I am looking to spend $500.00. Whats the best PC tower I could build for that money? Just recently got back into playing EQ some, and I am playing on my old 2.4GHZ P4 thats about 5-6 years old.

So looking for:

Motherboard
Processor
Video Card
Tower

Think it can be done?

Yes.

3850's are going cheap at 150ish
DFI has a MB that'll run that under 100
Memory , 800 speed, can be picked up for a song at 2gb for 50
Towers are easy and cheesy under 100
AMD processors , single core are way under 100 now.

newegg.com will help ya out!!

Don't make Fandros' mistake. Get an Intel.

Really, if you can wait, the next generation Intel chip is coming soon. You can either get it or get one from the current generation at a discount then.

Don't get an AMD, in more recent chips they are far inferior to a comparable intel chip.

AMD works fine, tons of gamers till use them with no problem. I'd not settle on anything less than AM2 tho as the lower sockets make upgrades a battle.

Ask yourself, go with a gamers advice or someone (San) who no games no more!

/ignore Talren, he's a bard after all!!

/hides

Ahhh and he did say under 500 bucks, Intel is inflated cost wise (till the new chip perhaps, if it works).

AMD > Intel

Don't be silly. What I run on my machines is a lot more CPU intensive than any game you've ever played.

The whole "AMD for games" meme just continues because people picked up on it back when it was true and continue to repeat it without researching.

Just make sure you don't get a quad core chip, if you want to play games. More cores won't help you run a single thread faster, and most games are still only minimally multi-threaded, at best. Get a dual core with a higher clock speed.

Don't be silly. What I run on my machines is a lot more CPU intensive than any game you've ever played.

The whole "AMD for games" meme just continues because people picked up on it back when it was true and continue to repeat it without researching.

Just make sure you don't get a quad core chip, if you want to play games. More cores won't help you run a single thread faster, and most games are still only minimally multi-threaded, at best. Get a dual core with a higher clock speed.


True, true, and true!

don't believe it? look it up.

So six blind men were arguing about the color blue ...


Just recently got back into playing EQ some.

AMD chips over the last 2 years are inferior to intel chips in the last 2 years period. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't looked into benchmarks or performance issues recently.

Add to that a needed work around for many AMD machines to not get the 'west bug' in EQ, and you have yet another reason to avoid an AMD if you are going to play EQ on the machine.

The ONLY reason to use an AMD over an Intel right now would be cost, and the price differences aren't that prohibitive in the low end.

I'm a creature of habits, if something works great and performs above my expectations it gets my loyalty.

AMD has done extremely well for me for years. The two Intels I owned were abysmal failures with heating issues amongst other problems.

I'll never use another Intel, they lack my confidence /shrug.

Thanks for the posts so far. I am an intel man so I would be hard pressed to buy AMD at this point. Thanks for the advice on the staying away from Quad core because there really is no benefit for me when playing games...makes sense. Best bang for your buck Video card wise would be???

3850's are a good solid card. Guess it all depends on what you are planning on playing?

Geforce 8800GTS 320MB is a good card for the money now I would think. Runs about $100 on newegg.

Just EQ mostly, for all other games I like the 360 on the big screen. I'll check out that card.

Really, if you can wait, the next generation Intel chip is coming soon. You can either get it or get one from the current generation at a discount then.

Tada: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Processor-Price-Cuts,6862.html

I have used an intel q6600 2.4 quad core CPU for EQ2 and all my games with no problems at all so far. If the games don't need it they won't use the extra cores, but it's nice to have that extra power if they do. And is especially nice for desktop applications that CAN make use of the cores.
Plus you can get the q6600's for 150-200 now so are pretty affordable.
Using a 260GTX card which is a pretty good card that runs pretty much everything at good FPS with everything turned up. Fairly cheap for the vanilla versions, but a good card nonetheless.
:)