Building a Gaming PC for GF

[Nazgulian]

My girlfriend wants to be able to play video games that I play (Cod4, CoD WaW, some rts games etc). She wants to spend the least amount of money possible. And she wants to use as much of her old PC as possible. Is their a program I can use to get this info from her computer and post it quickly?

1000 Dollars I would say is the budget.

She doesn't need an OS, Monitor, Speakers. Just things for the case.

Thanks

 

[carnageX]

Belarc Advisor is one way to get a complete diagnostic. Or if its prebuilt (HP, Dell, etc), just give us the model # of it.

 

[Nazgulian]

Its a gateway GT5692

 

[baron5]

well its got 4gb ram and a old phenom 8450. Which are worse or as good as a low end conroe c2d or a 4600 x2 or sumthin. So they are not the best. Since your budget is 1K you might as well build a whole new pc, otherwise the only upgrade i would make would be a new moderate graphics card to keep the gateway going a bit, you should be able to get som decent frames on cod4 etc on medium/low settings with say a 4770. I would really reframe from spending too much on the computer, as it would seem to be a waste.

I also checked the specs and seems it has a 300w psu with would be pretty dodgey, so upgrading to a new phenom II would be out of the question along with a new graphics card. I would just keep the optical drive, hdd, and possibly case, then upgrade the rest of the parts.

you would be looking at a
biostar 790gx 128mb + phenom II 720
4GB gskill PI black ram
corsair 550vx psu
4870 1gb grpahics card

that would keep you way under budget, or alternativley you could make a while new rig for under 1K Tell us what you wan to do and i can make a new rig based on your selection.

 

[kobe24]

if she wants to spend as little as possible to save money then baron5's buils is perfect. that will run games fairly well for little money.

 

[Gothch1ck]

Better be glad I am not your G/f because I would be insulted by that computer.


Honestly i7's are dropping in price and the newest GPU's have fallen as well, you can set up a decent i7 system for fairly cheap now.



As for your budget - is that YOUR money going to her to make her happy or is that HER money to make her happy? Might wanna pitch in a few if it's the latter - this way your not just the sweet b/f that builds her rig- but the awesome b/f that helped pay for it as a gift showing you care. Yes, we do think about that little stuff while we Frag n00bs, little thoughts of "Yay my b/f helped me get this PC and now I fragged your arse like it was nothing!"


In the end (including a $150 case and a $250 GPU not in my sig) my system cost me 1,600 - but I had to buy all new everything - as well as monitor - and that's not including Win7 when it hits and mine becomes invalid. I doubt she'll need a 1TB harddrive (heck, even I don't now that I have one) So you could get a 500GB instead - this will still be PLENTY of room for games and even pictures and music. If she is a total music fan - you could always buy an external or something to help her hold all her songs- or convert a Harddrive from a laptop or older system into a USB external, that's what I ended up doing.

Point being - case + gpu + monitor = 600 easy = and I paid about 1,600 SO 1600 - 600 = 1000 which is right around your budget. If you need a new case obviously it's going to cost a little more.

My case will be the HAF 932 (about 150 + shipping now)
my gpu will be the HD 4890 (about 250 - mail in rebate)
my monitor is a 21.5 1080P LCD (was about 220 when Purchased, I believe its 180 now)

 

[baron5]

You will easily max out his budget going for the i7, it might be a better option to just go for a phenom II system with all nice components and keep it a lot cheaper, which is all they really need, a decent phenom II will max out all the games you want to play.

 

[Nazgulian]

It will mostly be her budget, but i said that I would get some of the things for her. She doesn't need a monitor since its a decent 19'' wide screen. If you don't mind making a completely new build from scratch just to see the comparisons that would be nice. And thanks gothchick. I have some new ideas. Thank you.

IMO her case is kinda of small for reusing. I might purchase her the case so that wouldnt be included in the 1k budget.

 

[hikaricloud]

Even if the case was included in the 1k budget, you can get a kickin' Phenom II machine.

Heck, we could probably even throw in a much better monitor with that budget.

Now I'm curious, so I'm going to hit newegg, lol.

 

[Nazgulian]

oh really? Well the more the merrier than.