BleepingComputer.com: In need of help building system

First off i have some stuff i need including an optical drive a case and a harddrive and screen and operating system. So i need all the other peices and i would like this to be able to play age of conan on recomended settings. I am looking for spend 400 dollars.

What you need will depend on a bit more information about the mother board you have and what it has on-board.

As an opener you will need a sound card, a graphics card and a network connection card, if they are not already built in to the mother board..

I'd suggest you go to the games web site and see what hardware they suggest as a minimum to play the game.

As i said i dont have a motherboard a cpu a graphics card a power supply or any ram. All i do have is a case some fans optical drive a screen an operating system and a harddrive. So i need recomendations upon the things i need and i dont want to spend more than four hundred dollars upon what i need.

Also the minimum i would want is this

Recommended
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (E6600) or better
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 or better
RAM: 2GB or more

Motherboard, CPU,Memory, & Video card for under $400.

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-G41M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128388

CPU
Intel Pentium E6300 Wolfdale 2.8GHz
\
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116091

[NOTE: The Gigabyte site shows the motherboard requires BIOS version F3 to run this CPU.
If it comes with version F1 that could be an issue unless you can get the BIOS updated]

[second choice]
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115206

[NOTE:The Gigabyte site shows the motherboard will run this one with BIOS version F1 ]


Memory
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231098

Video Card
SAPPHIRE 100248L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102794

[I have this video card in this unit & am very happy with it]


With first choice CPU : $234. + shipping

With second choice CPU : $266. + shipping.

I limited the memory to 2GB assuming you will be using a 32 bit version of Windows.

I built a unit for one of my nieces last fall.
It was built specifically to play " age of conan"
Compared to what I listed it was a tad lesser unit & runs the game great [according to her.
My niece has been playing WOW for a long time & knows when a game is working well on her unit]

You didn't mention a power supply , which is VERY important.
With the "left over" $ I would get this,

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817341019

May seem a little "extravagant" but keep in mind EVERYTHING in a computer connects to, & depends on, the power supply one way or another.
Most people will spend big bucks on everything else & cheap out on the PSU.
HUGE mistake !
Things work a lot better & longer if they get proper power .
A good PSU allows for upgrading later also.

This post has been edited by fairjoeblue: 25 July 2009 - 12:23 PM

What would you recomend if i had another extra 150 to spend? and how much of a better perfomance would i get?

You said you have a hard drive & optical drive.

Since I'm offering an opinion based on what I would get if I had a extra buck & a half ,

If you don't have a SATA 2 hard drive I would get,

Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM ,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148261

[Note: If you have a IDE or SATA 1,5 deive going to a SATA 2 3.0 gives a noticble improvement.


I don't know what kind of optical drive you have but I would get,

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner LightScribe Support - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151188


I would take the rest of the $ & upgrade from the HD 3850 video card to the,
SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 ,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102770

All of that & you should be able to play pretty much any game + run about any program .

I agree with what fairjoe said about power supplies, never sacrifice quality on one. Those are good choices for the CPU, RAM, and video card. Here's an alternate CPU, Motherboard, RAM, PSU, graphics card setup.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - This board will take AMD's latest processors. Since AM3 is new, you have the potential to upgrade to newer CPU's at a later date. Socket LGA 775 is being replaced by the i7's socket, the LGA 1366. I suggest using full sized ATX boards as micro ATX motherboards can have cooling issues since the components are closer together. $79

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz - This is AMD's best dual core processor and is based off the new Phenom II design. There are some differences between this processor and the E6300 and the E7400. The 550 runs a little faster and retains the L3 cache that the Phenom II triple and quad core CPU's have. This will increase performance, as seen here. This processor is also Black Edition and has the multiplier unlocked, making overclocking easier. $99

RAM: Crucial 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 - Age of Conan isn't that demanding of game so 2GB of RAM will work. If your budget allows, I do suggest getting 4GB but you don't need to get it ASAP. $28

PSU: OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W - Fairjoe's suggestion of this PSU was solid. It is drastically overpowered for a PC of this scale. However, if you later choose to upgrade or get a very high performance graphics card, you will have more than enough power at your disposal. $79 (Before $20 mail-in rebate)

Graphics Card: SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB - Once again, fairjoe made an excellent suggestion here. However, some games are taking advantage of cards with more than 512MB of VRAM. If you want one of the 1GB cards, the HIS H485FN1GP Radeon HD 4850 1GB is a good choice with a $10 rebate. $99

Total: $388 (Before mail-in rebates)

This post has been edited by DJBPace07: 26 July 2009 - 12:57 AM

I based my recommendation on Intel because it's what I know best.
I figured one of the posters that knows AMD's would post a alternate recommendation.

Alright here is what i got. I have memory so im pretty good on that but are all these parts sufficient to play most new games on at least medium settings with a good fps?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813130228

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102770

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817341016

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115206

You have a AMD motherboard & a Intel CPU selected.
The are NOT compatible.
You need to change one or the other ,

Personally, I'd get a motherboard that will run the Intel CPU.

AMD CPU's are a lot cheaper for a reason & it probably isn't quailty.

I would go for intel instead of amd

So which should i go for fror gaming?

Alright i switched out the motherboard with this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131377

Will that manage to play all the new games out at medium setings preferably higher?

IF it works that will be fine.
I personally wouldn't buy a motherboard with 32 reviews & a 60% rating
Only 19 of the 32 reviews were 100% positive.

To be honest, Asus used to be the king of motherboards,
In the last couple of years they have went down hill.
I used to buy nothing but Asus but do to having so many problems/failures with them lately I have switched to Gigabyte.

Asus has gone downhill, but they're still ok. Gigabyte and ASRock are also good brands. Always take reviews with a grain of salt, people are more likely to rate a product if something goes wrong with it. The Phenom II 550 is superior to the E7400 and costs less. To the average consumer there is little difference between the AMD and Intel CPU's, they both run the same programs. The only real difference is speed and price. Whichever you end up choosing, it will meet your needs. Just remember that you have to get a board designed for Intel or AMD CPU's. You cannot mix and match. The motherboard in itself does not determine the settings a game can be rated at, the components connected to it does, mainly the CPU and graphics card.