# 16 years old.... building gaming comp 500$- 600$



## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

What do you guys recommend? Also how can I check to see if parts are compatible with each other? I am pretty computer savvy. However I really dont know what parts to pick. would appreciate the help thanks.


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

What parts do you have now? Do you plan on using your old case?
Do have a old case? lol. With the budget you have, the more parts
you already have, or can salvage the better. Basically what the question
is, is what parts do you need, or do you need everything?


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## dennis20014 (Apr 22, 2008)

He's right, you don't have much to spend on a HARDCORE rig,
but you can get a decent machine that will play bf2, css etc.
But don't expect the best of the best.
Newegg.com is the best place to look, IMO & I don't think anyone will disagree
I would build from ground up but, manic above me, has a good point

I guess answer those questions then take into consideration what I've said


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

I have nothing.... heres something I found

BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138122

Your 4 gigs of Ram - OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Kit $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 $159
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130317

XION II XON-101 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply(REALLY good deal on sale) 65$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208005

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive 60$

Lite-On 20x Super Allwrite drive $26

however thats 700$.... Is all that compatible and good?


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

All of that will work. Unless you plan on using a 64bit Operating system
you dont need 4gigs of ram. You will be fine with 2gigs. You will need
to get a better psu, look for something around 650watts, a good 
quality psu, not a cheapy. What you save on ram will help toward
a better psu, I like the corsair 750watt, good deal at newegg but I 
hear there is another site that sells them cheaper, cant remember the
site maybe someone else will remember. Ive used biostar boards before
and have never had a problem.


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

are you sure I just need two gigs? Ive read you want a good Psu thanks for the info.... But can you please tell me how I can figure out that everything above is compatible?


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

If you look at your board specs you can see that its capable of 
running your cpu.
4 gigs of ram is a waste unless you plan on running a 64bit OS..xp32
or vista 32 is the norm.
You will run faster with 2x1gig of a matched pair of ram in dual mode.


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## HawMan (May 12, 2006)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319

get the above too

the 640mb GTS is the old G80 core and not as fast as the 8800GT which is the G92.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Provantage is the site for the corsair 750.
http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

Thanks for that link Wrench, that is a sweet price...cant beat it.


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## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

for $10 more get a Radeon 4850. Much faster for very less extra.


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

So a good would this be a good gaming pc... with this

http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm
powersupply 98.$

BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138122

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227298

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130319
EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 155 $

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive 60$

Lite-On 20x Super Allwrite drive $26

Corsair Memory
750W TX750W ATX12V Power Supply 98$

manic could you please give me a link to Ram that will be compatible with these parts and with that you recommend? I am still confused where I put everything into? Where is the case? the PsU? This is ending up to be 750 $


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## Luda (Aug 16, 2008)

if your looking to game on a budget id recomend the following:


non sli board: ASUS P5QL PRO

SLI board: ASUS P5N-D

Crossfire Board: DFI Lanparty DK X38-T2RB

Proc: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200

Ram: Mushkin 2x1GB


Nvidia GPU: EVGA 8800GT {couple bucks more, but ive got the same basic card and they will take a beating and keep going, plus EVGA's step up program is nice}

ATI GPU: Gigabyte 4850 more expensive of the to option, but much more powerful

PSU: Silverstone Zeus 650W

case is really up to you, its alot of personal choice, obviously the more the spend the better the quality [normally] but this is by far the worst place to drop alot of money if your working with a strict/low budget


and... i think that about covers it for parts


as far as ram is concerned, 2GB is more then enough, im running vista x64 with 2GB and all the fancy doodads running and ive never had ram issues [although i had 4GB in there, but my watercooling AIO block is in the way of 2 ] 4gb is generally unneccesarry, a good qualtiy matched pair of 1GB is more then enough for standard gaming.

now... the motherboard comes down to 1) how much you want to spend, and if youll be adding a second card. if you dont see yourself going dual, then its fairly easy. if you think youll go dual down the road [think about this for a second, and be honest with yourself] then your going to want to decide what GPU your gonna use. i HIGHLY recomend the 4850, its proven itself to be a fantastic card, and its dirty cheap for the performance. now thats not to say the 8800GT is a bad card, ive been running mine since january with a 125MHZ core overclock, and a touch of overvolting, and its running like a champ, but it still isnt as powerful as a 4850. 


feel free to ask me any questions, and hope that helps


P.S. in a pinch you can run the computer without a case on cardboard, but im not recomending it :smile:



***edit***

did you need a monitor? mouse+keyboard? do you have any optical drives you can used from another machine?


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

*This is what Ive decided for my build for mid-gaming*

What I've decided:


BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138122

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164040 29$
comp tower....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froog

le-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-Intel-_-19115037
cpu 170$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298
ram 95$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319
video card 136 $

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive 60$

Lite-On 20x Super Allwrite drive $26


Provantage is the site for the corsair 750.
http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm 67 $
Grand total 672. $


If you guys have any good cheap upgrades or any parts that are a little worse and cost alot less or any better deals or any critiques... please post them. Thanks alot. Also is my mid tower compatible with my motherboard?


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

anyone?


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

Everything should be ok, and fit. You might double check the qvl for
ram compatibility. Its probably ok though.


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

manic I cant figure it out if my comp tower that 29.99 will be compatible (fit in) with my motherboard? Is it?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The motherboard will fit it's the video card that will be a tight fit.


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

But will it fit wrench97?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I don't know the case is tight there aren't any dimensions shown for the inside.


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

do you recommend a different case?


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

Hes got like 7 inches in there, it should fit. With the way the board
is configured the card wont even cover the ram. Which is a plus...


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I don't know of any in that price range (not to say there aren't).
But I have put one in this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119047


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

manic said:


> Hes got like 7 inches in there, it should fit. With the way the board
> is configured the card wont even cover the ram. Which is a plus...


Yea but the card is 9" long.

http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/512-P3-N802-AR.pdf


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I'm looking at the two images side by side and as long as you don't put the hard drive in the bay by the video card I think it'll fit.


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## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

I agree, I dont see anything in the way.


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## Luda (Aug 16, 2008)

i crammed my 8800GT into my HTPC, although the power connector is touching the PSU [front mounted, which allows me to fit a standard ATX board in, while still being a HTPC case]


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

Ive gotten responses from people that tell me that my motherboard is horrible.... Do you guys recommend a better one?


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## waltthesalt (Jun 1, 2008)

I found a Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD for around the same price, only difference is 8mb buffer. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ST3500830AS-R


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

Ive changed my rig alot this is what I have now decided.... This may not be all compatilbe. but i think it. 

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337 motherboard and cpu for 239$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164040 29$
comp tower....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...le-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-Intel-_-19115037
cpu 170$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269
ram 45$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319
video card 136 $

EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ9250 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822210019 49. $

Lite-On 20x Super Allwrite drive $26


Provantage is the site for the corsair 750.
http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm 67 $


It all comes out to be 660 $..... Is that good?


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## Keira_Wells (May 16, 2008)

Ignore my post please, wrong thread.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Go for the Corsair Ram with 4-4-4-12 timings over the 5-4-4-15 you picked out
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145168


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

can you explain the difference?


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## Xolias (May 1, 2005)

Add like $20 to your order and get the Coolermaster Centurion. It's a sweet and simple Case.


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## Luda (Aug 16, 2008)

philippen said:


> can you explain the difference?


tighter timings, faster memory access


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

philippen said:


> can you explain the difference?


/

The lower the timings the faster the ram, so for PC800 a latency of 4 is faster then a latency of 5, sometimes the lower latency modules are a lot more expensive the the higher ones, but that's not the case with this memory right now.


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## Xolias (May 1, 2005)

Not to mention it comes out to only $34 with the mail in rebate.


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

yea but thats only 2 gigs.... im planning to run vista 64.... is the 4 gig with the worse timings still worse then just 2 gigs?


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## waltthesalt (Jun 1, 2008)

You can buy 2 sets of 2 gigs


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

In the reviews it says that my ram that 45 $ for the 4 gigs can run at Pros: 2GB per stick, good heat sink, low profile, good timing, can run at 4-4-4-12. Why waste my money on that ram?


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## philippen (Aug 15, 2008)

Xolias said:


> Add like $20 to your order and get the Coolermaster Centurion. It's a sweet and simple Case.



Can you tell me why the case I chose is not good? I want it to have 1 clear side.


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