Gaming gaming desktop under $500?

[esoterica]

I have decided to sell my current main computer, which is a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop, and use that money to buy a gaming desktop, and then a Netbook. I've always wanted one of those cute little laptops, just for taking to the cafe or for the portability. Anyways, I was wondering, for any tech nerds, if this was a good setup for the price and would it be capable of handling most high end games? And this price list is current, but might change in the future.

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$52.99

POWERCOLOR Radeon HD 4830 AX4830 512MD3-H Video Card
$99.99

LG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner w/ SecurDisc Tech Black SATA Model GH20NS15
$20.99

Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
$53.99

Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
$72.99

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
$5.99

Antec Three Hundred Black Computer Case
$59.95

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W Power Supply
$74.99

Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$49.99

TOTAL $491.87

Not including shipping of course. But yea... is this good enough? Of course, I dont know how to build it, so I'll probably get one of my friends to do it for me.

 

[Wabsta]

It's good..
Not to play games like Crisis on Very High.

But good enough for all of the new games, on medium, I guess..

 

[xcalibur]

PSU is a bit much. Get a slightly cheaper on and spend the leftovers on buying a better graphics card.

 

[esoterica]

I don't play many FPS so I'm not worried about super graphics intensive games. Maybe Sims 3, Starcraft 2... I dunno. Or whatever new games that come out in the future that I may want... I'm willing to dump another $100 into this budget anyhow.

 

[Joe88]

you are probably going to have a problem with that motherboard
you picked a 45nm cpu but are buying a a intel 30 series motherboard
the board will most likely ship with old bios not allowing you to start the computer with that new CPU
you would need an older cpu to flash the bios
so basically just get something from the 40 series of intel chipsets which have default 45nm support, and

not sure why you are getting thermal paste since you dont have a third party HSF, the intel HSF already comes with thermal paste on it

psu is a bit of overkill as someone stated
500w should be more then enough

also what OS will you be using?

 

[esoterica]

I didn't create this setup, my friend made it and sent it to me and told me that it was the setup he uses with a few variations, and it works really well. I don't know jack about building computers really.

 

[Golfman560]

Well has your friend built computers before? I'd have him build it for you at your house/wherever you live. You buy the parts and then either try by yourself with him around so if you do something wrong you can get help or just have him do it.

 

[Lodis]

You could always wait a while and get a small Notebook and then get an external GPU for gaming.

The one I am keeping an eye on is Fujitsu Siemens FSC's Amilo Sa 3650 notebook with XGP, External Graphics Processor and Nvidia Ion. At first the external graphics could only be used with an external display but things have changed now.

If the external GPU are made to work on other Notebooks, you could possibly have a really portable computer that can play intensive 3D games or with the Nvidia Ion a different solution.

Since you already have something you can use for the time being, you could always wait. That is what I am going to do because there are so many interesting possibilities.

 

[Maz7006]

If you are looking for some light gameing i.e. L4D and COD4 and the like this is good, considering the price. Hopefull that E5200 wont let you down though :S

 

[esoterica]

Well can you come up with something better for around the same price range?