Building my first PC for gaming

[Iron Angel]

I have pretty much decided on everything I want except I need help picking out he biggies, the cpu and gfx card. I was thinking for CPU along the lines of a 3.0 or 3.2 dual core. I haven't really looked at intel what do they offer in the same price range as these that has similar or hopefully better performance. For the graphics card I was wanting either a Radeon 3850 512mb version or the 8800gt 256mb version. Really the 8800gt is starting to push my budget. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Vaanish]

It depends on your screen size as to which card you should get.

Intel make the best CPUs out there at the moment.

What have you decided on already? Which country are you in?

 

[Iron Angel]

Well my monitor is just a CRT 17'' flat screen, not flat panel. I probably wouldnt upgrade it for a little while just because it suits me fine. But one day I may upgrade to a 19 or 20" LCD display. I haven't decided on any intel chips yet because I really do not know what is best in the sub $200 range. I live in the U.S.

 

[Vaanish]

Well for a 17" monitor, an ATi 3850 256 will be enough.

For a sub 200$ processor, Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail is the best.

If you get a P35 motherboard with 2 PCI-E x16 slots, such as Newegg.com - MSI P35 Platinum LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail, then you can crossfire two 3850s when you get a bigger screen.

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

Yo dude, just give us your budget and we'll tell you exactly what you need to get. Maybe you're overspending on other things or not choosing the right parts?

 

[Iron Angel]

Alright well my budget it pretty weak its only $600. I am a teenager so money isn't something I have a lot of especially since I own and 360 and a wii. But, I use to do a lot more pc gaming and I wanted to get back into, you know crysis, world in conflict, etc. So would that 2.66 intel run faster then the 3.0 or 3.2 AMD? Oh by the way my current comp specs for the one I am using right now that i would plan on selling, are 1.5 gig ram, nvidia 7600gt, and a Pentium D 2.66.

 

[Vaanish]

Alright well my budget it pretty weak its only $600. I am a teenager so money isn't something I have a lot of especially since I own and 360 and a wii. But, I use to do a lot more pc gaming and I wanted to get back into, you know crysis, world in conflict, etc. So would that 2.66 intel run faster then the 3.0 or 3.2 AMD? Oh by the way my current comp specs for the one I am using right now that i would plan on selling, are 1.5 gig ram, nvidia 7600gt, and a Pentium D 2.66.

Yes, that intel is faster than the AMD chips you mentioned, and is infinetely faster than your current pentium D. My Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.6 getts a better SuperPi time than a 3.71GHz Pentium D.

The HD 3850 256 would be a good card for you.

 

[BiGyLiLuPdAmIdL]

If you would like to go with AMD, these are 2 great CPU's:

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Black Edition Processor - Retail

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail

and 2 great motherboards to go along with that would be:

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

both of which are sLi, so you could run 2x8800gt's. or just one 8800gt if you want. You said that it's getting out of your budget, but its only like $10 more than some of the 3850's, and it's better:

Newegg.com - XFX PVT88PUDF4 GeForce 8800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

 

[Sora]

600 bucks huh.....

so tell me exactly everything you need and i will refine it to the best of my abilities.

If you require a certain HDD size tell me...or have preferences to a certain case tell me.

Also will you be overclocking? If you even a 150 CPU is too expensive for a gaming build on a budget like that. You could easily pick up an e2180, AF7, some cheaper ram and hit 3.4 or something with not too much trouble for cheap...which would leave you with plenty of room to get a nice HD3870 or the 8800GT 256. There are many options so just people tell me everything you can and I will help you pick out the sickest build possible for 600 bucks.

 

[maroon1]

Motherboard: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P31-S3G LGA 775 Intel P31 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Video card: Newegg.com - XFX PVT88PUDF4 GeForce 8800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail