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Thoughts on this budget computer gaming setup

C

calzukin

Member
EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8080S 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

BIOSTAR TA770 A2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2N5

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz

Now in addition to this I will need to get a cheapo case but I am also wondering what kind of power supply do i need. I am wondering if the processor is ok to skimp on a bit to splurge on a more powerful video card. Would love your thoughts or reccomendations. Lookinf to run this as a gaming maybe movie watching machine with Windows XP black edition.

My budget is around $600 all in.

Please also feel free to recommend a setup conducive to gaming but that is of a budget form.

I read that the 8600gt was a piece of junk and that the 8800gt was far superior to it. Why go intel instead of AMD on this and why particularly is this not designed for gaming (casual that is).

I am planning on pluging it into my 52" 1080i plasma and running 1360 x 768. I basically want this in lieu of an xbox 360 or ps3 although like i said I am not a hardcore gamer. Please feel free to offer an alternative configuration that would lower my price point like maybe i don't need the 8800gt card.
 
If your budget is $600, I'd get a PS3 and have plenty left over to buy some games and an extra controller. You will get much more for your money than a $600 gaming rig, and that processor is not going to be the cat's pajamas for gaming anything but 1-3 year ago titles.

I tried PC gaming on my plasma TV and it wasn't bad, but ultimately I got sick of it (any small icons or text extremely eye-straining to read) and decided to get a 22" LCD monitor instead. Now the Plasma is just for my PS3, TV, watching movies, etc.

 
Why is this processor bad for gaming? What is the minimum configuration I should have to play games at decent framerates casually? Thanks for the responses.
 
It depends. Some people enjoy an X360 or PS3 more. Some enjoy a PC for gaming more. There's no reason for us to tell you what to like.

If you want a PC setup:
Mobo $60: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...7031&Tpk=ABIT%2bIP35-E
PSU $30: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153023
8800 GS $170: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150276
CPU $125: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115031
HDD: $105: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152052
2GB RAM $35: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145590
Case $35: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119115

With California tax and shipping, it comes out to $575 before the $62 worth of mail-in rebates.

If you overclock, throw in an Arctice Freezer 7 Pro for about $30 and it should hit 3.0GHz without much trouble.
 
Originally posted by: calzukin
Does anybody else think I should just get an xbox 360 and forget about the pc setup in general?
Click to expand...

Depends, PC gaming and console gaming can be quite different. It's all in what you want from it. Super pretty FPS games and massive RTS? MMORPGs? You want a PC. Party games, casual games, in-house multiplayer, fighting games, most story-based RPGs, anything with a Nintendo character? Or if you prefer your FPSs with a control pad (Halo etc)? You want a console.

You'd need to decide which one is most important to you before shelling out $$$ 😛.
 
Well I really prefer strategy games and the occasional unreal deathmatch. But also spending 300 bucks on an xbox 360 seems more appealing then close to 600 on a pc. What do you guys think?
 
Also can someone please logically explain why the intel chip is better that the 1/2 price amd chip. What particularly does it hamper with gaming, considering the the fact that i will be running it on a tv not at high resolutions on a monitor. Thanks.
 
At low resolutions, the CPU will bottleneck more than the GPU. A decent GPU will easily handle anything thrown at such a low resolution, but if the CPU can't keep up, you'll get crappy frames. On mine rig for instance, the 8800 GT should be far sufficient to give me playable frames at max settings on say CoD4, but I can't run AA and have to put it on medium quality simply because my CPU (and RAM) are so limited. The 4000+ X2 won't bottleneck as hard as my 3500+, but if you're going to spend $600, you might as well make it last as long as you possibly can.

Personally, I don't find too many strategy games on a console to begin with, and to me strategy games are very limited in terms on a console due to the controller. I also prefer FPS games on a PC as well. That being said, those are almost the two genres, imho, that should be played on a PC.
 
So if I played it on high resolutions I wouldn't see any difference between the AMD chip and the intel chip. Also what about the $80 chip from intel?
 
Originally posted by: calzukin
Well I really prefer strategy games and the occasional unreal deathmatch. But also spending 300 bucks on an xbox 360 seems more appealing then close to 600 on a pc. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I haven't played 1 minute of computer games since buying my 360 almost a year and a half ago, so yeah, to me the 360 is where it's at. The Achievement system sucks me in like it was Elisha Cuthbert lying naked on my couch...

However, when Starcraft 2 is released (a year or so away) back to the PC I'll go.

Edit: To really make full use of your 360 you need a HD TV. If you've already got that then your set.
 
Originally posted by: calzukin
So if I played it on high resolutions I wouldn't see any difference between the AMD chip and the intel chip. Also what about the $80 chip from intel?
Click to expand...

1360x768 is a lower resolution btw. 1280x1024 might be considered high resolution, depending on the user, 1600x1200 and anything higher is in the high resolution category.

At high resolutions, the GPU can't keep up, regardless how fast your CPU is.
At low resolutions, the CPU can't keep up, no matter how good the GPU is.

The E21XX series from Intel are still good. They overclock extremely well according to the users here. The system I picked out was pushing your budget to the limit. You can make price cuts where you deem necessary.
 
Thanks chinaman your comments are much appreciated. So if I am thinking of making cuts on the processor side what would you go with that could still keep up at the lower resolutions. Also are there any cheaper mobo's excluding rebates ( I hate rebates). Probably will go with a smaller hd as well. Whats the min power supply I need for this rig if I don't really want to overclock?
 
generally for a hard drive, the sizes go:

$50 80GB
$60 160GB
$70 250GB
$80 320GB
$90 400GB
$100 500GB
$250 1000GB (1TB)

So you can see for yourself.

A E2XXX series Core 2 Duo would be the lowest you can go for keeping up at low resolutions.
You can overclock it to around 3GHz without much problems, probably not beyond 3.2GHz.

Tigerdirect has the E2180 for $60 with a $20 rebate, which is a good price before and great price after the rebate.

If you really must skimp on the motherboard, here's a gigabyte for about $73 shipped:

link

finally got the link right.
 
Yes unfortunately the way video cards are now, you pretty much need a proc to run at 3.0Ghz or close to get the most out of them, I was running my Q6600 Quad at stock settings of 2.4Ghz when I first got it with my 8800GT and could play crysis, but had to tune the settings down a bit. once I'd gotten a better motherboard and aftermarket cooler I was able to jump to 3.0GHz and all of the sudden I could actually play Crysis on very high with playable frame rates,

for your budget, IMO you're going to get a better experience out of a console than you would a PC, since the console games are optimized, the resolutions might not be as high as you could go on PC, and the image quality won't be quite as good. but with your budget you wouldn't be able to play those resolutions at playable framerates anyways. for a bit more you could actually get mid-high end performance, somewhere in the middle.

cheapest rig I would build you right now would be, this is Intel, becase at the moment, I just can't see the reason to build an AMD gaming rig.

Core 2 duo E8400 220$ 3.0Ghz stock 45nm (won't even need to OC)
Gigabyte or Abit P35 mobo - $90
8800GS - $160
2GB of DD2 800 -$50
antec earthwatts 380W PSU -$60590

but you'll still need a case and optical drives I.E (HDD, DVD)

if you can find these cheap I think you could do the rig for $750 and actually get performance out of it.

My current rig's budget started out as $700 in my head, but ended up closer to $1000

otherwise the 360 is a great time waster, just don't run it too long unless you get one of those elite systems that have the better heatsinks, don't want to get the Red Ring of Death, should be fine as long as you keep it sitting flat and well ventilated, I'm not sure why they designed it to sit up like a tower then put the main vents on the bottom, that's like asking for a hardware failure.


 
350-400 watts will do, and don't get a cheap brand either.

A 360 or a PS3 is a great deal for the price. A $400-600 gaming rig that'll last (most likely) another 3+ years, it's tough to say the same for a gaming PC. Dollar for dollar a console is always a better deal for gaming; it just depends on your taste.
 
This is a nice power supply, OCZ 500W StealthXStream Power Supply - OCZ500SXS. I ordered it on a Saturday and it was delivered on Tuesday with free budget shipping. $ 39.99 shipped after MIR. Save $ 10.00 more if you can use google checkout, I did. 😀



http://www.buy.com/prod/ocz-50...loc/101/206526699.html

You might want to consider going with an Intel based system like this

http://www.clubit.com/product_...l.cfm?itemno=CA1938263
Get Free Lost Planet PC Game with purchase. Add to Cart & Apply Promo Code: WEB2299800009
Manufacture Part# BX80557E2180
ClubIT Part # CA1938263


http://www.clubit.com/product_...itemno=CA4830813&nav=2
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 M0 Stepping $79.98 with Motherboard Purchase.

http://www.clubit.com/product_...itemno=CA4830813&nav=2

Get this case, 37.00 shipped after MIR.

http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0265143
 
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