building a new gaming comp, first build, on budget

[tylerdrude]

on a budget of like 650MAX w shipping

Objectives
Decent gaming speed, planing on playing Diablo2, WOW, Halflife2 and guild wars
Web surfing cabability(decent)
Aim chatting


Now if i can spend less money id love that, see anything that could take a dip aroo without causing me to much speed ect?

Should i change anything?


cost is like 635Bux

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813180061

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811156140

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827101131

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144122

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820223009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16837102151

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103486

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814131288

and do i need anything else?

planning on uping to a gig or memory when i get more cash (another 512 or selling the 512 and getting one 1gig card)

 

[Mr. Switch]

my first gaming build was on a strict budget just like yours. ~$400 and i did pretty good. I set up a computer good enough to run UT2003 maxed. HOWEVER, the trick is to use as much of your current gear as possible. use the same case (if it fits), use the same monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Use the same hard disk and CD-ROM you have now, and buy one of the retail AMD Athlon 64 processors (meke sure that the processor fits in the mobo. if it doesn't, your screwed). After you have the guts of the computer all set up and working, THEN buy the fancy case and peripherals.

if you do that, your computer may not look good, but it will be much faster than if you didn't skip on the pretty gear.

Best of luck!

BTW: the reason i said get a retail A64 CPU is because the chip/heatsink combo is often cheaper than seprate units. And also use your current OS if its windows 2000 or XP. that alone will save you at least $100

 

[tylerdrude]

my comp bit the dust it was running 95 and i think ill use the case, power source and cd rom, (not much else on there is worth anything)

 

[Mr. Switch]

if you use your current hard drive or current case (or both) you will be able to buy a GeForce 6600GT which will give you at least double the framerates than that 9600XT.

 

[Mr. Switch]

don't use the PSU, if your using Win95, than its definatly underpowered. probably 100-200w. go for at least a 400W Power supply.

 

[tylerdrude]

eh, looks like ill be buying a new case, it was running a p2

and should i go with 939 or 754 socket

 

[Mr. Switch]

look at what motherboard you got. its a Socket 754. if you do got S754, get a A64 3200 Clawhammer w/ 1MB of cache. but i suggest going 939 because it will be better in the long run. so find a socket 939 motherboard and a S939 processor.

 

[tylerdrude]

or if someone wants to pick the parts out that would work best, i want
80gig
512-1gig ram
and a gfx like the one listed or better
would a 2800amd make a big difference aposed to a 3000?

 

[tylerdrude]

ill redo it all tomorrow, or if someone wants to do it, do it and post

its setup for a 754 socket right now

 

[Mr. Switch]

i don't have the time to find parts for you. thats part of the experience anyways. and the difference between a 2800 and 3000 is minimal if the cache is the same.