Willdog wrote:


Case: JUST PC JPC727P4 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply – $41.00
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle 800MHz FSB Socket 754 Processor - $156 OR
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor - $160
MB: ABIT NV8 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4 4X ATX AMD Motherboard - $69.50 OR
MB: EPoX EP-9NPAJ Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - $79.00
Vid: ATI AIW 2006 Edition 256MB DDR VIVO PCI Express x16 GPU (Radeon X1300) - $179 OR
Vid: eVGA Geforce 6800XT 256MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card – $159.00 OR
Vid: SAPPHIRE Radeon X800GTO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 FireBlade Edition - $160.00
Ram: Crucial 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System - $84.99

Willdog wrote:

Regarding the Case: Seems to be a lot of choice in the $50 range. A lot of mixed reviews though. Is a 450W to 500W power supply enough nowadays?

Willdog wrote:

Regarding the CPU: I’m assuming the 939 socket is the successor to the 754 socket. Beyond that I’m not sure if one Athlon is as good as another.

Willdog wrote:

Regarding the MB: Based solely on falling within the price range. I look for Abit or Epox boards.

Cunt

Though Abit hasn't offered much in the way of exciting high-end products (thanks to the idiot fag-boy) they have the AN8-V (Yes, they mimic Asus models up and down the line, also gay) which you can get for $9 more (or even cheaper for a refurb) at newegg.

MSI also makes great cheap-ass boards. I've used them and recommended them in the past. For $1 more you could get an MSI K8N-F.

Willdog wrote:

Regarding the Vid: I have no idea what graphic cards are worth what now. Last time I paid attention to the market, there was only Geforce 1, 2, 3. My attraction to the ATI card is the possibility of turning my computer into a Tivo, which is kind of silly since I’ve basically done that already now with bit torrent and divx. I don’t know which of these cards is actually better then the other.

The Sapphire Radeon is the better card. Fun Fact: The Sapphire X800GTO2 Has even more potential.

Willdog wrote:

Regarding the Ram: My only easy decision, since I always buy crucial.

Good for you, fancy pants!

Willdog wrote:

Projected total of the Athlon 64 3200+ Socket 939 w/ Epox MB, Sapphire video, and Ram: $525 w/o shipping..

Question: Can I play HL2, Doom3, Far Cry, FEAR, etc on this? If not, where do I need to spend the extra money? Be advised, unlike Fussbett, doubling my CPU budget is not an option.

Yes. HL2 and Far Cry should run great up to 1280x1024. Doom3 likes Nvidia cards, but will run fine. FEAR is a dick, but you should be able to run it with decent visuals for good frame rates once you tweak it a bit. If you were going to put money into anything, put it into the CPU. Even with that vid card, the bottleneck will be with it waiting for data.

Willdog wrote:

Bonus question: Do I need a special MB to support a case with USB/audio ports on the front face?

They should all come with USB headers for front or rear panels. Not all of them have provision for front headphone or Mic ports. It depends on the onboard audio and the vender.