look at this thread. http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=43755&start=0

and build on that, it will be a cheap and powerful computer

Better than mine. If I erased some music I could play Halo 1 at full settings with no slowdown (my PC can run it but it's slow as hell) maybe. Then again, my graphics card is integrated so it wasn't made for games. You should be fine with those games at medium settings, possibly full.

Everything looks good but check this deal out dude.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129045

Antec Case + Higher quality PSU + Free Shipping = $99
Combo deal with 3.16Ghz Core 2 Duo $235

Vs

$86 Shipped for your Case choice and $70 for your CPU for a total of $156

So for another $15 you get a better quality PSU (Stability/longevity/Quietness) and if you want to spend a further $64 much much much faster CPU, which can overclock extremely well also.

soo if I were to get that combo deal get the 3.16GHZ CPU and opt out the 9600 GT, and just use our spare XFX 8600 GT. How well would Crysis, DMC4, bioshock ect run?

Don't get an 8600...they're relatively old...stick with something as good as an 8800 or above. Crysis would probably run around medium-high on an 8600 with decent framerates...no AA or anything though.

You can get 8800s for good prices now...I would actually recommend a Radeon 4850...they're a little better and you can find them for $150.

Not buying, using a spare one. What I meant was is it better to use the CPU that Squilliam posted and use our old 8600 or stick with the pentium and buy a 9600gt.

*Arrives late. Sees PandaexpressPandas mangled corpse*

I think I'll leave now.

also get 4 gigs of ram, you won't regret it in the end.

also? I'm have a budget mindset people!

Ok, your not too far away from my computer (I don't have a dual core, and my motherboard isn't quite as nice, but I have more RAM and a better video card, so in the end it probably evens out quite nicely) and it just so happens I have played most of those games, so I will help ya out!


* Devil May Cry 4 - I can play it with the max settings with a rock steady 50-60 fps, this title was optimized perfectly for PC, don't worry about it

* Lost Planet - It'll run, you will probably want to keep things at about medium to high, but it will run. Like a lot of console games ported to PC it is a memory hog, or at least that is what I remember.

* Assassin's Creed- Never played it, I don't have a dual core...

* Gears of War - See Lost Planet

* Crysis - Never tried with mine, but from what I have heard, it is fairly scalable, so you should be able to go with medium settings with no problem

* Call of Duty 4 - This will run nicely

* The Orange Box - I have a theory that you can actually install the Orange Box on a toaster and it will run fine. The Source engine let's you scale things back to amazing levels, not that you will need to. You will be fine

* Bioshock- I run it on high with no slowdown, no reason that computer shouldn't be able to do the same.