New budget gaming rig

[mrmann14]

Motherboard = $119.95
Asus P5K SE - Intel P35 (Core 2 Duo/Quad) PCI-E Socket 775 Motherboard

CPU = $195.95
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 ( 2.33 GHz) Dual-Core Socket 775 Processor

Memory = $124.95 - $30.00MIR --> $94.95
OCZ Platinum XTC OCZ2P8002GK 2.0GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Kit

Hard Drive = $79.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB - SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive

Video Card = $129.95
eVGA e-GeForce 8600 GT 256MB PCI-Express

Case = $119.95
Antec Sonata III 500 (Piano Black) Quiet Super Mini Tower w/Front USB, Audio, eSATAl

Total = $740.00 before taxes.

This is my hopeful budget gaming rig. Budget is about $700-$800CAD.

Any components that should be updated? Is 500W enough for the system?

Thanks for your input!

 

[jkresh]

the 8600 is not a particularly good gaming card, if you can try to fit the new 8800gt (should be able to find one around $200 fairly soon) into your budget (the difference is dramatic).

 

[MarcVenice]

You should be able to get some cheaper ram, and perhaps a better deal at the antec sonata III. Try ncix.com for example. Then do as jkresh suggested. For a gaming rig, you WANT a 8800gt, 8600gt sucks badly, and so does the 8600gts.

 

[mrmann14]

The best I could find here for about $250 for a GT/ GTS, which is too rich for this build. I've still got to throw an O/S and monitor on top of this price... Anywhere I could reduce price without really losing performance? i.e. AMD build, etc?

 

[mrmann14]

What about something like this for the RAM
http://www.anitec.ca/product/7...l_ops_edition/#reviews

cheesy looks for sure, but can't really beat the price. Anitec is cheaper than NCIX for pretty much everything, except video cards...

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: mrmann14
CPU = $195.95
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 ( 2.33 GHz) Dual-Core Socket 775 Processor

For an extra $100, you could get a processor that is literally twice as fast (when multitasking)
Core 2 Quad Q6600

Your second link for ram looks good.


If you don't have an extra $100 to get the quad, seriously just wait. Would you die if you had to wait an extra month to get something that much faster?