Budget PC for yester-year's games

[sharky69]

Hello,

I want to build my first PC. I want this PC to run the following games:

BattleField 2
Half Life 2

with medium to high graphics settings.

I would like for this PC to be as cheap as possible.

Can you guys/gals help me out with the parts I would need? :?:

Thanks.

 

[FeareX]

Something like:

Mobo: (65,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157093


Gpu: (75,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122203
(same like i had, overclocks very well and isnt expensive, and has the leadtek 6600gt cooler on it)

CPU: (75,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104305
(i know its a sempron but its cheap and gets the job done)

Ram: (87,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144020
(1gig the minimum to run bf2 on medium)

PSU: (55,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101508

Case: (53,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811170023
(is personal, but i thougt it looks funny , and the revieuws are good)

Hard disk: (58,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145088

DVD-burner: (31,-)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058


You check it out, maybe its something your looking for. $499 total. And should run bf2 and hl2 just fine.

 

[sharky69]

Thanks for the reply, looks like a good setup. What kind of frame rates do you think i'll get with this machine for BF2? I'm guessing I would get better frame rates with HL2 than BF2. Is this computer going to be upgrade friendly down the road? I would probably want to play the new battlefield. Would I be able to get a better card and more RAM and throw it in in a year or two? Do you think I should get a better CPU?

Thanks.

 

[guruofchem]

Pretty nice looking PC for $500, though I might be tempted to move up to a faster graphics card, and an Athlon 64 3200 processor can be had for only about $30 more (Athlon 3200+), which strikes me as a good upgrade. Really depends on how much you want to spend - for $50-75 more you could move up to a 7600 GS card, or even a 7600 GT - Extremetech.com recently had these leading the pack in price/performance. If $600 won't break the bank, you could set yourself up very nicely with these 2 upgrades.

Newegg's 7600 GS cards

Newegg's 7600 GT cards

 

[Darkfire001]

I'm in a rush, but heres the low down GPU wise. The 6600GT is a solid card and you'll be able to run those games on Medium/High at 1024 Res and down. The 7600GT though kills it and you can get it for $130 after rebate on NewEgg. I own both cards and highly suggest either of them.

I'd suggest spending an extra $30 on the HD from $55 or so to $85 to get a much higher quality 320GB Seagate, plus its got double the space.

Get an Athlon 3200+ for about $99 when the price drops in a short bit, and I'd suggest a cheaper case. $55 for a meh! case without PSU I'd suggest an Astro case wo/PSU for about $32 or the Centurion with all the rebates going on

If you've got $600 you can make a very solid PC nowadays

 

[sharky69]

Can't say how much I appreciate your time to help me out guys.

 

[FeareX]

@guruofchem,

I know, i would pick a faster gpu to, BUT he asked a system that can run bf2 and hl2 on medium, and the 6600 is capable of doing that. And i had ik OC'ed to 550/550 (i had the same model). And with that OC its a very nice card .

 

[guruofchem]

No argument that the 6600 would do the trick, and the extra cost in moving up to a 7600 card may be a deal-breaker. The real advantage to the 7600 is going to be its longevity - the 6600 is pretty well overmatched by games like Oblivion, and it is not as if games will get less demanding. There is future upside to the 7600, however, not to mention how nice a rig you could build if you went for an SLi-capable mobo now and picked up a 2nd 7600 down the road.

 

[FeareX]

Yes thats totally true. But its hard to tell because sharky69 didnt gave us a budget. 7600gt would be perfect. Since this day i have my x800gto, and am extremely happy about it, although it doesnt score as high as an 7600gt. For just the games hl2 and bf2 on medium (dont forget that its on medium, those games run pretty easy on medium) the 7600gt may be just a bit overkill. But i agree with you that the 7600gt would be an better investment. It only would be handy if sharky69 gives us a budget

 

[guruofchem]

interesting that you are running the X800GTO - that's what I have in my system as well. I have an older AGP mobo, and that card was the best choice a few months back when my old card finally cratered. :lol:

 

[FeareX]

I have it on PCI-e. But man 8O i love this card. I have the fireblade edition, it keepes extremely cool . 58*C stressed and 35*C idle.

 

[sharky69]

Okay,

My budget is going to be $600 and I am going to get it at the end of August. I am probably going to build the computer you guys mentioned above. I am pro bably upgrade to the better video card, bigger HD and processor. Since this is going to be my first build am I bound to screw something up?

Thanks.

 

[Chubby_Rain]

1 GB ram, amd 3500, geforce 7950 GX2

 

[FeareX]

@sharky69,

Well there are some components that arent compatible with eachother, like putting a 939 cpu on a am2 mobo. But i gues you already know that.

So really there isnt much you can do wrong. If you have any questions, because you dont know it for sure, just ask it here.

 

[sharky69]

FeareX,

I see that you have the X800 GTO card, I saw it on sale at New Egg for $100.

Is that one better than the ones mentioned previously?

Thanks.

 

[FeareX]

Yes it is better, im sorry i didnt came up with it. Im from holland and never used newegg before. But yes it is much better then the 6600. I have it and am very happy with it .

The 7600gt is better then the x800gto, but costs you around $150. But for the bang for the buck, i would chose the x800gto. Simply because it plays all of todays titels. Doesnt cost much (like you want it), and is a good overclocker. (havent tried it out with mine yet, because i want to keep my warrenty a little longer).

Hopefully this helped

 

[sharky69]

Do you think it will be able to play the new Battle field coming out? Or, would it be better to get the 7600?

Thanks.

 

[FeareX]

Like I said, the 7600GT is faster. And there are still no system specs of BF2142. But I'm not afraid that this card will have problems with it. I think that it will run just fine. If you look for a x800gto fireblade edition, you can overclock it higher too, because it has the x850xt cooling on it. (I have the fireblade and even on a hot day during gaming, it wont run hotter then 58*C).

Maybe another game you may like, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I've read its gonna be a battlefield beater . Im buying it the first day its in the stores.

 

[Narg]

There are a ton of "budget gaming pc" articles here in Tom's web site.

I love the one on the P4 805D chip.

Don't, whatever you do skimp on the video. Good cheap ones are the ATI X1600Pro variants and the older ATI X800gto.

 

[sharky69]

Hello,

I just received a $300 gift card to www.bestbuy.com. Which components should I buy from there?

 

[Narg]

Sharky69,

What's in your current system? Without a place to start, it's hard to recommend anything better.

 

[sharky69]

I'm building a computer from scratch.

 

[Narg]

Bestbuy is overpriced on most components. I'd sell the $300 to someone else for $250 and go price out a system at http://www.newegg.com if it were me.

Seriously, go price components at Newegg and save the $300 for a splurge item for your new computer.

Like this:

Case w/power $25
Motherboard $60 (w/ video, add video card for more $$)
Intel 805d $95 (overclock heaven & dual core)
1 gig mem DDR2 $80
80 gig HD $40
DVD/RW $30

= $330

Can't do that at Best Buy. This is based on the extreme overclockable system built here on Tom's web pages too. They spent $800 for higher end parts though. You can add/delete and go all over the place in price, but there's a full usable system within your budget. You can use the $300 Best Buy in this case for a high end video card I guess. Or just go mix and match crazy for the best components via both stores. YMMV.