New budget build

[bosox188]

So it's finally time to upgrade my desktop again, right now I'm looking at getting a cpu, ram, motherboard, and vid card while reusing the rest for now. I'm trying to keep the cost around $400 which I think should be fairly reasonable for playing games.

My current plan was to get a Core 2 E7200, either a 2gb stick of ram or a pair of 2gb's, some cheap motherboard, and either an 8800gt 512mb or 9600gt. The real one I'm having trouble picking is the motherboard as there are plenty of $70 and below ones but I'm not sure which is the best to choose. But aside from picking that I think this is the most balanced setup I can get, unless anybody has some other suggestion.

 

[hneaz]

I think you should save more money to get the 9800 gtx or the HD 4850, even though u want to keep it under $400, and also the geforce 10 is out so the 9 series would be becoming cheaper. also, you wanna spend more on a good mobo. a cheap mobo will not last very long.

if that doesn work for u, then get the 9600 gt.

 

[Drackard]

I'd get the 8800gt over the 9600gt personally. Purely because the 9600 isn't that much of an upgrade from the 8800, infact .. depending on the brand of the 8800 you get it can even out perform the 9600.

 

[Drackard]

Unless you get a factory-overclocked 9600 GT, the 8800 GT at stock speeds is about 10% faster in almost every situation. An overclocked 9600 GT will come within +/- 2% or so of a regular 8800 GT, but if you get an overclocked 8800 GT then the 9600 GT simply won't be able to touch it.

Yeah, I remember seeing something about that somewhere, totally slipped my mind

 

[Barney Fife]

Yeah, I remember seeing something about that somewhere, totally slipped my mind

Yeah, and save up some more dollars.

Get a decent upgrade. To get the full benefit of these cards; you need a decent MB with the newest chipsets. These chipsets do pretty good job heating up and remaining hot, overheating everything close and around them, these video cards also do pretty good job helping with more heat, so, you'll need a MB with decent cooling system, which can withstand constant high temperatures, nice case with efficient cooling system, an efficient PSU and a pair of sunglasses for you to look cool.

Good Luck.