Help me build a new one

[RadRacer]

Sup guys? Been a member of here for sometime, but kinda disappeared for a few weeks (or maybe years). Anyways, I'm kinda back! Well, my bro's wanting a new pc for gaming. It's nothing big, he does mostly RPGs, such as CoH/CoV, WoW, WarCraft3:RoC, etc. I might put a few MoH games on it or something, but not anything very demanding. Current rig is in my sig (lol, that rhymes), and it'll support the games, but on pretty low detail. Here's what I had picked out:

PowMax mATX case
BioStar mATX MoBo
Athena 400W mATX PS
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane (2.1GHz)
2x1GB Kingston DDR2 800 RAM
WD Caviar 2MB Cache, 80GB, 7200RPM HDD
MSI's GeForce 8400GS w/256MB On Board
Lite-On CD burner
Acer 17" LCD Monitor
Microsoft Keyboard and Optical Mouse

What do you guys think? Like I said, it's just for pretty basic gaming that my current set-up can't handle graphically. Trying to keep it under $500 , this all comes to $491.97

 

[darksideleader]

a bigger moniter wouldn't hurt
Newegg.com - SCEPTRE X20WG-1080P Black 20.1" 5ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers - Retail
Cheaper yet better performing ram:
Newegg.com - OCZ ATI CrossFire 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
A more sturdy motherboard is recommended:
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA69VM-S2 AM2 AMD 690V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
And to do any decent gaming, you should get a better videocard...
Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N445-LX GeForce 7300GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Cheapest card that i reccomend

Might be off budget a little, but goes a long way.

If you could spare a few more bucks, i would get this:
Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H260PRFS512DDN-R Radeon HD 2600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
slighty faster and DX10 and HTPC capablies included, might be able to find use for em.

 

[infint3]

This seems like a good machine, I agree with the dude above me though you should go for a bigger monitor though

 

[Redmo0n]

2 suggestions

Don't get the case and use the one you have at the moment because

A. It is really small and if you read the comments most people are pushed for space even with the stock PSU (the one you are getting is bigish)

B. You can save some $

Also why not use your old Hard drive, you have to reformat when installing a new motherboard anyway. So unless you are planing to use one to backup the information on the other and then use both for the extra storage, you can just reformat (maybe borrow a friends Hard drive space for backing up games) and you will probably remove a few gigs of stuff that you didn't need.

 

[RadRacer]

2 suggestions

Don't get the case and use the one you have at the moment because

A. It is really small and if you read the comments most people are pushed for space even with the stock PSU (the one you are getting is bigish)

B. You can save some $

Also why not use your old Hard drive, you have to reformat when installing a new motherboard anyway. So unless you are planing to use one to backup the information on the other and then use both for the extra storage, you can just reformat (maybe borrow a friends Hard drive space for backing up games) and you will probably remove a few gigs of stuff that you didn't need.

Building a whole new, separate pc. Nothing from my current PC is going into this PC. I plan on keeping both operational and completely separate I'll check into another case. If things go as planned, then my bro will be more interested in his new PC, and I can do a big overhaul to the one in my sig without worrying about him.

 

[Trotter]

I don't see an OS in the list. If he is mainly into RPG's, he probably won't need DX10 (very few do). That being the case, he can go with XP and a past-gen GFX card. The 8400 is pretty week, and the 2600 is iffy.

A 7600 or a X19xx would be plenty to run his stuff and look great in the process.

 

[Redmo0n]

x1950gt all the way!

 

[RadRacer]

I have a copy of XP Home to put on it.

 

[Trotter]

In that case, he doesn't need a new gen DX10 card.

 

[maroon1]

You can get 8500GT instead of 8400GS for a little more
Newegg.com - Leadtek PX8500GT 256MB GeForce 8500GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail