buying a basic computer need help!

[zakuprime]

ok i have a very small budget, around $500. I want to buy a new computer thats basic enough to run sims 3, warhammer, wow, and etc smoothly at low settings, meaning no lag. What kind of specs am i aiming for with this much money?

 

[darsunt]

I just completed a build for @ $600. It was designed to be my working computer, very reliable, but no video card at all, all sound and video on board the mobo.
I do not know what level warhammer or the other games you mentioned are, but I would guess $500 is not good for a serious gaming machine.

 

[Luke]

Newegg.com - ASRock A780GMH/128M AM2+/AM3 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards 71.99
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Processors - Desktops 189
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives 59.99
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies 59.99 aft MIR 74.99 before
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPI-B - Desktop Memory 64.99 (you can probably find a better deal on ram if you look around)

460.96 before tax, shipping, and MIR. You need to throw a case in there also (case is personal preference mainly) Any old optical drive will do as well.

To cut down on the cost if needed, you can get a lower end cpu. You could bring it down a lot if you go with this cpu instead:

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor - Processors - Desktops


do you need a monitor, os, keyboard, ect?

 

[darsunt]

Maybe I stand corrected.

But no video card?

 

[Hefemeister]

The 780 chipsets have nice onboard video if you are on a budget and you can upgrade to a pci-gpu later.

i would look at this cpu for $139
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Processors - Desktops
this motherboard for $110 with a $10 mir
Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
this ram for $60
Newegg.com - G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBPI-B - Desktop Memory