need help building cheap computer.

[hank123]

Ok I need some ideas on building a cheap computer to play BF2. thats about all I play. I need to know what to stay away from and what to try to find.
I have a hard drive and power along with the case.
I need a good video card, cpu (amd only) ect. I want a mother board with PCI express.

[DemonJester]

Can you give us a ballpark budget figure to work with?

I know you specifically stated AMD only for the cpu (and yes I only run AMD's as well) but you might want to check out NutCrackers post here:

http://www.warishellgaming.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8531

For the money, the cost to performance ratio of that particular cpu in the above post is untouchable.

If you positively want to stay AMD, then you would probably be looking at a Opteron of some sort, it all depends on what you budget is.

[hank123]

ya like I said, low ball. it would be nice to keep it around 300-500 bucks

[DemonJester]

Are you interested in Single Core CPU or Dual Core CPU. I know you said you only play BF2, but down the road that may change and you might be better off possibly going Dual Core now.

You mentioned you already have a power supply, can you give us some more info on what brand / model it is, that would help too :xyxthumbs:

[Smurf]

Hmm, glad you only want AMD, since that is all I'd recommend. So, for 300 to 500 you want a CPU, Mobo, and GPU? Make sure I (and Demon Jester) know what you need.

P.S. With your budget, I'd stay away from the Pentium D 805. It's Netburst, you need to invest in water cooling to make it worth while, expensive mobo/RAM for the OC, etc... If you don't OC, would not bet money on it playing BF2 well.

Specs to play with:
7600 GT
AMD 3200+
ASUS Nforce 4 A8N 5x

[Nutcracker]

AMD 3200+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103483
$140

Motherboard
Biostar N4SLI-A9
Nforce 4, PCI-e, SLI, GB LAN, etc.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138253#DetailSpecs
$82

Memory
1 GB Corsair XMS TWINX1024-3200C2PT
$102 (before $15 mail in rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450

Videocard
eVGA 7600 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283
$184 (before $10 mail in rebate)
(The reason I recommend eVGA is they'll allow you to trade in your video card within 90 days of purchase for credit towards a higher-end model)

Total cost, before rebates (includes shipping): $508. $483 after rebates (but if you're anything like me, you never remember to send those damn things in. I *hate* MIB's).

[hank123]

thanks nut. thats what i'm talking about. as for the Dual Core cpu I dont think I would gain in what i'll be using it for. i'm not doing video editing or anything.

[Ruci]

I could sell you my old one here for 500$ so i can buy a whole new one =).

CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory - Retail x 2
Intel Pentium 4 3.0E Prescott 800MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor Model BX80546PG3000E - Retail
ASUS P4P800SE Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380013AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
Then it also has a standard ATI 9600xt vid card inside.

If you wanted to buy all this crap separately new from newegg. It would be about 50$ more I believe w/o shipping. I gave you all the names of my components off my invoice history so take alook at it. I play bf2 on medium to low visual settings. I Also bought a xi-fi sound card to go with it that improved performance but that was 99$.

I'll wipe the HD for ya before hand & remove the sound card. . Oh btw it does play bf2 i know b/c i've played nearly 500 hours on this damn machine just on bf2.

[Ruci]

Hank?