I need help building my computer economically, help?

Question

Well i'm in a desperate situation right now and need help. I have a budget of about $400-490 to make myself a sick gaming computer. here are some specs i got on some computers:


Computer#1
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor

G.SKILL 3GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

8600GT- nVidia PCI Express Video Card

250 gb Hard drive 7200 rpm

Sony DVD thing

windows Vista home premium.


Computer#2

Processor

AMD Phenom 9600+ 64 Bit Quad Core Socket AM2+ 4000K Cache

Motherboard

Foxconn M61PMV Socket AM2+/ GeForce 6100/ DDR2/

Memory

4 GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel

Video Cards

EVGA nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1GB VGA/DVI/HDTV

Hard Drives

320GB 7200RPM SATA2 8MB Cache

DVD Drives

22x DVD Recorder Dual Layer

Sound Card

5.1 Channel High Definition Output

Case

Black Logisys Case-51 UFO Computer Case, w/ 80mm RGBY LED Fan, USB2.0, Model: CS51WBK

Power Supply

450 watt

Operating System

XP Pro pre-installed, activated and updated


Computer#3

CPU AMD Phenom X4 Quad-Core 9750 2.4GHz 4MB Cache 95W
CPU Cooler AMD Phenom X4 Original Stock Fan & Heatsink
Memory 1 Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB/800MHz
Memory 2 Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB/800MHz
Motherboard ASUS M3A78-CM (AMD 780,4DDR2,SATAII,Hybrid CrossFireX,DisplayPort)
Card Reader All-in-One 2.5" USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader/Writer
Hard Drive 1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA II 500GB 16MB
Optical Drive LG 22X GH22NS30 DVD+/-RW Dual Layer SATA Rewriter (Black)
Crossfire Video 1 ATI Radeon HD 3200 256MB Onboard DisplayPort,VGA,DVI-D DirectX10 Crossfire
Crossfire Video 2 ATI Radeon HD 3450 512MB PCI-E2.0 DVI,HDTV-Out,DirectX10 Crossfire
Audio Onboard 6 Channel High Definition Audio
Network Card Onboard Network Card
Case GOLDEN FIELD 8198B Stylish Deluxe Black Mid Tower
Power Supply PRO-POWER 500W Deluxe Switching Power Supply
Assembly Fully Professional Assembled and Tested
Warranty 1 Year Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty

besides that, if you guys can help, what im looking for mainly in a computer is a processor that is duo or quad core, 2.4 ghz and up.
at least 3 or 4 GB of ram
a good video card
and an operating system , XP or Vista.

the motherboard is where i freeze, because i honestly dont know which ones are good or not. if you guys can like build your computers and show your spec on this question please do so! but that it fits in my price range.

P.S: i don't mind buying the parts separately, i heard they come cheaper that way.

Answer 1

The 3rd computer should give you the most "bang" for your buck.

Answer 2

Building is definitely the cheaper way to go (and it's not that hard). For motherboards, ASUS is usually a safe bet. All three processors you mention are am2+ compatible (the first one is natively am2, but am2+ is backward compatible).



Sometimes boards that have am2/am2+ cpu sockets are cheaper than am3/am2+ boards. Sometimes it's the other way around. Since it won't make any difference to you, get whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase.



On the XP/Vista debate, keep in mind that 32-bit operating systems can only support up to 3 gigs of ram. 64 bit XP is a little bit more expensive and a little harder to find, but will yield better overall performance.

Answer 3

I am assuming you have not purchased any parts yet... You are not making an economic decision by purchasing parts and putting together a computer. Id buy a brand name like Dell or HP... They get better deals when buying all these parts in bulk then a person such as yourself buying individual pieces. But if your looking to learn to put a computer together, good luck! I don't know exactly how economic that would be.