Gaming PC help

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Not a good gaming computer for the price. I would advise you don't buy from Ebay, because it is a trap for newbies.

That computer will not play those games at good settings. It has such a weak graphic card, plus, a weak a processor.

Just give us a budget, and we'll come up with something that's ten fold better.

Oh...
Welcome to Tech-Forums!!!
 
Hey thanks for the response. My budget is around $400 but I could do $500 if needed, I don't need a monitor because I plan I using the PC through my HDTV (Does that work well?)

It doesn't have to play the newest games great, I mostly play CS: Source and Europa Universalis 3.

The bad thing is **** Windows XP is so expensive... :laughing:
 
OK cool.

Here's a list of components, I would recommend:



Case - Your choice...
Processor - Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160
Motherboard - Gigabyte P31-S3G
Memory - 2 x 1GB G. Skill DDR2-800
Graphics cards - EVGA 8800GS 384MB
Power supply - FSP Fortron Group 400W
Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB
Optical drive - Samsung 20X SATA DVD Burner
OS - Windows XP Home SP2 OEM

Total is $533.42 without shipping and the case.


What you can do, to save some money, is use your current hard drive and CD/DVD drive. And maybe use your current case.

This list will play all the games you mentioned, at very high settings.
 
hmmm, can't use current case because its not mine, Cases are pretty expensive too, will push my budget up a bit. I can use my current CD drive though which is a plus. Can I use any case? Does the case matter alot? (as far as cooling and such)

oh and isnt 1.8GHz slower then 3.3? sorry I don't know much about this stuff. Should I buy that and overclock it? or is it actually better because its dual?

Oh and I read the reviews of the power supply, it says its not really 400W its 350W should that matter to me?

Sorry keep thinking of more crap, what about an ethernet card and sound card? I just read about Dual Core, so basically I have two 1.8ghz with a dual core?

:edit again:

Answering my own questions and learning more about PC parts, So the ethernet is in the Mobo ok..

Sorry about all of the dumb question but.. on the motherboard site, what does the font typed in red mean?

GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview - GA-P31-DS3L (rev. 1.x)

Also, is it easy to build a computer? It should be a fun experience at least.

I am sorry just trying to be a little informed before buying. :D
 
hmmm, can't use current case because its not mine, Cases are pretty expensive too, will push my budget up a bit. I can use my current CD drive though which is a plus. Can I use any case? Does the case matter alot? (as far as cooling and such)

You can generally pick up a cheap Mid tower for around $50 and under, cooling shouldn't really be a problem unless you live in the dessert.

oh and isn't 1.8GHz slower then 3.3? sorry I don't know much about this stuff. Should I buy that and overclock it? or is it actually better because its dual?

Yes this is slower, but the dual makes it faster because it has 2 cores to run information through. Also you can overclock it to make it x2 as good, maybe to around 2.8ghz.

Oh and I read the reviews of the power supply, it says its not really 400W its 350W should that matter to me?

The actual power isn't really a measurement of a power supply, its the 12v rail, this power supply is cheap and pretty decent, should be fine unless you want to upgrade in the future in which you may need a better one.

Sorry keep thinking of more crap, what about an Ethernet card and sound card? I just read about Dual Core, so basically I have two 1.8ghz with a dual core?

No problem questions are fine. Ethernet should come with your motherboard so it will have a little port which you can stick the cord into on the back of your case. A sound card is not necessary these days unless you have some hard core stereo system, on board sound these days is quit good. And the dual core thing i mentioned above, its kind of like having two cpus at 1.8ghz between them, your computer still runs at 1.8ghz but has two cpus to make calculations. Overclock it and you will be fine.
Sorry about all of the dumb question but.. on the motherboard site, what does the font typed in red mean?

It basically means that if your using a fsb1333 mhz cpu (which you are not) and you are using all the ram slots, the ram can become underclocked causing the computer to crash or be unstable.

Also, is it easy to build a computer? It should be a fun experience at least.

It is easy after a bit of experience, i wouldn't recommend diving in and just trying to build one because you could mess something up. Do you have any friends with computer building experience? Ask one for help or if worse comes to worse you could either get a store to do it for you or get a in depth computer building guide.
 
Actually I do live in the Desert, Phoenix Arizona. ;)

Thats for all the answers, is it hard to overclock aswell? I don't want to mess something up. Also How much better is the 512mb Video card then 256? Is there a huge difference? Because its not that much more money.
 
Not only does dual cores make the processor a little better, but because the E2160 is based off an entirely new architecture, as opposed to the Pentium D. The E2160 at 1.8GHz will wipe the floor with a 3.3GHz Pentium D. Even if it was 4GHz. Intel has made the new architecture more efficient, by doing more per clock.

It isn't that hard to overclock. Just make sure you do some reading on it, before you start.

The reason I suggested that video card, was the price, and 256MB is more than enough, because you're playing games on a very low resolution. So 512MB would kind of be overkill. Plus, that video card is pretty powerful.

On stock speeds, that computer will play all your games at high settings.
 
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