cheapest gaming build

[siddanth3]

hey guys. i am going to build a very cheap but a good gaming system for my brother. he doesnt do games that much, only plays counter strike source, and fear. he wants me to build a nice but a cheap rig.i dont think he will need a kick *** video card for moderate gaming . am i right?because i have a 7900gs and also a x850xt, i was thinking of giving one of those to my brother. but i was wondering how much difference is there between either one of these and the 8600. should he get the 8600 or should he stick with what i give him. i am talking about performance, not the price.
one more thing, i having a hard time deciding between the e4300 and the e6320. a lil bit of overclocking will be done, but not now, probably when the need arises. please let me know what u guys think.

so heres what i have got for him.

Newegg.com - SONY Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JB 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

Newegg.com - Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W SLI Ready-ATX 12V V2.01 Power Supply 115/230 V CSA,UL,TUV - Retail

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 Conroe 1.86GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

or

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail


so this is what i have so far. i am letting him pick a case, and please let me know what u guys think about the 8600 and e4300 and e6320

thanks

[b1gapl]

The e4300 will save you money, and is very overclockable. For the vid card, the 8600GT, will let him play future games that are DX10 compatible. For now the 7900GS is slightly better than the 8600GT. But with DX10 games, the 8600GT will do a little better.

[maroon1]

Give x850xt to your brother, and use 7900GS until mid-ranged G90 comes out....

8600GT is slightly faster than x850xt but slower than 7900GS in most of the current games...

And for the CPU I would get E4400, it cheaper than E6320 but a little more expensive than E4300
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

And get a Hard drive with 16MB cache
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

[siddanth3]

oh ok, thanks for the help guys. one more question, will the extra 2mb cache help if i get the e6320, will that make a big difference in performance?
any opinions?

[maroon1]

Yes it makes some difference in performance, but the performance difference between E4400 and E6320 is not so big........

[nagasama]

Originally Posted by siddanth3

oh ok, thanks for the help guys. one more question,
should i get an amd?

yes, you should.

[ThirdLeft152]

lol nagasama.

but yeah if you wanted to save about $100-150 you could pick up a x2 3600+ and a biostar t550 for $140 together, which is less than a C2D alone (except the e4300). and the x2 is capable of 3ghz+ which is, comparable/maybe a little better, than a e6600 at stock.

[maroon1]

Originally Posted by ThirdLeft152

lol nagasama.

but yeah if you wanted to save about $100-150 you could pick up a x2 3600+ and a biostar t550 for $140 together, which is less than a C2D alone (except the e4300). and the x2 is capable of 3ghz+ which is, comparable/maybe a little better, than a e6600 at stock.

6000+ has clock speed of 3GHz and it perform on par with E6600 at stock.

Since 3600+ has less cache, then I assume that you need to overclock it to 3.2GHz-3.4GHz in order to perform on par with E6600. I don't think you can overclock it to that speed without having problems.....

Personally, I would get E4300 and overclock it.......

[nagasama]

^^maroon is right^^
3.2 or so is gonna be about the max you (or at least I) can get out of a 3600.
its in the neighborhood of the STOCK 6600, but i dont think it can outperform it in too many applications.
a 6000 would be a better challenger as far as benchmarks, super pi, and most applications.
but, for 65 bucks...anywhere in the neighborhood is good.

[ThirdLeft152]

alright i stand corrected, but for a cpu/mobo at less than a c2d, thats a budget build right there.