Rebuilding an old gaming rig

[Trotter]

My wife's nephew's computer decided to go belly up (seems to be the mobo). It is a socket 754 rig that I pieced together for him and his dad a while back. So, now his dad wants me to rebuild it for as cheap as I can.

I will be reusing the case (old Compaq mATX case) and power supply. I have a SATA DVD drive I am going to use for it, as well as one or two of the hard drives I was given at work. I will also be putting an 80mm fan in the case for extra ventilation.

This is what I am looking at dropping into it:

Newegg.com - AMD A6-3670K Unlocked Llano 2.7GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6530D AD3670WNGXBOX
$15 off w/ promo code EMCNDJH45, ends 6/18

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR A55MLV FM1 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
10% OFF Select AMD Chipset Motherboards - promo code BTENDJJ32

Newegg.com - G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS
10% OFF All Desktop Memory - promo code BTENDJJ33

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card ( 100326DDR3L )
$15 MIR card

The mobo, CPU, and RAM all have promo codes that are only good for another cay or two, saving me $22.80. The 6670 will run in dual graphics mode with the A6-3670, plus it comes with Dirt 3.

My current total comes to $266.43 w/shipping and tax (NewEgg has a warehouse in my state). My budget is $280.00 max. If you see any way to improve on this and stay within the budget chime in, but be quick about it... I will be ordering around midday (noon Eastern) tomorrow.

 

[Joe C]

instead of getting 2x2gb memory, get just one stick of a 4gb and then later when the budget allows you can pop another 4gb in later if you need too

 

[luke127]

Well this all sounds pretty good. Although if your playing games what kind of games? BF3 or COD3?? Maybe Skyrim?? Because your going to need more RAM if your looking to play larger games. However the rest looks good.

 

[Trotter]

instead of getting 2x2gb memory, get just one stick of a 4gb and then later when the budget allows you can pop another 4gb in later if you need too

Good call.

Well this all sounds pretty good. Although if your playing games what kind of games? BF3 or COD3?? Maybe Skyrim?? Because your going to need more RAM if your looking to play larger games. However the rest looks good.

He plays older titles but mainly because his computer was really old. He may play newer titles now but he won't be playing anything that is online as they have satellite internet.

I also dropped the card to a different Sapphire 6670 that was $10 cheaper and was able to go with a cheap set of G.Skill 2x4GB 1333.

I will check back before I order to see if anyone else comes up with anything but I am about as low as I think I can get.

 

[PP Mguire]

I must say, that 4GB is absolutely perfect for gaming any game today. In another thread under the gaming subforum I proved how todays top games maxed out will not fill up 4GB of RAM. I say if you haven't ordered anything go with the other suggestion. 4GB 1600 stick and add another later.

 

[Trotter]

I ended up going with 2x4GB 1333. I am currently assembling the computer.