Budget Gaming

[Phlegm]

I've been browsing around trying to find a mid-price gaming computer, figured this would be the place to ask. This is what I'm looking at so far:

Motherboard:
Asus P5N32E-SLI Plus Review - Page 1 - Introduction

Processor:
INTEL BX80552641 - Pentium 4 641 3.20GHz Processor - 3.20GHz - 800MHz FSB - 2MB L2 - LGA775 Socket -

HDD:
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

RAM:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Seeing as I'm extremely new to the computer building world, I'm assuming I've left some parts out. The total here comes to about $500 bucks, which is in my price range. I have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse already, so I just need the machinery and I'm good to go. Any suggestions are much appreciated, as well as a little bashing here and there.

 

[b1gapl]

I will suggest this list:
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Newegg.com - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Newegg.com - FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX400-PN, RoHS, 12cm FAN, version 2.2, 2 SATA, 20+ 4 pin, PCI Express, 400W Power Supply - Retail
Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - Pioneer Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 10X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM 2MB Cache E-IDE/ ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Comes to $634.43....I realize this is a little out of your price range, so I made another system, based around AM2:
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...shListNumber=6603647&WishListTitle=Budget+AM2
This one comes to a total of $560.93

 

[Phlegm]

I currently have the option of buying an HP Pavilion 524c for extremely cheap, possibly 100-200 dollars, so would it be worth it to buy for parts? The motherboard still uses A-Sockets and most of the other aspects of it are sub-par, but I was thinking more for the floppy drives and such.

 

[lastshot]

Floppy drives aren't expesive, Period. You could spend 6$ to get a new one, Dvd/cd Drives aren't that expensive either, if thats what your wonderin?

 

[darksideleader]

Socket A Mobo, outdated and useless now, even a 30$ sempron CPU computer could out perform it. Thats how good technology has gotten...

 

[nerdygeek]

Use the amd build that b1pal made and if you want to save a few more bucks you can go with the biostar 550. after rebates you shoul dbe at like 526

 

[Phlegm]

How upgradeable are those two different options? I would like to be able to simply replace each part as it becomes obsolete, as opposed to ditching the whole system due to compatibility issues.

 

[Cheetaz]

Don't get Intel, get AMD socket AM2 and you'll be able to get the new giants that AMD will release, Kuma and Agena, where both will blow Core 2 Duo to some place in space. But that don't be for another few months. <.<

 

[b1gapl]

True....and the AM2 list is cheaper, and closer to your price range.

 

[lastshot]

socket Am2 has a future and isn't going anywhere soon, so yeah you would be able to just add more ram, or switch video cards in the future.