New, need help.

Hey, im new to LAN, looking to build a quad core gaming pc, I only make about 450.00 every two weeks, anyone got any suggestions?

Since we've been having a problem with spammers trying to find new ways to post, I wanted to post and let everyone know this is legit. Denzin is a friend, and he made it to v5.5 I believe, with a laptop. He was pretty limited, and left wanting to build a dedicated gaming PC.

I guess the question is, do you also live on that $450 or do you live with the parents or someone? Attending all the big lan parties that have awesome prizes is a good start. Also, if you're trying to get it made on the cheap, I wouldn't be so concerned with quad core. A good AMD dual core is cheap, can be overclocked and is good enough. Spend the extra on a better graphics card. Stuttering from underspending there is bad.

I agree with Nacelle that AMD is the way to go for a tight budget. If you MUST have quad core, their Athlon II line has 2 quad core cpus, 2.8, 2.9 GHZ for UNDER $100, and they are GREAT performers. I have built a few systems around these chips.

Here is a link to NewEgg so you can check it out.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704

Pair that with an ATI HD 5570 w/1GB RAM, for Full DirectX 11, 4GB ram, 500GB HDD, and a decent AM3 Mobo, and you got yourself a pretty capable machine for under $600.

I spec'd a machine for a customer the other day that was similar but used an Intel Core i5, and his cost was $1100. But included labor, and standard part markup.

Hope this helps!

If you want to play games, I'd go with something faster than a 5570. I have a 5670 in my daughter's computer that I got a while back to review and it isn't even as fast as an 8800gt or a 4830, which I consider the minimum for games these days. I can't imagine dropping down to 5570 speeds. Also DX11 support doesn't really matter if the card isn't fast enough to turn on those features in a game.

Hrm... Thats a good point. I was trying to keep price down, and the 5570 is a fairly decent perf/price ratio as one can be had for under $80.

I try to keep up with most of this stuff, but we dont build many gaming rigs here at my shop, and the last time I upgraded my rig at home I went from a GeForce 7600LE to a 9400GT.

I guess when you look at it, a 5750 starts at $135, so the extra $55 would be well spent.

Mainly I was trying to give him a jumping off point to begin spec'ing his new rig.

I would agree with the AMD quad, those things rock for under $100. As for a GPU I would go with the 5770. Everything else? Go cheap on.

I myself have been looking for possible upgrades for my old pc. I've been looking to do it cheap but still not so cheap that I wouldn't be happy with the stuff I bought. Now I was looking at just a cheap dual core since I'm sporting the old single core still, but the quad from AMD are still very cheap and work well. Here are the parts I was looking at for my own purposes, I just changed the proc to the quad core. Of course all parts and prices are from newegg.com

MB - MSI 880GM-E43 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX N82E16813130293

Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)DDR3 1333 N82E16820231275

CPU - Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core N82E16819103706

Final price for these is $259 w/ free shipping right now. As for the video card and what not, I don't really know about that. I just want to add a 5770 and probably an Antec 900 case and a 550w corsair power supply to my list but that is me. That stuff alone is almost another $350 when I throw it all in the shopping chart. For a cheap yet decent hard drive, I've been looking at the Samsung F3 500Gb (N82E16822152181). All in all my completely new pc is priced at about $750, but again that is totally based on my personal choices in parts.

Hasbeen, I have an Antec 900, and while its really neat off the get go, maintance is a pain in the butt! If you want one of the 900 series cases, get the 900 Two. Its just a bit bigger, but has removable washable dust filters on the intake fans, trades a firewiwre port for an e-sata and only costs $10 more.
For comparison:
www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.as...E11%2D129%2D058%2DTS

If I had the choice now, I would get the 900-2. I got my 900 at Showdown Lan 2007 as a raffle winner at the Antec booth. The best birthday ever!