Okay, now I'm computer illiterate when it comes to all of the technical specs. I can put the thing together (and have multiple sources for help, if needed), but I'm completely lost when it comes to what hardware is best.

I want a decent gaming rig, for under $1000, that is capable of running BattleField2, and Flight Simulator X (and possibly other games) on Windows XP.

My computer, at the moment, blows. It can run BF2 and FSX fine, but not any higher than Medium-low settings. It also has issues running multiple programs....The only things I plan to recycle from my old computer, are the harddrives, 5.1 surround sound speakers, and, if possible, the RAM.

My first ideas for the processor and video card, were the Althlon 64 X2 6000+, and the GeForce 8800GTS in 320mb.

Now, how important is the case? I was just going for something that "looked cool".

Also, another trouble spot I noticed, is the power supply. My existing one is a "Lead-Power LP600", of which I can't find any info, and it has no hints as to what output range it is. And I've noticed that new power supplies would break my $1000 limit.

The final question, is what sound card would be best for my 5.1 system?

Forget Athlon X2s, you can easily have a Intel gaming rig for under $1000.

Im guessing you're wanting a complete setup, so heres a budget recommendation that'll have your games running top spec

CPU - Intel E2160
Mobo - Asus P5N-E SLi
RAM - SuperTalent DDR2 800
GFX - EVGA 8800GTS 320Mb

Total = $553, leaving you with half your budget to pickup a nice case, brand name power supply and whatever else you have in mind (case and PSU links are just some personal recommendations)

I have an X-Fi and am still amazed at how good it sounds, you won't be dissapointed.

Oh, and welcome to the best PC enthusiast site on the whole Internet

Well in January I built my computer for $1200, but I had the Harddrives, DVD burner, fans and case.

Specs
E6600 Core 2 Duo
Tuniq Tower Cooler
ASUS P5N-E SLI
Coolermax 600w PSU
2GB Corsair DDR2 800
BFG 8800GTS 640MB o/c

Sorry I g2g rent a moving trailer I'll post more when I got time...

Will 1.8GHz be fast enough? That's the only thing I'm worried about, especially with FSX--with all the terrain details and AI aircraft, it's a framerate killer.

Also, how likely is it to be able to recycle my old ram to add a bit more to the new system?

You can always overclock that CPU...I think I have herd people geting that thing to 3.2Ghz...what kinda ram dose your old system have? DDR? DDR2?

good case deal...

Newegg.com - Antec Performance One P180B Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel for durability through the majority of chassis 1.0mm cold rolled steel around the 4 x HDD area ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

That 1.8Ghz proc should overclock to at least 2.4Ghz, probably achieving that on the stock cooler... it'll be fine for games

I'm looking for a case with those cool neon lights though

Quote: what kinda ram dose your old system have? DDR? DDR2?

Good question--dunno. All I know is that there's 1.5Gb of it (maybe that's why this thing is so crappy *kicks computer*

Ok download this, http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-140.zip, and look under the RAM tab. Should say wether its DDR, SD, DDR2 etc etc...

And if "neon" lights are your thing, you can always add your own easily - Newegg.com - LOGISYS Computer CLK15BL 15" Blue Deluxe Sound Activated Cold Cathode Light Kit - Retail - providing you buy a case with a side window.

The system dex picked out will run BF2 fulled maxed out, with no problems. Also, those core 2 duos overclock like crazy, so don't let it's stock speed fool you.

I run BF2 maxed out with 2x AA and 16x AF @ 1280 res with my graphics card, your card will almost be overkill.... almost. It will definitely come in handy when the new games start releasing(Crysis).

To put things into perspective CPU-wise, the 1.6ghz Pentium E2140 is faster than a 2.8ghz Pentium D. So a 1.8ghz model will be plenty even at stock. GHZ doesn't really matter that much anymore unless you're overclocking; architecture is more important when comparing CPUs initially. And they'll do at least 3ghz on air - in fact it would be crime to buy a processor such as this and not overclock it.

The RAM I have is DDR.

Overclocking it is then.

Thanks guys.

i just built mine a few days ago and it runs bf2 like a champ

Specs:
CPU- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Mobo- Biostar NF4U AM2G
RAM- 2X1gig mushkin
GFX- XFX 8600 GT
HDD- 160 GB Western Digital Corsair
OS- Windows XP Pro

This is all easily under 1000

I am a big floppy donkey appendage.

67.159.45.52

boolboan@buffalo.com

I'm sure you are.....


Anyway, I just discovered that my power supply is 600W. Is that enough to power my new contraption?

Yes, but you're still better off buying a brand name unit to be sure. No point spending $1000 on kit to have it fried by a cheap POS power supply.

I would stay away from the 2160..think dual core "Celeron"

They have just a tiny amount of Cache that isn't shared, and you will feel a big difference in gaming and apps that are CPU intensive, they are about on par with an AMD AM-2 dual core in a similar price range, maybe a tad better.

I would look more at the 800FSB 1.8GHZ E4300 (117$) or even better, the 2GHZ E4400 for 9$ at 126$, they sport 2MB of shared Cache

If you can swing it...the 1066FSB 4MB shared cache chips are realy the ones to have...they are truely a high performance CPU!

At 165$, the 1.8GHZ E6420 is a pretty sweat deal, the 6420 at 2.1GHZ will cost you another 30$ for 300MHZ (186$) but the real star of Intels show (Till recently) is the E6600 at 2.4GHZ for 221$

My new favorite "Dual core" is the E6750 at 234$ with 1333FSB and 2.66GHZ, but will require a board that can realy crank out the FSB speeds to get a healthy OC, so I doubt this would make a good choice for a low budget gaming rig, since it realy is just a small performance gain (FSB wise) and the OC ability is just marginally better then the E6600.

A bit out of your price range, but the CPU everyone with a "Hot Rodders Heart" is drooling over is the "Quad Core" 2.4GHZ Q6600 wich was supposed to be 266$ at launch, but demand for this has made greedy retailors gouge them up to 319$

By this time next month when the supplies have caught up to the demand, it should be around 275-280$

OC wise, any Intel CPU with decent air cooling (Like a 30$ Scythe Mine) can run 3GHZ unless you end up with the worst one ever made, lol

Realy good air cooling (40-60$) will get the higher base clocked CPU's into the 3.4-3.6GHZ range and sometimes beyond.

Here is a OC chart with most of the popular coolers on the market, the Thermight 120 Extreme being my top choice, you can use the stock cooler for a little while and save up if it kills your budget, anything from the "Big Typhoon" on up is what I would shoot for!

So far my E4300 has run 3.2GHZ daily use on that Scythe Mine with the addition of a higher flowing 120MM fan, and 3.4ghz for benches only.

The E6600 I had went 3.6GHZ on the same cooler, 3.8GHZ was marginal for daily use, and could bench at 4GHZ

I know of one person with the older B-3 stepping Q6600 Quad running an easy 3.6ghz, and has benched at 3.9GHZ with water cooling.

I recently have been testing a ES (Engineering Sample) QX6800 "GO" stepping at up to 4GHZ with that Scythe Mine and a pair of extreme flowing 120M fans, the Q6600's with the same GO stepping are doing nearly as well from what I've heard, wich is pretty intense for a 300$ CPU with 4 cores!

Ok...ended up rambling on a bit here, but skip that 2100 series please! the 6320 is probably the one I'd grab if your budget can afford it, otherwise...look at the E4300~E4400.

I would reccomend a single rail PSU if you ever plan on going with dual video cards, the multi rail PSU's tend not to work well (Long story)

The "Wattage" of a PSU doesn't realy tell the true story of it's potential, it's more about how many amps on the 12v rail, 30 AMPS is the minumum I look for, 40-50 is proably what you will need, read this PSU "Mythe" page carefully, especially about single rail PSU's and Modular ones!

Power Supply Myths Exposed!

OCZ 520 SLI is hard to find these days, but is around 100$ when you find one, and handles anything I have thrown at it so far (E6600 at 4GHZ and Dual X-1900's OC'd)

Silverstone has been my favorite as of late, this 560 watt one will set you back 137$ and should handle a OC'd dual core with dual midrange cards (8800GTS 320MB) or a decently clocked quad core, and a high end single card like a 640MB 8800GTX/Ultra.
Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE SST-ST56ZF ATX12V / EPS12V 560Watts Power Supply 90V ~ 264V (Auto Range) - Retail

650 watts will set you back 160$ and is probably just outside your budget, but adds a bit more headroom
Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE DECATHLON DA650 ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail

REVIEW:
AnandTech: The Single 12V Rail SilverStone Olympia OP650


180$ gets you 750 watts and will handle a OC'd quad and Dual 8800 GTX's, well worth the extra 20$

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE DA750 ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail

229$ is for a potent 850 watts now resides in my test bench powering that 4GHZ quad and a pair of OC'd 8800 Ultra's...I know these power supplies at the top end are pricey, but I am trying to give you an idea of what they can handle down the road, and that I put my money where my mouth is, Silverstone has definately become my brand of choice these days!

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE OP850 ATX12V / EPS12V 850W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CE, cUL, TUV, FCC - Retail

You should proably look at the 560 or 650watt version, I have a feeling they will be plenty for your needs.

For cases...the Armor case with a 250MM side fan made of Aluminum is a Gamers/OC'ers dream for 139$ after rebate, but is a full tower, so not great if you have limited space or go to Lan parties alot...I have the Silver version and love it!

Newegg.com - Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan - Retail


I kinda Pioneered the "Large" side fans found in many new cases these days, it realy does the trick without being loud (My 1st version "Ludicrous Speed" was 300M and a ear splitting 500CFM, but later versions were much quiter) there are many more around if you look at New Egg, Xioxide and Frozen CPU.

Good recommendations Necro, but I respectfully disagree; there isn't that much wrong with the E21xx series especially considering the price. It is a Core architecture CPU after all.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Good recommendations Necro, but he said he had a budget of $650 which is why I recommended budget kit. There isn't that much wrong with the E21xx series especially considering the price. It is a Core architecture CPU after all.

Oh contrair!

I hate to disagree with you (Your a realy helpfull good guy!) on that E2100 series, but they realy aren't that good of a performer! That lack of cache REALY limits it's performance!

Quote: When looking at the benchmarks, we also see that the Pentium E2140 can provide extremely good performance when overclocked. Notably, the chip performs great in workstation and basic office-class applications, where the smaller amount of L2 cache does not hurt performance as much as one would expect. Gamers, however, would be better served by a chip with a larger amount of L2 cache, as the smaller L2 compliment on the Pentium E2100 series does hurt its clock-for-clock gaming performance against the Core 2 Duo. While others have pushed these chips further with more exotic cooling, we pushed our chip to 2.9 GHz with the stock cooler. At this level, the Pentium E2140 processor can provide performance similar to a Core 2 Duo E6700 ($320) in best case scenarios. The Pentium E2140 can push very high clock speeds with very little work, and the stock cooler which Intel bundles is whisper silent most of the time, which makes for a great combination.

Intel Pentium E2140 Dual Core Processor Review - XtremeSystems Forums

Like I said..think "Celeron" kinda...prolly more like the AMD 64 Sempron though

And he said the budget was 1k, I don't know where you saw the 650$ limit?

I can whip up something for 1k with ease! Gimme 5 and I'll edit this.

In fact..I just worked out a semi high end rig for a guy at works college kid @ 1900$ that has a Q6600, 8800GTX, 4GB of ram and nearly everything but the kitchen sink!

	Qty.	Product Description	Savings	Total Price
		Sony NEC Optiarc 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE / ATAPI Model 7170A-0B - OEM Item #: N82E16827152076 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$28.99
		Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan - Retail Item #: N82E16811133021 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy	$30.00 Mail-in Rebate	$169.00
		Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KSRTL 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Retail Item #: N82E16822136040 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $29.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99		$139.99
		EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail Item #: N82E16814130072 Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $49.99 2 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $69.99 3 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $99.99	$30.00 Mail-in Rebate	$546.99
		Sony NEC Optiarc Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM Item #: N82E16827101131 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$17.99
		SILVERSTONE DA750 ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail Item #: N82E16817256017 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $29.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99	-$10.00 Instant $20.00 Mail-in Rebate	$189.99 $179.99
		OCZ Vista Upgrade 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Chennel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2VU8004GK - Retail Item #: N82E16820227195 Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $59.99	$25.00 Mail-in Rebate	$225.99
		ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Item #: N82E16813131073 Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $59.99	-$20.00 Instant	$229.99 $209.99
		Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail Item #: N82E16819115017 Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $59.99		$319.99
		SILVERSTONE FM121 120mm Case Fan - Retail Item #: N82E16811999344 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$17.99
		Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler - Retail Item #: N82E16835109140 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $14.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $19.99		$64.99
Subtotal:				$1,921.90

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro I hate to disagree with you (Your a realy helpfull good guy!) on that E2100 series, but they realy aren't that good of a performer! That lack of cache REALY limits it's performance!

I really don't know what you've been looking at, 1MB vs 2MB is hardly anything for those CPU's (4MB just destory's both though). I would always recommend the E4*** though.
TechSpot - News and Views for PC Technology Enthusiasts
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*UPDATE* Just get this CPU.
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail