cheap gaming comp for a friend?

[notquitedead]

Hi,
My friend was going to get a prebuilt comp (I don't know what's in it- he was going to get the same thing that a friend of ours got so I'm going to look at his tomorrow), but I think he could get a better one for around the same price if he built it himself.

The prebuilt he was going to get is like $350-400 and I guess the video card is intregrated into the motherboard... the person who has it says he can play hl2 on it but I don't think that it'd be a good choice for future games. I don't know how much he can afford right now, but as far under $500 as he could go would be good.

I was thinking that he should get an Athlon 64 3000+, geforce 6600GT, and 512mb of cheap pc3200 ram (later on he could get another one for dual channel).

I don't know what motherboard (I think newegg had a $69 asus.. but I don't know if it's any good), case, power supply, etc. he should get. He doesn't need a mouse, keyboard, monitor, or speakers.

Can anyone help me recommend some good parts?

Edit: I just realized I put this in high performance pc's... I clicked it out of habit.

 

[Sh0r_ty]

will he overclock?

 

[Ridlyn]

Here's one.
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811145047

HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822135106

Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130491

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130214

Optical Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827101134

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145440

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103535

Total:$570.99

A little overbudget but not alot and this is a very good cheap gaming pc.

 

[Sh0r_ty]

yea i second that build except for mabe te case and btw the hard drive link is to the case

for the harddrive i would get a 80gig WD sata

 

[Ridlyn]

I fixed the link

 

[notquitedead]

Thanks. I doubt he will overclock. I couldn't download the free version of everest today so I couldn't see what is in that prebuilt computer...

 

[notquitedead]

Okay I still had the everest installer so I sent it to him and he sent me back the report. I'll post the important info below, should he just upgrade his video card (sticking with agp 4x) or should he built a really cheap new computer? He plays halo, gunz, counterstrike, and some other stuff but he wants to play hl2, counterstrike: source, etc.

[ BIOS ]

BIOS Properties:
Vendor Compaq
Version 686J2 v1.14
Release Date 07/20/2000
Size 512 KB
Boot Devices Floppy Disk, Hard Disk, CD-ROM, LS-120
Capabilities Flash BIOS, Shadow BIOS, Selectable Boot, EDD, BBS
Supported Standards DMI, APM, ACPI, ESCD, PnP
Expansion Capabilities ISA, PCI, AGP, USB

[ CPU ]

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium IIIE, 667 MHz (5 x 133)
CPU Alias Coppermine, CuMine, A80526
CPU Stepping cB0
Instruction Set x86, MMX, SSE
Original Clock 667 MHz
L1 Code Cache 16 KB
L1 Data Cache 16 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB (On-Die, ATC, Full-Speed)

[ Motherboard ]

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID <DMI>
Motherboard Name Compaq Deskpro EN Series

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel GTL+
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz
Effective Clock 133 MHz
Bandwidth 1067 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type RDRAM
Bus Width 16-bit
Real Clock 356 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 712 MHz
Bandwidth 1424 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel Hub Interface
Bus Width 8-bit
Real Clock 67 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 267 MB/s

[ Memory ]

Physical Memory:
Total 255 MB
Used 158 MB
Free 97 MB
Utilization 62 %

[ RIMM1: 4R128CEE6C-745 ]

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name 4R128CEE6C-745
Serial Number 86010E00h
Manufacture Date Week 30 / 2000
Module Size 128 MB (8 devices, 32 banks)
Module Type RIMM Module
Memory Type RDRAM
Memory Speed PC714 (357 MHz)
Module Width 16 bit
Module Voltage 2.5 V

Memory Module Features:
HeatSpreader Present
Thermal Sensor Not Present

[ RIMM2: Kingston (128 MB PC714 RDRAM) ]

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name Kingston
Serial Number 040C2500h
Manufacture Date Week 41 / 2000
Module Size 128 MB (8 devices, 32 banks)
Module Type RIMM Module
Memory Type RDRAM
Memory Speed PC714 (357 MHz)
Module Width 16 bit
Module Voltage 2.5 V

[ GPU ]

[ Matrox Graphics Millennium G400 AGP ]

Video Adapter Properties:
Device Description Matrox Graphics Millennium G400 AGP
Adapter String Matrox Millennium G400 AGP
BIOS String v1.2.019
Chip Type Matrox G400
DAC Type Integrated, 300 MHz
Serial Number KDI76968P
Installed Drivers G400DHD (6.12.01.1950)
Memory Size 16 MB

 

[thebleakness]

If i was him, i would buy a new computer and then upgrade later. Upgrading that one would be harder and probably more expensive in the long run. If hes got enough, go with Ridlyn comp.

 

[notquitedead]

Just a quick question... I guess his agp slot is 4x, but will an eVGA 6600GT still work with his computer? He might not be able to afford to build a whole computer for a while but he's having trouble playing games. He said that some say "cannot render" and that he doesn't have the capable 3d device.. I'm assuming a new video card would fix that.

edit:
AGP Controller:
AGP Version 2.00
AGP Status Enabled
AGP Device Matrox Millennium G400 AGP
AGP Aperture Size 64 MB
Supported AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP Speed 4x
Fast-Write Supported, Disabled
Side Band Addressing Supported, Enabled