$160 + PII = Uber budget gaming comp?

[Mk97]

Right, so my friend has never had a computer that plays any games, let alone barely go on the internet. So I gave him my old PII and figured for $160 he could get a Sempron64 2500+ ($60) a Biostar G6100 s754 mobo ($60) and 512mb ram ($35) Nabbed another 256 from a friend to cover the onboard vid's memory requirements.

Then I'm going to shove it into the old PII case, it's got an ok CD Burner and a 6gb HD (lol) I'm gonna give him an old 20gig to help out a bit. I'm also buying him a $40 thermaltake psu ($30 on sale)

So it meets Quake IV and FEAR's minimum requirements, and he'll make some minor upgrades, like a 6600GT and another HD and more ram, plus I'll buy a nicer case in a while. Do you guys think it's a good deal? I mean I'll prob overclock the processor after a little while, and he really doesn't use it for anything but internet and play HL2/far cry/doom3/QuakeIV/ and maybe try oblivion and a few others. And, he doesn't care if the GFX settings suck, he just want's to play. So how bout it? I'll be paying half and I convinced him to pay the rest, telling him I'm pretty **** sure it'll work out fine.

Opnions?

I'm thinking of trying to convince him to shell out $10 more for a 2800 sempron... would I see any major performance boosts? Or would it just be a small help for future OCing?
I just checked and it'll be $14 more for a Sempron 2800... sad, but 14 that would be hard to come up w/ so would it be a big boost? One to help w/ games?

 

[Shannon]

So basically all you're using from the old PII is the case and the CD burner?

 

[Mk97]

Pretty much, I started out trying to OC it and upgrade GFX, then tried pricing a Socket A system and it was the same price for a much newer and better s754 sempron w/ the new G6100 mobos... so I guess it's not really combining much of the PII... Was gonna use the psu, but figured I'd play it safe(r) and get a new one.

Pretty much my main question now is if the sempron2800 is a vast improvement over the 2500.. how much more performance will i get and will it last longer when overclocked?

Wayyy to much to read for that simple question, but it's 5AM so gimme a break

Will be ordering at 7 or 8 in the morning so soone the help the better

 

[Shannon]

Okay, so is $160 your total budget?
and the parts you have are a PII with an okay CD burner and a 256 stick of RAM?

what's the wattage on the PSU you're looking at? you might be able to find a case with decent PSU for about the same. There are several cases listed at newegg with 450w power supplies for $30. here's an example; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811162018

edit: it looks like the difference between the 2500 and the 2800 is only 200 mhz. Same cache and stuff.

 

[Mk97]

Gah, I'm bad at explaining...
Here's the stuff I'm looking at from newegg, I'm buying it from somewhere else tho.
Mobo (biostar G6100) There's also an ASUS version, but I'm not an ASUS fan and I've heard great things about the G6100 Biostar boards.

Sempron 2500

Sempron 2800

Then he'll be buying ~$35 ram probably corsair value, it's 512mb
On top of that I have a 256mb stick laying around my house I can give him, so it's 768mb total (tho the onboard GFX will require 128mb of that)

I'm buying a cheap psu for him to use, I will be buying this from newegg

PSU
Thanks for the help, I'd love to get the most out of what we'll be paying so id really love to know if it's worth it.

Edit, ya I'm wondering if that 200mhz will do a major difference, or if it will allow for a better OC...

 

[Shannon]

what's the case you're anticipating putting this? if it's say, an old dell box or something it'd definitely be a better value to find a case with a decent decent psu.

I did a search on newegg for cases with a 450w psu under $40 and I got like two pages of them.

I'd say if money's that tight, go with the 2500 as it doesn't seem to be that big of a difference.

You know that's a micro-atx board, right? it looks fine though.

 

[HAVOC]

You'll be extremely lucky if that machine even loads a game like you listed. I predict lot's of crashing, freezing and BSOD's.

I've seen PC's that had twice those specs. and couldn't load DOOM 3.

Good luck... It ain't going to happen.

 

[003]

You're not going to run jack with a P2, let alone FEAR and Quake 4. LMAO, FEAR has trouble running smoothly on my old 6800GT w/ opty 165 OC'd to 2.6GHz (dead now). MABEY you could get Quake 3 to run if you're lucky.

 

[PP Mguire]

Did you guys not read his post or what? Hes trying to run it on a 2800 Sempron S754...768meg of ram and a 6600GT whould run it fine no problem. My sister can run BF2 w/ a gig of ram, 2500+ AthlonXP and a Radeon9000. If its done right you could do it. If you live anywhere near a FRYs electronics they got a good holiday deal for a 3500+ and ecs mobo combo s754 (i blieve) for 199. Thats a **** good deal. BTW why are you paying half when its his system?

 

[septoid2]

Nononono. dont get a sempron 2500+. www.tigerdirect.com has lots of deals with Athlon XP 3000+'s and cheap motherboards. I built a friends computer with one of those deals, and he plays Counter strike source no problem with a 9600XT.


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1225673&CatId=0

theres on deal.