YABR (Yet Another Build Review) - Gamers needed

[smoore]

I mainly play poker. I know this setup will handle that. I'd like some advice from gamers, will this cheap rig run the current games at a decent rate? I'm especially interested in CIV4 with all the eye candy and COD2 eye candy optional.

MSI MBOX K8MM-V AMD Socket 754 AMD Athlon64/Sempron VIA K8M800 Barebone - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 2800+ ClawHammer 800MHz FSB Socket 754 Processor Model ADA2800BOX - Retail

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail

HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 -0A30356 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

CHAINTECH SA6600 Geforce 6600 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

SAMSUNG 204T-Black 20.1" 16ms LCD Monitor

edited for (hopefully) correct memory.

[ninjaunderwear]

It doesn't look to me like that motherboard will support that RAM.

[smoore]

oh crap, good catch. That must be the old wishlist mingling with the new... fixing.

[carniplant]

Your Geforce 6600 256 DDR is not a very good gaming gard, especially for high end games like COD2.The Absolute minimun you should look at is a 6600 GT(the GT part is important) or 6800 series( or ATI equivalent) cards but this will cost you more than your current choice.

[smoore]

goot, goot...

so will a 6600GT pull off COD2 with only a 1.8Ghz proccesor?

[carniplant]

It Should run it but only at low resolutions and with little/no eye candy. I think if you really want to run COD2 with good detail at an acceptable frame rate an AMD 64 3500+ with a 6800gs should be your starting point but like I said in my other post thats gonna add a couple of hundred $ to the cost of your system.

[smoore]

hm, thanks for the advice. I may just get the display now and save a couple more hundred to get the machine I really want.