Cheapest build for bf2142

I am thinking of building a cheapest pc possible that can handle battlefield 2142 and bf2 at mid to high settings @ 1024 x 768, with fps's ranging from 30-70 aleast. Budget around 750 usd max. Also this build should be compatiable with future upgrades for graphic card.
I already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse. So the 700 budget only includes the main system itself. Your input?

EDIT-

GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) > $115.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz > $180.00
pqi TURBO 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 > $94.99
Rosewill R604-P SL 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case > $24.99
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS-430-PMSR/P 430W Power Supply > $33.99 - $15 = $18.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB > $89.99
BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB > $139.99 - $30 = $109.99
NEC 3550A Dual 16x DVD+RW/-RW/CD-RW (48x/32x/48x),16x DVD > $29.99
___________________________________
$740.33 total with s/h
$695.33 overall w/ rebates

Links to the parts-
Motherboard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128017
Processor- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115005
Ram- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820141210
Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147059
Harddrive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148140
Graphics Card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814143049
Optical Drive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827152076

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Make sure it has PCI express on the motherboard. You need a good processor, I recommend a dual core one. I have an Nvidia 6600 and it runs 2142 decently enough, and although I haven't checked the actual framerates I haven't had any problems related to lag, so anything > 6600 should be ok. Heck, my laptop (amd turion/radeon200m chipset) runs it ok, so the specs are a bit flexible.

Other than that, everything is just gravy. 10k harddisks, DDR800, kick butt sound card. Anything that can fit in your budget. 750 should get you a pretty nice rig if you are reusing all of your old peripherals. Good luck!

Reply to elpresidente2075

alright thx for the suggestion.

Reply to desidude006

yes i would get yourself a E6300 CPU and at 1GB-2GB of ram... I also have a gf6600 and i can play the demo with everything on hight except textures on medium and AA 2x and it runs fine... if i had more ram it would run better.. but i bet you you could fin a GF7600GT for around $130 USD

Reply to melarcky

i'll probably get my ass flamed off with this, but i have an idea:

buy a nice c2d-compatible motherboard (such as the GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3), buy a nice vid card and a good amt. of ram, and a cheap soc 775 proc. this way, you stay inside your budget, you get pci x16, and you have a system that screams to be upgraded (with more ram, c2d proc).

as video cards are more important for the most part in gaming, i'd focus on that. you could quite possibly build a bitchin' rig with a c2d from the get-go, but when i see (braces self for da pain) a celeron d prescott for like $50, i'm like "wtf."

i have a sempron 1.75 ghz proc and a 9550 and i run hl2, cs:s and the likes very well. i also want to get bf2142, but will probably get it on this machine just cause i can't wait. i can allegedly run it, so a celeron may be tempting. i told myself i was never going to buy a celeron, b/c the name and its principal makes my organs hurt, but if you can get past that then you're good to go, with some added flexibility in your budget.

sorry for not being more specific with parts. just an idea. i hope i survive its posting.

-----------------------
EDIT:
Here are some possible parts:

Intel celeron d (sry, not dual core) 331 @ 2.66 ghz- $51.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819112206

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3- $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128012

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2- $153.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145040

Diamond X1950 XTX- $399.99 (although out of stock)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] icegrabber

Subtotal: $734.00

lol quite a lopsided compy with growing room. x1950xtx and a celeron... lol. hopefully no bottleneck. but, don't listen to me, i'm a noob. just some suggestions to start with. if built, proc and more ram would be your first upgrades obviously.

Reply to lordaardvark2

I bought an athlon 3800+, a biostar micro ATX mobo, 1 gb of corsair ram, and a nvidia 7900gt for around $600. those parts are cheaper now, and I can play at 1280x1024, medium to high settings, with FPS of well over 30. BTW, don't buy a computer just for one game.

Reply to dmacfour

Quote :

i'll probably get my ass flamed off with this, but i have an idea:

buy a nice c2d-compatible motherboard (such as the GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3), buy a nice vid card and a good amt. of ram, and a cheap soc 775 proc. this way, you stay inside your budget, you get pci x16, and you have a system that screams to be upgraded (with more ram, c2d proc).

as video cards are more important for the most part in gaming, i'd focus on that. you could quite possibly build a bitchin' rig with a c2d from the get-go, but when i see (braces self for da pain) a celeron d prescott for like $50, i'm like "wtf."

i have a sempron 1.75 ghz proc and a 9550 and i run hl2, cs:s and the likes very well. i also want to get bf2142, but will probably get it on this machine just cause i can't wait. i can allegedly run it, so a celeron may be tempting. i told myself i was never going to buy a celeron, b/c the name and its principal makes my organs hurt, but if you can get past that then you're good to go, with some added flexibility in your budget.

sorry for not being more specific with parts. just an idea. i hope i survive its posting.

The worst part is, that idea isn't really that bad. However, it doesn't make sense for anyone with his budget to settle for a Celeron. If his budget was $300-400, maybe. But at $750, an E6300 is the way to go. He can overclock it later on to pWnage speeds. Go with the E6300 and retain some dignity.

Reply to SEALBoy

lol exactly. buy the celeron at your own risk. you will suffer intense emotional strain and the ridicule of your friends. do aim for a nice proc tho.

Reply to lordaardvark2

lol lord.. good suggestion i guess. I will put together a list of components soon. Na, I dont want a celeron, it was just bottle neck all the other components.

Reply to desidude006

I just built a budget gamer for my friend a couple of weeks ago.

here are some suggestions
and no links look them up yourself

Intel 805 dual core easily overclocked and only $95
either evga 7600gt 256mb or evga 7900gs 256 mb
$110 and $150 respectively, the 7900gs has around a 35-45 percent performance advantage, however both will play bf2 or bf2142 very very well

1or 2gb of any highly rated ram, we got the adata vitesta 1gb 667mhz,
ask other people about the motherboard, maybe a p965 based one,

umm case, on the egg you can get a rosewill with a 400watt psu
here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147011
400watts is enough for the 7600gt im not sure about the 7900gs, however thats at stock cpu speeds if u want to OC the CPU the power requirements go WAY up.

you might want to get a sound card but hear this: ppl at newegg who bought the Xfi Xtrememusic complain that it wont play the highest settings in bf2, try looking at the xtremegamer, or the platinum, or the fatility.

hmm so with a 100 dollar mobo, a 95 dollar cpu, 110 dollars of ram, a 110 dollar GPU, a 45 dollar case, 90 dollar windows, and integrated ram should be around: 550 usd b4 shipping WELL below your price range and will be able play BF2 at 1280x1024 settings maxed and get 60-70fps.

Dont go for the C2d if it isnt in your budget a Athlon 64 (gasp 939??), or the pentium d 805 will do just FINE. You might want to get a C2D compatible mobo though, so you can upgrade later.

Ait have a good time write back ill check.

*saving address to usb key*

and for last my specs:
mostly from dec 04'
dell xps gen 3
460watt psu
intel p4 prescott 540 3.2ghz 32 bit
1gb 533mhz ram
160gb seagate sata 7200rpm
2x 80gb external WD
coming soon- 500gb wd mybook external
OCZrally 1gb usb key+ Cruzer Micro 512mb
Sennheiser hd212 headphones
Logitech mx3100 wireless kb and mouse got for 53 dollars last x-mas!
dell 20 inch squarescreen 1600x1200 16ms 2001fp
dell 5650 5.1 speakers w subwoofer
creative audigy 2 zs 5.1 sound card
linksys 802.11bg wmp54g wifi card
teac dvd burner 8xdvd+rw
samsung cd burner
lighting stuff,
ummm
good stuff.

pimpin setup eh?

Reply to billdcat4

sounds good and all, but be wary of stock psussesses (power supplies) b/c they are like the most evil of all evils. as in they aren't very popular and can die quickly and/or bring down your whole system.

Reply to lordaardvark2

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) > $129.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz > $180.00
pqi TURBO 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 >667 $112.99 - $10 = $102.99
Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower > $54.99

Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache > $64.99

NEC 3550A Dual 16x DVD+RW/-RW/CD-RW (48x/32x/48x),16x DVD > $29.99
MS Windows XP Home Edition CD (full version) > $90
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total so far- $700.99 total with s/h and $690.99 w/ rebates
Still in need of a graphics card and psu; also i am over budget. Need to cut some corners

Reply to desidude006

Quote :

I bought an athlon 3800+, a biostar micro ATX mobo, 1 gb of corsair ram, and a nvidia 7900gt for around $600. those parts are cheaper now, and I can play at 1280x1024, medium to high settings, with FPS of well over 30. BTW, don't buy a computer just for one game.

Since I am assuming this thing can run bf2 or 2142 at mid to high settings, it will be easily able to run hl2, css, c&c generals, company of heroes.

Reply to desidude006

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - $180.00
Abit AB9 Motherboard - $104.99 ($124.99 - $20 Instant)
PQI DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 - $89.99 ($109.99 - $20 Instant)
BFGTech GeForce 7600GT - $139.99 ($109.99 after $30 MIR)
Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB - $57.99
Lite-On 18X DVD+-R Model LH-18A1P-185 - $29.99
Raidmax X-1 ATX-909WBP case with 450W PSU - $69.99
Windows XP Home OEM - $90.00
Total: $762.94 not including shipping or sales tax

The Abit motherboard in question is out of stock on Newegg but another option in its place would be the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 which is the cheaper cousin of the DS3. It comes in somewhere around $115 or so I believe.

You can't really get any cheaper and still have the performance you want unfortunately. The question to ask I guess is do you not already have a copy of Windows XP Home you can reuse?

Edit: On second thought, you could put together a somewhat cheaper AMD powered solution, although not much if you want to go with a dual core as even the cheapest X2 3800+ comes in around $155. A s939 option would be the cheapest but sAM2 would give you future upgradability.

Reply to Arrowyx

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/har [...] 05223.html

Use that guide except upgrade the video card with the extra money.

Reply to ProSlayer

didnt add the hd to my last post
add another 70 for the wd se16 250gb

total is still 620 not bad, if u want u can upgrade to the evga 7900gs or get another gb of ram

gtg

Reply to billdcat4

Sup

A friend of mine had a 3Ghz p4c, 6600GT 128MB and 1GB of pc3200, and BF2142 ran like total crap, he hated it. I sold him my old 6800GT 256MB and it improved tremendously, he could actually play the game without lag with the details turned up.

yes its possible to play the game with a 6600GT you just have to keep the graphics on as low as they will go and you still wont get 30FPS constantly, 128MB of video memory just isnt enough, its either a 7600GT 256MB or faster or you will have nothing but pain, suffering, hellfire, and death, literally, it isnt even worth your time trying to play the game with less.

In my oppinion although a 7600GT 256Mb will play this title and most other recent titles its not going much further then that, anything more demanding and this card is toast, so you can either save up a couple more months, wait for prices on the Core 2 and Geforce 8 to come down or be stuck with a substandard computer that wont play a single DX10 game.

later

Reply to XeenRecoil

Quote :

...128MB of video memory just isnt enough, its either a 7600GT 256MB or faster or you will have nothing but pain, suffering, hellfire, and death...

I must disagree. As much as I agree with you that it is a good idea to get something of the current generation for having a bit better future compatibility, the 6600 is not crap. I was the one causing the pain, suffering, hellfire and death on the maps in the demo, so I don't see where the crappiness of the gameplay is coming from.

That is, of course, unless you attribute it to the fact that your friend had a P4 and I have an Athlon. Then the difference can become much more clear.

And about dx10? The games won't be fully taking advantage of it for some time now, and by then the hardware will be in the 9000 series and the R700 or R800 (or whatever they will call it) so anything today will be "total crap." Even until the beginning of this year dx9c was still not fully tapped by most games, and even then they have retained dx8 compatibility for even older cards for most games. The same will happen for dx10. It'll just run in dx9 mode, which is a far cry from NOT being able to play the games at all.

Reply to elpresidente2075

Quote :

yes i would get yourself a E6300 CPU and at 1GB-2GB of ram... I also have a gf6600 and i can play the demo with everything on hight except textures on medium and AA 2x and it runs fine... if i had more ram it would run better.. but i bet you you could fin a GF7600GT for around $130 USD

What he said. When Frys has the 6300+PCIe MB:

6300+ECS PCIE MB ($180 Frys)
7900GS ($144 AR newegg)
1GB DDR2 ($90 newegg)
Antec Solo case ($50 AR Frys)
Free PS AR (Frys)
320GB SATAII drive ($80, Frys)
Hanns G 19" LCD ($110 AR)
DVD burner ($30 newegg)
KB+Mouse $50 anywhere
OS ($50 win XP home)

Total: $780 for fast C2D that will play just about any game out today. If you have ANY of this stuff (like a Windows license, keyboard, case, mouse, memory) then you can knock some $$$ off.

Edit: You should start collecting stuff... like an old case or the Free-after-rebate power supply... as soon as possible so that you can get your rebates back and be ready for the big build.

Reply to rdhood

Quote :

I must disagree. As much as I agree with you that it is a good idea to get something of the current generation for having a bit better future compatibility, the 6600 is not crap. I was the one causing the pain, suffering, hellfire and death on the maps in the demo, so I don't see where the crappiness of the gameplay is coming from.

That is, of course, unless you attribute it to the fact that your friend had a P4 and I have an Athlon. Then the difference can become much more clear.

And about dx10? The games won't be fully taking advantage of it for some time now, and by then the hardware will be in the 9000 series and the R700 or R800 (or whatever they will call it) so anything today will be "total crap." Even until the beginning of this year dx9c was still not fully tapped by most games, and even then they have retained dx8 compatibility for even older cards for most games. The same will happen for dx10. It'll just run in dx9 mode, which is a far cry from NOT being able to play the games at all.

I will hazard a guess and say you werent old enough or into computers enough to build your own when Quake 3 and the geforce 256 came out, if you were then you are being a fool, because the jump to DX10 is going to be exactly like that, nothing more needs to be said...

Later

Reply to XeenRecoil

Quote :

Since I am assuming this thing can run bf2 or 2142 at mid to high settings, it will be easily able to run hl2, css, c&c generals, company of heroes.

gerenals and anything else using the source engine runs like a dream. I can also run Oblivion with high settings(but not max) at a high res. I havent tried company of heros yet.

Reply to dmacfour

i for one was not old enough to be around for quake 3 or the geforce 256... so what was the connection to dx10? i for one am really excited to see just what dx10 can do when applied, even tho i'm poor as balls and will not have a dx10 card for QUITE a while.

regardless, what is the deal with dx10 and vista? i believe i've heard that it will like ONLY work with vista? is this true? i sure hope not... that seems pretty illogical to me... but it sure would be a strong shove for users to switch.

Reply to lordaardvark2

Quote :

Since I am assuming this thing can run bf2 or 2142 at mid to high settings, it will be easily able to run hl2, css, c&c generals, company of heroes.

gerenals and anything else using the source engine runs like a dream. .
You gotta love the source engine ... for me HL2 Ep1 with AAx4 HDR and AFx4 ran with 30FPS I was so happy

Reply to melarcky

hell, i sure do, running source games is great for my computer self-esteem.... when i come on here and hear people brag about there 53132 ghz oc's that cost them $5,000 with 6 cores, i kinda feel sorry for my hand-me-down freeby computer... but then i go shoot some people online and my compy does that with flying colors! its so great. not to mention the fact that besides running well, they're GOOD.

...i just wish there was better vehicle inclusion.... only quip.....

Reply to lordaardvark2

For a $700 bucks, I dont think this is too shaby.

GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) > $115.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz > $180.00
pqi TURBO 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 > $94.99
Rosewill R604-P SL 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case > $24.99
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS-430-PMSR/P 430W Power Supply > $33.99 - $15 = $18.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB > $89.99
BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB > $139.99 - $30 = $109.99
NEC 3550A Dual 16x DVD+RW/-RW/CD-RW (48x/32x/48x),16x DVD > $29.99
___________________________________
$740.33 total with s/h
$695.33 overall w/ rebates

Links to the parts-
Motherboard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128017
Processor- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115005
Ram- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820141210
Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147059
Harddrive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148140
Graphics Card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814143049
Optical Drive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827152076

Reply to desidude006

daymnnnnnn.... i may build that! :lol:

good picks. great picks.

Reply to lordaardvark2

For any computer running any Battlefield game (at least recent ones), 2GB of RAM is a must. I could barely run Battlefield 2 on my computer when I had 512MB, and that's saying something for a 4200+ and a 7900GT. Battlefield eats RAM alive. With 2 gigs, I'm running BF2142 on max settings at 1280x1024.

Reply to chedrz

Quote :

For any computer running any Battlefield game (at least recent ones), 2GB of RAM is a must. I could barely run Battlefield 2 on my computer when I had 512MB, and that's saying something for a 4200+ and a 7900GT. Battlefield eats RAM alive. With 2 gigs, I'm running BF2142 on max settings at 1280x1024.

I would, if I had the money.

Reply to desidude006

Well, you might be able to get much more performance by cutting the Core 2 Duo down to a penttium d 820 or 805 saving 80 dollars, and then re-investing that money into another gb of ram.
I played bf2 on my pc with 1gb ram, 1600x1200 settings medium 38fps avg, 80max.

good luck

Reply to billdcat4

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - Cheapest build for bf2142

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