[sjm80]

I am trying to figure out a first time build to fit into a budget of $600ish (monitor and OS taken care of)

I am a gamer, I understand my budget won’t make a “great” gaming system but I want the best I can get for this budget. Most time will be spent in WOW and LOTR and eventually Warhammer Online. But I enjoy all kinds of games .

My current system is a 5 year old HP laptop. Sooo…. anything is better.

From browsing this and other forums I have put together a build. I really don’t know anything when it comes to picking out good hardware, so if there are compatibility issues, and or you have better suggestions on parts. Let me know please.

I am not 100% sure of going AMD, from what I read I could go with a e2160(or something) and OC the heck out of it much better than the AMD (obviously I have never OC’d so a little nervous about all that). So any ideas or info would help with that too.




LG Electronics Black LG Super Multi 18x SATA DVD Burner GSA-H62NK, 10x DVD+/-R DL, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 12x DVD-RAM - OEM

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

PNY VCG7900SXPB GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Rosewill RP550-2 ATX12V v2.01 550W Power Supply - Retail

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 65W Processor Model ADO4600CUBOX - Retail

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

$575 Total

[jfenwick]

I'm no expert but save a few bucks with this RAM instead of G-skill, both are good:

Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

And if you're going to OC the CPU you could save some cash by switching to:

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Processor - Retail

Just some quick suggestions off the top of my head...

[decibaL]

Originally Posted by jfenwick

I'm no expert but save a few bucks with this RAM instead of G-skill, both are good:

Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

why tell him to get 1 GB when 2 gigs are cheap?

if you go amd then pick up a brisbane cpu, if you go with intel a 2140 or 2160 will do just great

[jfenwick]

Yeah, i'm a dork....good catch, thought it was 2GB 2X1GB lol, my apologies, should have cut my losses and been in bed at that time.

[sjm80]

I might be able to purchase an e4xx cpu. Would that be worth it? I am even looking at that low end e6xx but I don’t know if I can swing that. Or if its worth the extra cash.

The prices of all these confuse me… e4400 e4500 are same price. Is the e6650 good? i noticed it was cheaper than a few lower e6xx's... how come?

All very confusing. Any suggestions?

I think I want to go intel, and now need to pick a mobo. Is a GA-P35-DS3L pretty good? There something better/more reliable in that price range?

[b1gapl]

I think you should go for the E2180. It overclocks like a dream. And the DS3L motherboard, is a great motherboard. Although others will tell you to go with the Abit IP35-E, as it's a slightly better overclocker. I think it's cheaper too, if I can recall.

[Vaanish]

I dont know about USD but the MSI P35 Platinum is an exelent board.

[b1gapl]

Originally Posted by Vaanish

I dont know about USD but the MSI P35 Platinum is an exelent board.

The P35 Platinum looks to be a great board. It would be 73 pounds in your currency, from the US' price. But he won't be needing to spend that much on a motherboard. He only has a $600(300 pound) budget.

[sjm80]

The Abit IP35-E looks nice.

So it’s not worth the extra money for an e4500 or even an e6550?

Down the road I do want to upgrade my GPU to something better (8800something prolly). Is this overall setup going to have a hard time keeping up?

[nerdygeek]

Stick with B1g's suggestion for the proc and the PS might be able to power it.