Can you build me a PC?

[Kenny95]

I'm looking to play these games, the smaller areas like Counter-Strike in High Quality and the larger ones like Oblivion and Battlefield 2 at medium. I am mostly interested, however, in smooth consistent frame-rate and no delay.

I hear that I can get one of these for under 500. It has to run these games on Windows Vista with the requirements listed above.

-Source
-Havok
-Unreal
-iD4
-Refractor 2

Looking forward to Portal 2, and maybe Battlefield 3 and the new Elder Scrolls if they're not over my budget.

Please help me out, thanks. I know nothing about selecting parts to build my PC, and would probably have my father's friend do it.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Do you have the Vista OS on hand? Why not move to 7? I realize money is tight, but well worth it. You want a x64 OS, anyhow.


Combo: Motherboard, CPU, 4GB RAM and 1TB HDD -$259.50
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!
Heatsink: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2.0 $29.98
Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler
OS HDD: 500GB WD Use this for your OS, use the 1TB for storage - $59.99
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
PSU : Corsair 550VX Would reccomend 650TX, but you wouldn't need that. $79.99
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922 $59.99
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
DVD Burner: Lite-On Pretty standard $19.99
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Total: $509.44

That's darn close to $500. You could lower that if you want a cheaper case and such.

I think you can live with your onboard Radeon 4200, you can always upgrade later. You have SATA cables? If not, you can get them cheap from Monoprice.com. If you don't have thermal paste either, I prefer MX-2.

 

[patonb]

I would ditch the cooler and get a cheaper psu than the 550vx

I'd get this one: Newegg.com - Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
Then get a real gpu.

But you'll want to add about 50 more dollars to get a real decent gpu.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Ditch the cooler? If he's gaming on the stock AMD heatsink, he's going to have heat problems.

 

[patonb]

But if the game can't be played well on the gpu, 4200 isn't good at all, who cares.

The cpu won't overheat... It won't be great, but stock cooling is fine enough for 85% of users..... Plus its a dual core, not much heat. On a budget build, its a waste.

 

[Kenny95]

I might just wait for a more expensive one, because I already have a 8600GT in my laptop, and it overheats and runs slowly, but I think I'll buy a cooling pad and deal with it until I can buy a good graphics card. Maybe the Radeon HD5000 series or the newer GeForce cards.