Need Help With Two Builds(500 and 800)

[Kutulu]

A couple years ago I had you guys help me out with my first full blown PC build. Now I am looking to build two more, one for me, and one for my Father in Law.

I have two price ranges, but the PCs are both going to be geared towards the same thing, Gaming.

My Father in Law needs something in the five to six hundred dollar price range, he doesn't need anything too fancy as the games he wants to play are a bit older but he will probably want to be able to move up to some higher spec games eventually. Something real basic and not too flashy(a cheap tower is fine, a gig of RAM, etc.).

I, on the other hand, am looking for something in a eight hundred to a thousand dollar price range(the less the better) as I want to be able to play my current games at higher specs and want to have little trouble with upcoming games.

I already have a Tower for mine, so I want what is going in to be a bit 'showy' which means maybe a PSU with LEDs, I want a cathode, or other things of the like. This is my case so you know what I am building off of:
Ultra Products - Aluminus ATX Full-Tower Case - Black

Thanks for your time, and I hope you guys are as helpful as you have been in the past.

 

[Kutulu]

Oh, I should probably mention from my last build I have become partial to Nvidia, AMD, and OCZ RAM. OCZ I will probably bend on, but I am still weary of Intel CPUs and ATI graphics cards. If someone can give me some viable arguments to why I should switch I will more than take the change.

 

[krazyq]

what do you have currently? like hdd, monitor,mouse ,etc?
im building a 500 budget pc now for my gf so i could tell you what ive been recommended.

 

[Kutulu]

My old computer won't be contributing any parts, as I am giving it to my wife to use, so I need something totally new. The small parts like a keyboard and mouse I don't really need suggestions for, the monitor maybe, but I am sure I will decide what I am getting in that category once I have everything else.

As for the Hard Drives I need probably a sixty or eighty gig for the lower end one and probably a 120 or 150 for myself.

 

[krazyq]

well this is the build i have configured so far for a $500 budget:

Cpu: Newegg.com - Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
mobo- Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P31-S3G LGA 775 Intel P31 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
ram- Newegg.com - A-DATA Extreme Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
psu- Newegg.com - FSP Group SAGA+ 450R ATX12V 450W Power Supply 100 - 240 V NEMKO, TUV, CSA, IEC, UL, CE - Retail
gpu- Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100164L-64 Radeon X1650PRO 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Low Profile Video Card - Retail
case- Newegg.com - XION Onyx XON-301 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Stylish LED Power switch and unique 140mm Green LED Fan - Retail

i already have a hdd, and monitor, i forgot to add a dvd burner.

You could save some money by getting a cheaper case, 400w psu...you could also just go with amd and save more money on the cpu.

 

[Kutulu]

Thanks for the suggestions, it gave me a bit of a starting point to look at, and i've gone in a completely different direction, this is what I have so far.

Higher End:
CPU Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
MOBO Newegg.com - ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
MEM Newegg.com - OCZ Gold 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Lower End:
CPU Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 LE-1620 2.4GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Single-Core Processor - Retail
MOBO Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
MEM Newegg.com - OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Suggestions on this are welcome, and now I need some ideas for video cards. What would be the best brand to go with for Nvidia cards? EVGA, ASUS?

 

[veg1992]

that lower end setup has a mono-core CPU

Video cards to consider: 8800gt, hd3850, hd3870

 

[Kutulu]

Is a single core that bad? My current PC has a single core and it seems like it is doing alright.

 

[veg1992]

wait until you try to multi-task or play a modern game, or try to encode something (I'm barely living through my Pentium 4 system) plus a Single-Core CPU is heavily gonna bottleneck the cards I suggested

 

[krazyq]

Is a single core that bad? My current PC has a single core and it seems like it is doing alright.

my upstairs pc has a single core athlon 3800+ with 1gb ram and it runs fine for what my rents and sister use it for(email,chat,music)

although i wud go with dual core cos its sooo cheap, you can get a dual core for like 60 bucks.