BleepingComputer.com: Building a new computer

(Im Australian BTW, so im not sure if anyone can help or not)
This is the stuff that i am wanting to get for my new build. Its not going to be a full on gaming computer for games like Crysis, but more of the older games. Should i change anything on this list. The computer parts that are not displayed i already own. I am buying all my parts from MSY


MOBO: Gigabyte G41M-ES2L $71
HDD: Western Digital SATA 320GB $58
GPU: 1GB 9400GS ECS $55
PSU: Thermaltake OEM 430W $45

What CPU and RAM are you going to use? You will need to buy and install Windows again if you are using an OEM copy of the operating system.

DJBPace07, on Oct 8 2009, 05:23 AM, said:

I will be using my P4 and ill be using 2GB DDR2 RAM

Your CPU will be the bottleneck, though the 9400 is a relatively low-powed GPU. You do not need the 1GB version of the 9400 to play older games, the 512MB edition may be more economical. If you are running newer games that can take advantage of multiple cores, you will be at a severe disadvantage with a Pentium 4. However, if you are running old games that cannot use more than a single core, than the high clock speed will be important. Don't forget to factor in the price for Windows.

Thanks for the help. Would a 9500GT work better or are they about the same as the 9400??

Technically, the 9500GT is more powerful but I don't think you will see much of a difference between it and a 9400 on this PC. The GPU would probably be needing data faster than the CPU can provide it, and thus you have a bottleneck.

i say get what you got on that list. i got the 9400GT 1GB for HDMI for my dads voip computer (lol?) and my dads HTPC that i also built has inbuilt. i gotta say that the 9400GT will play games fine, i got a GTX 260+, 2 x 2GB OCZ Reaper 1066MHz DDR2 ram, 500GB Seagate, PATA DVD-DL drive, CM 690 pure black case and that actually runs fine with a Thermaltake OEM 430W psu lol, oh and a E6850 @ 3.7GHz.

hey tys i can sell you my C2D when i get a quad for this rig (ill get a cheap Q8400 or something)

if you wanna know the full specs of tysons rig it's a ASUS P5P800, 2 x 1GB DDR 677MHz ram, 40GB hdd, Xion case (first version), Pentium 4 3.0GHz stock, stock cooling fan, 2 x 120mm fans (1 rear 1 front)
i know because i built it than i sold it to tyson after owning it for a few years the original 250GB sata hdd broke so i put a 20gb hdd in it, that broke so tyson put a 40gb in it.

tyson i can sell you my Thermaltake 430W psu when i get a new psu, it runs all the above hardware i use just fine.