My son's first build

[GeneralMac]

My son was renting a computer(Total cost of pc for a piece of crap, ya know the story) due to the fact his p-4 is outdated. I talked him in to building his own. Now I have built p-4, then moved to i7's
(E758, E759, SR-2). now his list is for a 775 socket, which im unformilliar ( I have never used msi or kingston) with, so Im going to list his products and maybe someone can let him know if this setup works together or not. thanks all
His main use will be to play his games the p-4 would no longer play
diablo 2, dungeon seige, dragonage stuff like that.
money is a big deal, this cost is $380.90 us for the following and some thermal grease
{p.s. I didnt know what section, If this is wrong please advise}

1) - case - COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

2) - mobo - MSI G31TM-P21 LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

3) - cpu - Intel Celeron E3400 Wolfdale 2.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E3400

4) - Memory - Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LLK2/2GN

5) - video card - MSI N9800GT-MD1G GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

6) - psu - hec ACE-580UB 580W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Power Supply

 

[Trap05]

You can definitely do better:

PS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139017
Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380
Videocard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125340
Memory - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124

 

[EarthDog]

5670 is slower than a 9800gt FYI, but should still run those old games no issues.

At that budget I would be considering AMD.

Athlon II 445 3.1Ghz (tri core) - $78.
Asrock N68C mobo - $42 + $5 SH.
Kingston 2GB DDR3 1333 CA9 - $40
Antec 300 case + 430W Antec PSU (better than HEC!) - $90 + $15 SH.
AMD 5750 GPU (faster than 9800gt and 5670) - $125 + $7 SH.

Total = $402 shipped.

or this GPU GTS 250 1GB (faster than 9800gt again) - $119.

Total = $389 shipped.

 

[hank123]

5670 is DX11. AMD maybe the way to go and if he is wanting to run windows 7 (and he should cause its way better then vista, xp ect) he will need 4 gigs of ram. Yes you can do it on 2 but 4 makes it run so much better

 

[Trap05]

AMD route would probably be better

 

[EarthDog]

5670 is DX11. AMD maybe the way to go and if he is wanting to run windows 7 (and he should cause its way better then vista, xp ect) he will need 4 gigs of ram. Yes you can do it on 2 but 4 makes it run so much better

While it is DX11, it cant feasibly run anything well in DX11 is the problem. So whats the point?

 

[GeneralMac]

Thank you kindly, I will let him read this when he gets home from work.
His money (thank goodness) his choice, his project (not dad's lol)
I just want him informed about his choices. And I figured if he starts reading here on the how too's and ask questions... It may last a lifetime...(and not pester the heck out of dad)

 

[bgd73]

I tend to make things go as far as possible as well...
I am still p4, hardly game.. just after ecc workstation, no complaints with a ati 3650.

11 years of this stuff...

he could do much better. the celeron was never a choice for gaming...

and that l2 cache is the same amount on a 5 year old 478 prescott...while the prescott gets bigger. A celly in a pinless socket...
well. I would not be surprised if there is some complaints.

gaming basically stopped evolving.. getting all the "extra" transistors for tiny extras going needs alot of precision.

 

[Bobnova]

The celeron isn't much slower then an e5200, which i gamed on quite happily for a year. (with a 4830, about equal to that 9800gt)
That said, I like the AMD build with a triple core better.

I'd go for a higher power card with no DX11. The actual DX11 features suck up a lot of horsepower, horsepower that anything short of a 5750 really doesn't have.