Cheap Custom Gaming PC

[gstpo17]

I have been looking at making a custom PC for gaming, it doesn't need to be super fast, I don't have to play BF3 with the graphics all the way up. I'm on a very tight budget and was wondering if anyone here could assist me with choice of parts. I use newegg.com for choosing the parts (have not purchased them yet because I do not have the money yet). I was hoping to cut the cost by a little, by using an old...medium case, I guess is what it is, to use for the upgrading. I've already cleaned it out of all the older parts and now its just an empty shell. Its a Compaq Presario SR1023WM case, very old I know, but it is the biggest case i have. For the parts I'm looking at getting, I would like to find an AMD equivalent of an Intel i7 processor, only 4gb RAM (any brand as long as it is DDR3), an NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 1gb, I would have to get an HDMI to VGA adapter for my monitors. For motherboards, anything will do as long as it will support what I'm looking at getting. 500 watt powersupply (any brand). I won't need alot of memory but I would like the high write speed so I was looking at getting a 300gb (at the most) HDD 7200rpm. I can salvage a DVD drive from one of my other computers, I think its a 16x. Not sure if I am missing anything needed, if I am please advise me of what I need (yes I know I need an OS, I will probably use linux until I can get a copy of windows 7 ultimate). Any information will help me, I have a very low budget and I'm getting tired of playing games on integrated graphics and trying to record video, it just doesn't work.

 

[gstpo17]

I would like to add that I do not want any ATI video cards, because of compatibility with older games. For example, my current PC has an NVIDIA graphics controller from around..2005. I have CoD1 installed on it and I can run it with all the graphics at max and have no lag at all. While my much newer laptop has an ATI graphics controller from 2010. I installed CoD1 and it but could not play it unless I installed a certain .dll file into the games install path. Even after I did that though, I was getting about...15 fps max with the graphics all the way down.

 

[PP Mguire]

Few problems here.
1. You are limited to Micro-ATX boards with that case. (It should still work)
2. There isn't any i7 equivalent AMD processors. If you are only gaming you would probably be better off getting an i3.
3. My Fiance's 5850 runs any game including old DOSBox games. I think their might be a problem with compatibility on your mobile ATI. Mobile graphics are a different beast compared to desktop, and the drivers are also much different.
4. We need a hard budget and we can get to work recommending things.

 

[gstpo17]

I'm fine with getting any board as long as it is good for gaming ie high right speed, more than 2 usb 2.0 slots. I have a multi card reader left over in the old case. On processors, I want something good because of one of the games that I play. Its different from other games, as you could have the fastest most powerful graphics card on the market right now, but if the processor isn't good, you will lag very badly. I'm not sure what the problem is with the ATI graphics, this is the first ATI graphics I've had in a computer, my other PC which I use for gaming has an NVIDIA controller, and the PC I stripped out had an Intel controller. For budget, it would be a max of $400. To save money I was actually thinking of taking my current PC and putting its motherboard in the project case, I know it will fit as the motherboard is currently in a micro case. Its an emachines EL 1200-06W, AMD Athlon Neo 64 1.6ghz, 1 core, and DDR2 RAM. The NVIDIA controller clocks at about 400mhz, while the ATI only clocks under 200mhz. GPU-Z doesn't give a release date for the NVIDIA controller, but the ATI says is from 2011. (NVIDIA is a GeForce 6150SE nForce 430. ATI is HD 6250.)

 

[gstpo17]

Recently I have been looking at the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics controller. By what I see it is very powerful for its GPU type (being integrated) and is very suitable for my gaming needs graphically. Although I have not found a motherboard that supports an AMD processor (I would prefer an AMD processor to an Intel) and has an HD 4000 in it. If anyone knows of a motherboard that supports AM3 and has Intel HD 4000 Integrated Graphics and 6GB/s SATA III connections (at least 2) please please tell me, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MindoverMaster]

The Intel 4000 is built into the i3/i5/i7 CPU. A AMD CPU will not have this.