Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Looking to build a good gaming PC (on a budget)

Plaid13 · 09-09-2008, 11:04 AM

Well I would have to disagree with lasereth simply because upgrading a dell isnt worth the trouble in the future.

I disagree with getting a intel core 2 as well but not because of performance. Go with a AMD dual core if your on a tight budget. For a budget rig you wont be getting the best of anything so the little bonus intels best chips have are not worth the extra cost for the little performance.

I personaly just built a new budget game system out of realizing how dated my old stuff was. Kept my case and hard drives and dvd drive though.

My personal build i went with
Asus m3a78 pro motherboard. Asus seems to make some quality stuff. second asus and it went together easy. Was $94 at new egg.

EVGA nvidia 8800gt 512mb akimbo video card. dual slot card better cooling hopefully will last longer and run cooler. But EVGA has lifetime warrenty So good deal there. New egg had it on sale for $124 after a mail in rebate

AMD 6000+ dual core. Stock heatsink/fan it comes with its excellent! came with the thermal goo stuck to it already just snapped it down on the processor on the board and that was that. Runs at idle at 27C and under load at 40C 3ghz dual core cant really go wrong for $95 on new egg.

OCZ 700 watt gamextreame power supply Was $99 after a mail in rebate from tiger direct. Got mine from the local warehouse outlet but its the same on the website just have to pay a few bucks for shipping too.

Corsair 2gig dual channel xms2 ddr2 6400 ram Its nothing fancy but its gotten good reviews and has a fast response time and all that good stuff. has the fancy new fangled cooling fin deal going on but i dont overclock anything so i couldnt care less. but the best part 2 gig dual channel ram good brand for $27 after mail in rebate. You might want to get two pairs of this stuff 4 gig of ram is happy and if you run vista you want 4 gig of ram It eats up memory.

Im using a coolermaster centurian case its 3 years old and i got it for like $35 from new egg back then. Wonderful case though. stuck a decent 120mm fan for exhaust in the back a 80mm fan intake on the side and another on the front. Keeps everything nice and cool even with low rpm fans that make almost no noise.

Get yourself a good SATA hard drive. I suggest western digital or seagate Pretty sure you can pick up one with 600-750gig for under a hundred dollars.

For dvd drives i have used a liteon dvd burner and a sony dvd drive for 3 years now. both were dirt cheap back then and both have worked flawlessly. Burned hundreds of dvds very fast without any problems. Only problems burning dvds comes from the blank media. Doubt your in need of that for a gaming rig but verbatim has made high quality stuff and hasnt failed me yet.

this system is only a few days old but the brands are good and i trust it will last. It runs the games i play perfectly and its fast. It could use another 2 gig of ram but... it was a spur of the moment build and i really cant afford to spend more.

You most likely wont be able to use your old windows xp dell install. Pretty sure dell alters the oem disks they send out to only work with the dell hardware and they add some extra stuff. But new egg you can buy a fresh copy of xp or vista for around $100 and it will be all legal instead of trying to get past the oem regulations of the old xp copy from the dell. Not supposed to use that copy on anything but the orignal machine.

Personaly i would go with vista 64 but only if you plan to get at least 4 gig of ram. XP is less buggy but vista is what everything is moving to. directx10 and all that. Buying a new copy of xp when you will most likely want to update to vista soon seems like a waste. Think most of the complaints about vista are mostly because of it lacking drivers for older hardware and the way it uses so much ram. So with new hardware and plenty of ram i dont think it will be much of a problem. That being said... i still use xp but i didnt have to buy a new copy if i did i would have gone to vista 64.

Should be about the budget your looking for and have plenty of room to upgrade in the future. Motherboard can be upgraded to a quad core when you have the money to spend or the price comes down. Video card is set for a while i think and the power supply has more then enough power to supply pretty much anything you throw at it. You could make it cheaper if you go with other lesser known brands but you never know what you get with other brands.

whatever you decide on i suggest you do a ton of research on anything you plan to buy. Read lots of forums and reviews on the parts. Keep in mind electronics do fail and can be damaged by tons of things. shipping can shake things up static can fry parts. it happens with even the best brands. So if you find a brand that has a good return and replacement policy. For instance i went with ocz for the power supply after reading the forums on there site. people complain about the product they pretty much instantly say ok we will send you a new one.

If you do decide to go with a intel processor They are good and do get faster then the AMDs do right now but you will pay twice as much for it. Not ideal for a budget rig. Unless you really want top of the line at any cost go for a AMD.

09-09-2008, 11:04 AM	#4 (permalink)
Plaid13 I want a Plaid crayon	Well I would have to disagree with lasereth simply because upgrading a dell isnt worth the trouble in the future. I disagree with getting a intel core 2 as well but not because of performance. Go with a AMD dual core if your on a tight budget. For a budget rig you wont be getting the best of anything so the little bonus intels best chips have are not worth the extra cost for the little performance. I personaly just built a new budget game system out of realizing how dated my old stuff was. Kept my case and hard drives and dvd drive though. My personal build i went with Asus m3a78 pro motherboard. Asus seems to make some quality stuff. second asus and it went together easy. Was $94 at new egg. EVGA nvidia 8800gt 512mb akimbo video card. dual slot card better cooling hopefully will last longer and run cooler. But EVGA has lifetime warrenty So good deal there. New egg had it on sale for $124 after a mail in rebate AMD 6000+ dual core. Stock heatsink/fan it comes with its excellent! came with the thermal goo stuck to it already just snapped it down on the processor on the board and that was that. Runs at idle at 27C and under load at 40C 3ghz dual core cant really go wrong for $95 on new egg. OCZ 700 watt gamextreame power supply Was $99 after a mail in rebate from tiger direct. Got mine from the local warehouse outlet but its the same on the website just have to pay a few bucks for shipping too. Corsair 2gig dual channel xms2 ddr2 6400 ram Its nothing fancy but its gotten good reviews and has a fast response time and all that good stuff. has the fancy new fangled cooling fin deal going on but i dont overclock anything so i couldnt care less. but the best part 2 gig dual channel ram good brand for $27 after mail in rebate. You might want to get two pairs of this stuff 4 gig of ram is happy and if you run vista you want 4 gig of ram It eats up memory. Im using a coolermaster centurian case its 3 years old and i got it for like $35 from new egg back then. Wonderful case though. stuck a decent 120mm fan for exhaust in the back a 80mm fan intake on the side and another on the front. Keeps everything nice and cool even with low rpm fans that make almost no noise. Get yourself a good SATA hard drive. I suggest western digital or seagate Pretty sure you can pick up one with 600-750gig for under a hundred dollars. For dvd drives i have used a liteon dvd burner and a sony dvd drive for 3 years now. both were dirt cheap back then and both have worked flawlessly. Burned hundreds of dvds very fast without any problems. Only problems burning dvds comes from the blank media. Doubt your in need of that for a gaming rig but verbatim has made high quality stuff and hasnt failed me yet. this system is only a few days old but the brands are good and i trust it will last. It runs the games i play perfectly and its fast. It could use another 2 gig of ram but... it was a spur of the moment build and i really cant afford to spend more. You most likely wont be able to use your old windows xp dell install. Pretty sure dell alters the oem disks they send out to only work with the dell hardware and they add some extra stuff. But new egg you can buy a fresh copy of xp or vista for around $100 and it will be all legal instead of trying to get past the oem regulations of the old xp copy from the dell. Not supposed to use that copy on anything but the orignal machine. Personaly i would go with vista 64 but only if you plan to get at least 4 gig of ram. XP is less buggy but vista is what everything is moving to. directx10 and all that. Buying a new copy of xp when you will most likely want to update to vista soon seems like a waste. Think most of the complaints about vista are mostly because of it lacking drivers for older hardware and the way it uses so much ram. So with new hardware and plenty of ram i dont think it will be much of a problem. That being said... i still use xp but i didnt have to buy a new copy if i did i would have gone to vista 64. Should be about the budget your looking for and have plenty of room to upgrade in the future. Motherboard can be upgraded to a quad core when you have the money to spend or the price comes down. Video card is set for a while i think and the power supply has more then enough power to supply pretty much anything you throw at it. You could make it cheaper if you go with other lesser known brands but you never know what you get with other brands. whatever you decide on i suggest you do a ton of research on anything you plan to buy. Read lots of forums and reviews on the parts. Keep in mind electronics do fail and can be damaged by tons of things. shipping can shake things up static can fry parts. it happens with even the best brands. So if you find a brand that has a good return and replacement policy. For instance i went with ocz for the power supply after reading the forums on there site. people complain about the product they pretty much instantly say ok we will send you a new one. If you do decide to go with a intel processor They are good and do get faster then the AMDs do right now but you will pay twice as much for it. Not ideal for a budget rig. Unless you really want top of the line at any cost go for a AMD.