~$800 budget gaming computer

My brother is going off to college in the fall and so my parents are buying him his own computer. He has around and ~$800 spending limit for his new computer. I bought a computer a couple years ago and would like to purchase a new one now along with him.

I use my computer mainly for gaming (World of Warcraft) and also for playing lots of online poker games at once. I mainly want my computer to run WoW and streaming software as well as having lots of other applications up, but I want to be able to play new games as well. I would like to spend around $800 as well. Any suggestions?

Here are a list of the components so far:

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q8300
-EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
-A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model ADQVE1B16K
-ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
-Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W ATX12V v2.01 SLI Ready Power Supply
-Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
-LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30
-Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

here is the wish list on newegg.com:
https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=9352445

800 budget eh?

Q6600 $150 on ebay?
P45 gigabyte Motherboard $110-150 your choice
4GB of PC2 6400 $40-20 MIR
ATi 4870 $150-160
some large hard drive 320GB? $60
Good PSU 70
Good air heatsink $50
case of your choice $ depending on what you prefer
SATA DVD burner $25

that can be at or below $800 depending on you

You can also go the AMD x3 720 route with basically same hard ware as mentioned above for same price. Both will perform very well.

or instead of a used Q6600 you can always get a new Q8200, but then if you overclock you would most likely be stuck at 440-470 FSB however this would give you performance on par with the Q6600 at 3.3GHz.

Antec 300 Case
OCZ StealthStream 600w PSU
Gigabyte UD3P
Intel E8400
Tuniq Tower
GSkill 4gb DDR1000
Sapphire 4850 Video
WD 640GB Black Edition
22x LG DVD Burner

$800 w/ shipping from Newegg. Will give you tons of overclocking potential (4ghz easy).

Oh, and you also get $50 back if you send in the MIR's as well.

I would seriously not get that power supply. I would go with a better known reliable brand such as corsair.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

something like this would be excellent. Especially for the price after rebate. Also the 4870 has been shown to beat out or tie with the GTX260 and it costs less than the GTX260 as well. The price cuts of the 4870 were just announced so they should be dropping pretty soon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214
Ram such as these would also be better if you're going to get the Q8x00 series quad cores.

Like i said though, you should always consider AMD as well. The X3 Phenom II 720 BE cost about $50 less than the Q8300 and clocks higher. You have a microcenter near by? If you do the Antec 300 is only $44.99 compared to the $59 + shipping at newegg.

OCZ's have proven themselves to be fine PSU's. They arent exceptional, such as a corsair, but for a budget build, they are PLENTY fine. The 600watter is virutually the 700watt according to reviews and teardowns on it, and it provides well over the specified 600watt.

Why do you need a quad core for gaming?
just asking

and the PSU in the OP was teetering on my sig.

QED without a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. You can get fine quality for that price. Maybe not the ultimate in power or looks, but quality.

See the cooler in my sig. It's right up there with the $75 units for 1/3 the price. Another good place to skrimp is the case. Get a nice roomy, cool one without all the fancy doors, which add nothing to performance. Put all that money you saved into an E8400 and a good graphics card.

if your not stuck on intel you may want to look at AMD. you would be able to fit in more performance per dollar. the new PII now has performance just a tad behind core 2 roughly 10-15% behind. still it wont make a difference when you get the cpu oc'd since if he high res games with aa/af the slight performance loss per clock wont be noticed.

Wasn't this same thread posted in another section?

Looks deadly familiar to me.

doz said:

OCZ's have proven themselves to be fine PSU's. They arent exceptional, such as a corsair, but for a budget build, they are PLENTY fine. The 600watter is virutually the 700watt according to reviews and teardowns on it, and it provides well over the specified 600watt.

Click to expand...

Doz i wasn't referring to the OCZ i own an "OCZ" or so to speak myself. PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 before OCZ bought them out. I was referring to the Rosewill PSU that the OP posted on his list to buy.

Greenmaji why would you not go quadcore?! they're so cheap now a days they're becoming the standard in CPU. Probably in a couple months quad cores will really become the Standard of PC and 8 cores will be the new enthusiast or like i7 8 threads! Seriously though at the price of tri and quad cores these days i really find it hard not to choose them just for better head room. Sure you don't really need quad cores for gaming but what if the OP decides to convert DVD's? A dual core will work yes, but a quad core will work better.