Need a processor prescription

[Peelback79]

Building a gaming rig for my little sister. She's tired of playing Crisis online on my comp and her old baddie of a system is struggling to run CSS and her Sims games. She also loves 2142 and Guild Wars. Here's what I got so far:


This case and power supply
GA-P35-DS3L
G.Skillz DDR2 800 2x1 Gb
8600 GT
HDD

I'm at $446 not shipped. I'd like to keep it around $550 if possible. This will be a gaming computer, no encoding or media editing. So I don't need a lot of cpu horsepower. Just enough to run BF2142, CSS, and Guild Wars well.

Any thoughts appreciated. AMD's processors and mobo's are a lot cheaper, but I don't know a lot about their supporting chipsets and all that. If someone has a good AMD build for less I'm all open to suggestions. I'd like to at least get a dual core, no quad needed.

 

[angry hampster]

Get rid of that horribly overpriced case/PSU and get this:
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-...204559259.html#cRevSec

That frees up $70, leaving you with $170 to spend on a processor. However, I'd say divide that up and get:

Radeon 3850 instead of the junk 8600GT:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814241066

and overclock the hell out of this E2160 processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116036

This puts you about $15-20 over budget, but it's really a damn nice system. That will be very nice for gaming. It won't play Crysis on high at big resolutions, but it'll be more than adequate for most situations.

 

[Martimus]

I agree that the Sonata III is a better buy. It even has a better PSU. (Lower power rating, but higher quality)

That E2160 and the Gigabyte MB seem to be a good deal too.

I second the thought of avoiding the 8600, and getting a 3850 instead, or a 2900pro if the 3850 is too much. The 8600 is horribly overpriced. The HD 3650 would be a better buy at $99.

Here is a spreadsheet that I keep updated just for this purpose. It may come in handy for you:
Computer Builder Spreadsheet (w/ prices)