Mid Range Gaming Rig Suggestions

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wesmaster

Gawd
Joined
Jun 9, 2001
Messages
762
I need a machine for my girlfriend so she can have a Windows PC (other than her Mac) and can game with me. Not going all out but something that would run current games pretty well.

I was also thinking about getting one of the already made rig's from newegg that are like $500-600. Anyone had any luck with any of those or know of any others that are a good deal? Wouldnt mind saving a couple of hours with a machine that is ready out of the box :)
 
From what I can tell, none of the computers at Newegg in the $500-$600 range would be good for gaming. The one that they have under the Gaming category uses Integrated Graphics, so it would fail at any tolerable resolution with 3D graphics.

You really didn't give us enough information to help you further though.
 
Please answer the following questions with as much detail/specifics as possible, as it will help us help you:

1) What's your budget and what is included in that budget (tax/shipping, keyboard, monitor, OS, etc; if you're not in the US, please specify country)?

2) What will you be doing with this system besides gaming (eg: video editing, photochopping, media ripping/encoding, watching hd videos, CAD, etc)?

3) If you are gaming, what games will you be playing and at what resolution/settings (eg: cs:s @ 1680x1050 w/ no AA/AF)?

4) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to get?

5) What old parts do you plan on re-using, if any (please be as specific as possible)?

6) What features do you need/want in a motherboard and briefly, why do you need/want them? (3 pci slots, raid, firewire, µATX, etc)

7) How long do you plan on keeping this system and/or how often do you upgrade?

8) Do you plan on OC'ing?

9) If you haven't already, please look through the other build lists in GenHard and come up with a rough draft list of parts that we can nitpick. ;)
 
I forget how detailed this place is lol

1) What's your budget and what is included in that budget (tax/shipping, keyboard, monitor, OS, etc; if you're not in the US, please specify country)?
I'd like to spend no more than $500 if possible for the following: mobo/CPU/RAM and possibly video card. tax/shipping dont matter. in the US.

2) What will you be doing with this system besides gaming (eg: video editing, photochopping, media ripping/encoding, watching hd videos, CAD, etc)?
Some gaming: WoW, Team fortress 2, not sure what else my girl would play. ALso would need to do CAD since she is an architect.

3) If you are gaming, what games will you be playing and at what resolution/settings (eg: cs:s @ 1680x1050 w/ no AA/AF)?
Monitor will be 1680x1050 AA/AF up to her dont think she cares

4) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to get?
Already have 22' at 1680x1050

5) What old parts do you plan on re-using, if any (please be as specific as possible)?
Have keyboard, mouse, PSU, Case, CD-rom, Monitor

6) What features do you need/want in a motherboard and briefly, why do you need/want them? (3 pci slots, raid, firewire, µATX, etc)
Probably need pci-e, one or two pci slots, firewire maybe since she is a Mac user. Wont be messing with RAID. not sure what µATX is

7) How long do you plan on keeping this system and/or how often do you upgrade?
It will hopefully be around a while and when my girl gets tired of it I can use it as a backup/work/spare part system.

8) Do you plan on OC'ing?
Nope

9) If you haven't already, please look through the other build lists in GenHard and come up with a rough draft list of parts that we can nitpick.
At work so cant surf a ton but will do
 
Go to NewEgg

Snag an Intel E4500, 2gigs of DDR 2 800 (cheapest), cheapest 775 mobo, 8800 GT/GTS/GTX

E4500 = 120
DDR 2 = 40-50
775 = 60-80
8800 = 120-180

Prices may vary, models may vary: But that will get you set to game.
 
Shambler's got you off to a nice start. For about 5 bucks more, you can get the E7200 2.5Ghz instead, which replaces the E4000 series chips.

$132 - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775
$125 - Asus P5K EPU LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
$160 - eVGA 512-P3-N800-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
$85 - G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
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$502 + tax and shipping

Do note that new cards are coming out soon, so the eVGA branded card is good for stepping up to a new model if the price is right, along with the added performance benefit. The 8800GT isn't really needed for WoW & TF2, but it should help greatly when rendering for CAD. I chose 4GB because you said she'll be doing CAD. If you want to upgrade the motherboard, the Asus P5K-E, Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P or Abit IP35 Pro are good choices unless you want to wait for the P45 chipset based boards, which are due out in a few weeks (some already out). P45 simply offers PCI-E2.0 over the P35, but thats not a big deal since none of the current cards come close to saturating the PCI-E 1.x bandwidth anyhow.
 
i saw that E7200 when i was browsing around think i'll go with that. you guys rock thanks for the input.
 
Oh, and definitely a good idea on the 4 gigs, but only if you're runnin a 64bit OS.

With the build enginurd listed, her computer will be pretty freakin sweet for 500 + change.
 
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