sandy bridge architecture, and spent less on the motherboard+ram, you could bump the gpu all the way up to a 7850 and spend the same amount of money on a much more powerful computer.

 

[Onus]

Recent articles and reviews have shown that there is no longer any price point where Intel does not outperform AMD in games. With that in mind, get an inexpensive H67 board and a Pentium G850 or i3-21xx instead of AM3+ and any AMD CPU. Everything else can remain the same.
I agree with kevin's case choice (I've built in it), but not the cheap PSU; yours or similar quality model is the core of a reliable system.
If you can afford it, bump up the graphics card to any of: HD6850, HD7770, GTX560. They will significantly outperform a GTX550Ti without being much more expensive.

 

[BlimeyCorr]

Do as the last post says and get a sandy bridge cpu.

 

[undercovernerd6]

https://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=24179687

add a DVD drive and a decent PSU enjoy