$600 budget to build a desk top

[ET/IT]

I've got a keyboard and mouse already, and I've already got a monitor.

I just need:

Tower
Video Card
Mother Board
Sound Card
Power Supply (may already have one, but would like suggestions anyway)
Ram
Hard Drive
USB

Personally, I was looking at just getting something like this: HP - Pavilion Slimline Desktop / AMD Athlonâ„¢ II Processor / 3GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - s5704y

BUT, switch out the Graphics card for something better, BUT, I don't quite know for what exactly. For my current budget constraints (for now, later on it'll expand, but I need to know WHAT to save money for, ya know?) I feel doing something like the above would be better suited, although I'd like something more powerful later on eventually.

My end-goal is to be able to run the next generation of video games. Especially to be able to play Shogun 2 total war, and Empire Total War on their maxed settings. And to be able to run bad company 2 or black ops on their maxed settings as well. Or at least the medium settings.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[-Tenk-]

You know what plays next gen games really well? A computer from the next next gen

That computer, its only expandable to 8GB. Not sure how RAM effects those games...

Also, the processor is only a dual core... Again, not sure how that effects your fps on those games. Not even sure if they are optimized to quad core, but surely there will be games coming out where a quad core is a bear minimum...

Maybe saving up another couple of hundred dollars will get you something better that is more upgradeable.

 

[ET/IT]

But would it be possible to upgrade what is there? Even changing the mother board down the road, or a video card here and there, and a processor etc?

Just majority of pre-built towers seem to have the video cards "Integrated" like a Laptop, in those cases, later down the road could I get a new video card and hook it up, etc.?

At the current moment in time, $600 is the max I can afford. And my laptop as it is is dying, and really has no stability. Only logical choice now is to go for a new desktop. And quite frankly for now $600 is my only budget, but over-time I can put in another $200 here and there (or stock it up to get that next "Upgrade")

 

[ET/IT]

Or perhaps something like this to build onto and expand?

HP - Pavilion Desktop / AMD Athlonâ„¢ II Processor / 4GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - p6754y

 

[Mr.Roar]

May I suggest CybertronPC XPV2P9500BS AMD Barebones - AMD Phenom 9650 2.30 GHz, 2GB PC6400 (800MHz) DDR2, 250GB SATA2, 22X DVDRW, Gigabit LAN, Black X-Plorer, NO OS, NO Video at TigerDirect.com but it has no video card so, to market your price range, I would bundle that with Newegg.com - MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card Hope this helped!
-Roar-

 

[-Tenk-]

But would it be possible to upgrade what is there? Even changing the mother board down the road, or a video card here and there, and a processor etc?

So you'd spend another $600 on a mediocre machine to keep it mediocre? Sure you can upgrade it, but theres a point at which an upgrade becomes a rebuild... And pointlessly expensive because you could have spent the money on getting something better. At some point, you won't be able to upgrade your machine enough because tech will have moved so far ahead that its just not capable of handling anything more in terms of "upgrades".

Just majority of pre-built towers seem to have the video cards "Integrated" like a Laptop, in those cases, later down the road could I get a new video card and hook it up, etc.?

**** yeah you could. Just so long as the PSU can handle the extra requirements.

At the current moment in time, $600 is the max I can afford. And my laptop as it is is dying, and really has no stability. Only logical choice now is to go for a new desktop. And quite frankly for now $600 is my only budget, but over-time I can put in another $200 here and there (or stock it up to get that next "Upgrade")

That one you posted is pretty good, on the surface. I don't have time to dig into what might be bad about it. Maybe have a look-see at what Mr. Roar has posted.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

ill give it a shot, and youre always going to be able to buy more for you money when you pay yourself, and when you buy quality parts.

Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X 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 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDX840WFGMBOX

Newegg.com - CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMV4GX3M2A1333C9

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - ASUS XONAR_DG 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Xonar DG Sound Card

Newegg.com - MSI N460GTX Twin Frozr II SOC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - Antec One Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

640 w/ sound card

608 without

with shipping

do you need an os?