need help on a build for casual gaming

[tauman5263]

my parents said that if i gave them my old laptop [pentium 4, 512 mb RAM, intel onboard graphics ] that they would buy me parts to build my own desktop computer for christmas. they already bought the case [coolermaster elite 330] and power supply [450W is all i know]. so here's what i'm thinking for the rest of the build:

GYGABYTE GA-945GCMX-S2 Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128058

Intel E2160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116036

ASUS DVD/CD Combo Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135156

OCZ Gold 2GB RAM DDR2 667
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227078

XFX Geforce 8600 GT XXX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150229

Western Digital 500GB Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136178

it comes out to something like $450. my parents want to keep it around this cheap. do you think this will be good enough for casual gaming [i don't mind playing low to mid settings as long as the performance is smooth, not choppy]?

games i plan on playing on this include:
Star Wars Best of PC
Dawn of War [and all of its expansions]
Starcraft
Doom 3
others that haven't come out yet:
borderlands
starcraft 2
prototype

do you think i'll be able to play all those games [mainly worried about the last 3]?

what do you guys suggest? i plan on overclocking a little bit [especially the cpu].

[stang10001]

will prolly do all but those last 3 im not sure about

[tauman5263]

i know it does all except the last three because they currently work on my laptop. what i'm asking is, is there any parts that are better that i can get for the same price or maybe a little more?

[mervin]

The 8600GT is a vastly inferior card for even a midrange gaming system. It has no pros at all in comparison to the ATI 3850, which is the card you should get. Did I say should get? No, it's the card you MUST get. It runs circles around the 8600GTS, which is faster than the 8600GT, and the ATI 3850 costs the same as an 8600GT. There is not good reason to get an 8600GT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102714

[mervin]

If you're putting together a gaming system you should not buy anything less than DDR2 800 RAM. You won't see a performance difference between DDR2 800 RAM and DDR 2 8500 RAM, but you'll definitely see a performance difference between DDR2 667 RAM and DDR2 800 RAM. Don't settle for less than that. It won't cost you much more. Here are a bunch of components I'd recommend. Though I think it's a bit unreasonable to think you can put together a system for $450 unless you've already got half the components.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813127031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231087
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171018

[tauman5263]

good thing i haven't bought the video card yet. i have already purchased the motherboard, RAM, and CPU. here's what i got:

Intel E2140 - $74
Foxconn G9657MA-8KS2H Motherboard - $119 [$53 after rebate]
2 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 RAM - $67 [$37 after rebate]

now onto what i'm buying next:

my mom said that i have to get a smaller hard drive [because its cheaper] and a video card less than $90. I was thinking of maybe getting the XFX Geforce 7600GT. Would this be alright? It's $87 [$67 after rebate]. are there any other better video cards for this price range? i'm not going to get a DX10 card until i purchase Windows Vista sometime next year [or possibly 2009].
i have a question about the ATI 3850. doesn't it use a PCI Express 2.0? my motherboard has a regular PCI Express x16, so i don't think this video card is compatible.

for the hard drive, i was thinking of going with a more mainstream 250 GB hard drive since they are cheaper.

what do you think? one other thing, my power supply has a four pin connector for the CPU power, but my motherboard has an 8-pin connection. is this what i need:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...3d675db58f3c52
the manual for my motherboard says that you can use the 4-pin connector, but the 8-pin connector is highly recommended.

[mervin]

No, the ATI 3850 fits in a PCI express x 16 slot. The fact that it's PCI 2.0 has nothing to do with your motherboard compatibility. Yeah, if you want to get a 250gig drive that's fine. There is nothing wrong with getting a smaller hard drive. I think that 250 gigs is still more space than what most people need anyway.

I have an evga 7600GT on my other computer and there is nothing wrong with this video card. I've played games like Oblivion and Unreal Tournament 2004 with it and it works ok. You won't need directx 10 anyway because there really aren't any games out there for it just yet. Besides that, you can always overclock the video card. Yeah, it's a good choice for your needs, or you can still go with the 8600GT if you'd like. Had I known that the price of the video card was such an issue I would not have made the recommendation that I did.
the other video card you can look at is the ATI 1950pro. Those video cards would perform better than the 7600GT, but they're not as cheap. They're probably in the $115-$130 range.

Nothing wrong with the RAM or motherboard you got. I think you made some good choices.

What kind of power supply do you have? Don't go cheap on this component! If you don't have at least 400 watts than you're going to run into problems. List the brand and the power output of the power supply you have. You also need to make sure your power supply has SATA connectors for your hard drives.

[cHiNgY1788]

i reckon starcraft 2 should run on it
theres the alpha versions they run for the demos
they have to run on today's technology, so the comp you have there should be alright

[tauman5263]

its a diablo 450W power supply. i believe it has all of the right connection, i already checked, but i'll check again tonight. i'll probably end up replacing it if i run into problems. i hope its okay though. i'll try to find out some more information about it. my mom bought it without my input because it was cheap [$25 after rebate or something like that].

The RAM just came in the mail yesterday. i should be ordering the video card and the hard drive this weekend.

what do you guys recommend for a good cheap dvd drive?

EDIT: just looked up the power supply and here's all the info i can find:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&Sku=D15-1001
also read a couple of user reviews and a lot of them say that the power supply broke soon after they installed. hopefully mine doesn't...

[tauman5263]

sorry for the double post.

i was wondering if this setup would be compatible with a SATA DVD drive. i heard that there isn;t much support for older chipsets or something along those lines. i really hate those wide IDE cables...
the motherboard is a Foxconn G9657MA-8KS2H.