The computer I'm currently using I bought and put together about 2 years ago and finally decided it was time for a slight upgrade. I went to Newegg to take a look around and figured it be easy peasy, but then I was running into things I'd never heard of before. I'll admit I'm not up on what exactly is the best deal for the best money, or what version of X is better than Y, I just wanted something that would beat my old computer. I made a wishlist of the core things I'd be needing to upgrade and a friend mentioned this site for tips and info when I stumbled on the forums.

Keep in mind I'm not looking for a jesus computer, I mainly play WoW, CoD4, and a couple random games that aren't exactly graphicaly demanding. But, I've bought a couple games through the past year that haven't really played as well as I had hoped which left me putting them off until an upgrade (The Club, Kane & Lynch, and hopefully Crysis)..

The Newegg wishlist is;
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/ [...] tle=pewpew

If that doesn't work, the below is what I'm looking at:

Rosewill TU-155-P Black 0.8mm SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

BIOSTAR A770 A2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

MSI N9600GT 512M OC GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor Model ADX6000CZBOX

Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3500320NS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

I have a 750W power supply that I bought recently due to an unfortunate power surge that fried my old one, and a CD/DVD drive that I'll be taking from my current PC.

I'm basically needing someone more knowledgable than myself (won't be hard to find ) saying if this is good to go or not And if it isn't (or is too), would there be something different you would buy for not a whole lot of a difference price wise. I'm not wanting or needing a super computer, just something where I can dabble around in a few newer games without any major hiccups.

and sorry if this was written longer than needed, I get carried away sometimes

CoD4 & Crysis are kinda demanding. Perhaps, you can live with lower in-game video settings/resolution. The 9600GT is barely ok for a 19" if the games are maxed out. If you have the money, why not support AMD and pick up the best bang HD4850? You can even swap out the cpu with 5000+ BE and overclock it to 3Ghz on stock voltage if it saves you money.

I like your support of AMD but you might be better off with something like a E2180 and a P35 motherboard which combined will cost you ~$140 or even better a P45 which would be ~$170 and you can overclock to 3GHz and spend a little more on the video card and go for the 4850. Also you could get the regular 7200.11 instead of the ES.2 and save $15.

That looks good, although if you could afford a 4850 that would be a big plus.

Newegg has a combo deal with the 4850 and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+.
I think its 25 bucks off.
I would get a MSI board instead of biostar
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130173

my current computer can play cod4 fine (enough for me ^_^). I have 2 19" monitors that I use for gaming/watching movies which are a couple years old but still do the trick. I'm guessing my next step after the computer would be bigger and better monitors, but that's for another time

I've never done any kind of overclocking or anything to that nature, so I think sticking to stock would be best atm. I've looked at the things you guys have suggested and found the combo Stickmans was talking about, which got me the "4850" and the Athlon 64 X2 6000+. I'm not the AMD fanatic some of you might think, I just don't know anything about what else is out there lol.

The current updated list;

Rosewill TU-155-P Black 0.8mm SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147106

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131013

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136073

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145184

GIGABYTE GV-R485-512H-B Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125224

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103773

-- I'm not exactly sure what Crossfire would be when it comes to the video card, but I'm assuming it'd still work with the mother board I got.. Any comments, suggestions or changes would be greatly appreciated I'm very eager to get this shipped and put together, so I'll be ordering what I put tonight unless there's some major problem with what I picked

After reading again what you guys said first, akhilles said if I could live with the lower in game settings and resolution then it'd be ok I'm guessing.. What exactly would this set up get me with Crysis? I grew up on games that looked like giant blocks yet got me the most entertainment even to this day, so I'm not looking for anything over the top, just something that can run the game semi-smoothly

Thanks again for the replies, after looking through some other threads it seems like the majority of you know your stuff. I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye on this site

so it turns out, after reading things again, the video card is pci-e 2.0 x16 but the motherboard doesn't say it is 2.0.. was that a bad pick?

all pci-e 2.0x16 cards are backwards compatible with pci-e1.0x16 it won't make any difference.The pci-e 2.0x16 socket just offers double the bandwidth

would it be better to find a mother board with 2.0, or would it not really make that big of a difference?

right now unless you are looking to get a GTX280 it really doesn't matter that much but in a year or so if your looking to upgrade just the GPU then you might wish you had the extra bandwidth.

AMD/ATI is certainly on the upswing, and midrange is now better than ever.

That said, I'm not particularly fond of your choices, particularly for gaming.

List your budget and how much you'd be willing to deviate from it. One thing I want to know is what you're doing about operating system.

I will say that if you have a reasonable budget, I'd go for a 4850 with an Intel motherboard and either a cheap dual core or a Q6600 if you can go the $199.99. I'm not liking a lot of the AMD motherboards, and the one you've chosen is an outdated 570 nvidia chipset. I don't know if you're planning on SLI, but it would be a step backwards with such a chipset. Aside from the question of chipset, video card, and processor, I like your choice of RAM. I would consider other cases within that price range. The CoolerMaster Centurion is a good bet.

Reply with a more specific budget, and I'll have a better idea of what to recommend, as will others.

At least stick with BIOSTAR A770 A2+ which is an AM2+ mobo, unlike ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe. Or better yet, ASUS M3A since you're not overclocking.