Brothers Xmas Present

N

NooNe

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 2, 2002
Messages
245
I'm wanting to build my brother a new comp for xmas. My budget is $500-$600. He is interested in playing FPS like Battlefield 2, HL, Farcry, Doom3, and all the other ones. He doesnt need to run the games at max resolution with max settings, he just wants to be able to play them without any problems. What would you guys recommend for him? BTW he only needs mobo, processor, ram, vid card, and a CD-RW/DVD-Rom. From reading around i have come up with:

MSI K8N Neo4 AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Retail
Geforce 6600GT Vid Card
1GB stick of PC3200 ram
Basic cd-rw/dvd-rom

Is this any good? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks
 
Chaintech VNF4 for budget builds. Get 2x512MB of Corsair (NOT the value stuff), Mushkin, Crucial, etc... Not the cheap RAM, but it doesn't have to be super expensive.
 
AMD Athlon 64 3000+: 144.99$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537

Chaintech VNF4/Ultra: 73.99$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152049

1GB GSkill DDR: 77.33$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231030

nVidia 6800GS: 214.99$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130258

NEC 3550A: 39.99$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058

FSP 450w PSU: 49.99$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954

Total is 601.28$ with PSU. I don't know how beefy the one you apparently have lying around is, so I threw in the PSU just to be safe.
 
If you need to slice some extra cash off of what GForce said, you can get a 6600GT or a GTO card.

If you can find one, an Opteron 144 is the same thing as a Venice 3000+ with extra cache (and they overclock very well). They are supposedly around $150 if you can find one.
 
Ya i have an adequate PSU. I had forgotten about the Chaintech VNF4/Ultra, it is much better for him. Would the 6600GT work well with these games? Or is it something where in a couple months when newer games come out he will need a new card? I dont mind going over the budget if its worth it. Thanks

edit: Also will the onboard audio on the Chaintech VNF4 suffice?
 
onboard audio is perfectly fine, i have used onboard for years and all i do is listen to music and game.

you may want to check the hot deal forum and the used forum, mite be able to pick up some of these parts for a bit cheaper. and i know if i was gettin a pc for xmas i wouldn't care if it was new or used, since you would still build it and configure it all.

other then that you will be good to go, just see if you can save as much money on the other parts and then get athe best vid card u can get.
 
dandragonrage said:
The fact that you didn't tell us what kind of PSU sets off alarms to me. What kind is it?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter. I have used generic PSUs for 10 years, and I have yet to have a single issue with one (well, I had one where the fan died, but that was because it was dust clogged because it was in my chain-smoking sister's room and she never cleaned it). Face it, the PSU isn't that important as long as it puts out the neccessary wattage, and the cheap ones can do that too.
 
NulloModo said:
It doesn't matter. I have used generic PSUs for 10 years, and I have yet to have a single issue with one (well, I had one where the fan died, but that was because it was dust clogged because it was in my chain-smoking sister's room and she never cleaned it). Face it, the PSU isn't that important as long as it puts out the neccessary wattage, and the cheap ones can do that too.
Click to expand...

You better start knocking on wood, mate. Your luck's not going to last.
 
If you can afford the 6800GS or the GTO (if you're planning on softmodding/adding additional cooling), both of those are better choices than the 6600GT. It's probably worth it because they will game a lot better.
 
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