I'm building a computer!

Yes, as the title states i'm building a computer. Anyways, I'm on a budget of about $500 And i need to know what would be good i could get with that much.

motherboard/video http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130520 76$
Ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145440 76$
processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535 $164(the 3000+ is sold out, it is 130)
HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822135106 55$
DVD/CD burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152039 $37
case/ PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147001 $52

didn't bother to add the prices together. If you can afford more I suggest a better PSU(quality wise) that in total is 460$ if you could go 550$ I could figure out something with a somehwat betterboard and GFX card.

Xelink's list is perfect and the best you can get for your money.
If your just going to use the computer to go online/Email/Internet/MSN etc. Then the list he provided will do the trick. But if you want to be playing games you'll gonna have to splash out more to get a real Video Card.

Whats good is the system that his list shows could be quite a soild gamers machine
Add any of these cards to that...And you'll be able to play the lastest games but the price will depend on what settings the games will play at.

6600GT - $127 - 1024x768 Gaming
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150098

6800GS - $199 - 1024x768 / 1280x1024 Gaming
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130258

7800GT - $304 - 1600x1200 Gaming - Quake 4 Free =P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130247

my friend has a motherboard with that chpset and it can actually play HL2 on medium no problem so unless he needs something much better that should do that trick assuming he already has an OS.

AMD is great for gaming, ie. 64 bit arcetecture, the gfx card I would suggest Nvidia GEForce 6800GS, I"ve got that, I paly all games on highest gfx (with a 3.0 p.4 processer, and 1gb of SDD-RAM). The HDD depends on what you are storing, my ideal is 160.

JUST KEEP IN MIND 2 THINGS.
1. Leave room to expand, instead of a 2 DIMM ram slot, get a 4 and only fill two, so you can have 2 more for later. Get a gfx card that can link with another one of its kind (nvidia SLI tech.) Also, make sure your motherboard is compatible with a lot of things, so you can change if you want.
2. YOu have no warrenty, so you better be carfull!

I have one crappy PC I put together from salvaged parts, just somethign to do in my spare time. It sucks, p.3, 128 ram, 32mb video card, the works. It works when I want to do a halo lan party (just barely). It cost me $200 to make, and $100 in replacing stuff b/c it stopped working. Yea, good luck, may the force be with you.

I always get Computer Gaming World and in the back they have great deals.

Good luck!

$500? I paid more than that for my video card alone. >_>... look in a lot of PC magazines to shop for similar items to things on Zelinks's list. Dont just buy what he has there immediatelly without looking at similar items first. You might just be able to find a better deal.

More importantly, Newegg has a giant restocking fee. If you don't like that you get, and you want to return it, you're going to end up paying a hefty price to send them back by paying for shipping AND a restocking fee. Try to find a place where you can buy hardware that doesn't have a restocking fee OR tax.

Lastly, you can't buy this stuff offline, so online is your only bet for good hardware.

for a graphics card, if you want a cheap one get the Radeon 9550 256mb, it runs things pretty well at 800*600 and only cost about $100 with taxes. If you want something extremely good, the best thing out there is the fx7800gtx 512 by nVidia and it will kill everything (at $1000 it may be a bit more expensive than you can afford) you can get the fx6800 too, it also has SLI.

For someone like you i recomend the Radeon 9550 256mb, just find a small computer store and buy it, don't go to a place like future shop because it will be twice as expensive there.

the 9550 is OK, but I would far rather take the x800 GTO over it for an extra 30%. It will definately outperform the 9550 by more than 30% especially if you unlock pipelines. If you are into Linux, go for a Geforce 6600 or a 6800.

also, just because a card has 256mb of Vram doesn't make it good. you havbe to take into consideration how fast the GPU and ram are. I'd take a 128mb version of the 7800 GTX over a 256mb geforce 5700 anyday.

also, the x200 which is integrated into that motherboard isn't that much weaker than the 9550 FYI. the X200 in that motherboard can play HL2 on medium according to my friend who has a motherboard with the same chipset(,ight very well be the same board, his board came from MSI)

Originally Posted by dmitric300

for a graphics card, if you want a cheap one get the Radeon 9550 256mb, it runs things pretty well at 800*600 and only cost about $100 with taxes. If you want something extremely good, the best thing out there is the fx7800gtx 512 by nVidia and it will kill everything (at $1000 it may be a bit more expensive than you can afford) you can get the fx6800 too, it also has SLI.

For someone like you i recomend the Radeon 9550 256mb, just find a small computer store and buy it, don't go to a place like future shop because it will be twice as expensive there.

The 9550 performs.. crap to be honest. For someone with that budget, I would maybe splash out a little more cash on a 9800 XT or some of the lower end R520 GPU cards. An nVidia 6600GT or 6800GS would be more kickass.

And the FX Series died along time ago. There is no FX7800 or FX6800. You are looking at GeForce Series 6 or 7 cards these days.

To save money, I would recommend just starting off with 512MB Ram. Yes, 1G is the future, but for now, 512MB will get the job done and then some, and once you save up enough money, invest in another stick or two. That way, you can save about another $35 for other, more important things, like CPU, motherboard, and the GPU.

Originally Posted by Mr. Wonderful

To save money, I would recommend just starting off with 512MB Ram. Yes, 1G is the future, but for now, 512MB will get the job done and then some, and once you save up enough money, invest in another stick or two. That way, you can save about another $35 for other, more important things, like CPU, motherboard, and the GPU.

These day's 1GB is the standard. 2 - 4 GB is the future.

Originally Posted by Yami

These day's 1GB is the standard. 2 - 4 GB is the future.

Yeah...But unless you're doing hardcore gaming, 512MB is enough until you can save up for another stick.

Thanks for all the info ZU! I'm planning on building a new computer too. I want a fast, powerful gaming machine. Thanks for the thread Tiger Calvin.

Originally Posted by Mr. Wonderful

Yeah...But unless you're doing hardcore gaming, 512MB is enough until you can save up for another stick.

actually that would fail because it would force you out of dual channel and if it doesn't, then you're wasting a valuable dimm slot on garbage, spend the extra 30-40% for more ram.

FYI, princess zelda, that really wouldn't be a great gaming computer more for general use and somewhat older games. if you noticed he was on a low budget.