@SSJ,
Few questions:
1) What parts are you willing to keep and what parts do you want to keep from your current system?
2) What is the purpose for the computer and what is the most intensive application you plan to run in the forseeable future?
3) Is your budget completely rigid or is there a bit of swing to it? Aka +/-30 or so. It makes a difference some times.
4) How important is a fancy case? Is generic fine?
5) How much Hard Drive space do you need?
6) What kind of speakers do you have and how many PCI slots will you need for existing cards? Can some of those cards be gotten rid of through current onboard features like NIC, Sound, etc... Some folks really hate onboard sound, some could care less.
7) And finally do you need the cost of a new Windows licence to be included?
Without the answers to those questions I would suggest the following....with the answers fine tuning can be done accordingly. Just for the record I pretty much have 1 brand loyalty in computers and its to Seagate for their amazing drives, awesome customer service, fantastic warranty, and in general a very reliable product. Everything else I try to use a bang for buck mentality.
$120 - AMD X2 5200+ - I like this model because it is the first that upgrades to the 1MB L2 cache per core in this line.
$50 (-$10 MIR) - Generic Motherboard - My title here says it all, you want a budget PC so a solid motherboard without lots frills is what you have to expect.
$85 (-$30 MIR) - 2GB DDR2 800 Corsair - You can go with just about any brand so long as you make sure to get lifetime warranty.
$80 - 320GB Hard Drive - Seagate SATA drive, pretty basic, but still very good
$40 - Case & PSU - I am picky about PSUs, but in this rig I don't forsee any power issues and this PSU should be able to provide stable clean power, even on the limited rails it has. The case looks pretty good too.
$25 - CD/DVD Burner - I am not picky about optical drives, if you are then I highly suggest getting what makes you happy since this is a pretty low cost area in general and there is no reason to not be happy with it.
$90 (-$15 MIR) - 7600 GT 256MB - Note my favorite card but its solid for a $500 system all things considered.
Pre-Ship Total = $490 (-$55 MIR)
If you do the Mail-in Rebates Pre-Ship total will be lowered to $435.
*NOTE* - This computer is not necessarily my recommendation to you. The answers to the questions I posed above are pretty important to what kind of computer I would suggest. This computer is just what I would suggest to any generic gamer with no other information to go on other than a $500 budget.
Personally I am not very satisfied with the video card for a *dedicated* gaming machine, and depending on the gamer I would actually advise purchasing a motherboard with onboard video and saving up to get a nicer card if the reason for the rig was just to game. Some times its worth a month or two of saving to get a nice video card...even if it is tough to do.
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| To Each Man, Responsibility |
