build for lil bro $250 budget

[Predator6sic6]

My brother has a 4 year old dell that he wants me to bring up to gaming specs. He wants to be able to run gears of war, team fortress 2,counter-strike , battlefeild 2, unreal tournament 3, and left for dead at med-high settings at 1024x768 resolution.

I was plaining on using the same case, the same hard drive, and I got a spare 500w PSU he can use. So all he needs is a CPU, Motherboard, RAM, and GPU.

Here are the parts I picked out let me know what you think.

Mobo:
MSI K9VGM-V AM2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130542

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103732

RAM:
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

GPU:
MSI 8600GTS OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127284

Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[xytrius]

Predator6sic6, the Dell will not accomadate a standard ATX board, you would have to drill holes in the MB tray to hold the risers for ATX accomodation (will be a pain to deal with if any of their non-standard holes are close).

You would also have to modify the back of the case to accomadate a standard PSU (Dell is not industry compliant even with PSUs).

Any reason for AMD? There are many intel boards that can take P4 all the way up to Core 2, you could buy what you can afford right now and upgrade later.

[Predator6sic6]

xytrius thanks for the tip on the dell case, I'll have to look at it and see if it would be worth the effort to drill the mobo tray. If not I do have a spare very old and ugly case that will accept a ATX board.

No particular reason for AMD I wanted to get him a dual core and the 3800+ seemed like the best bang for the buck.

Thanks for your input

[bizkit35461]

Not just the board but the connections inside are also different if I remember correctly. A lot more work than it's really worth to do everything to convert it

[little_scrapper]

Yea Dell is intentionally using totally proprietary hardware so that you cannot easily upgrade. It tends to force people to rebuy from them.

AMD is a very good choice for a moderate gaming rig as the higher end X2's are more then up for the job and are CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!!!

What are X2 3800's going for? about $50 these days.

EDIT: hehe too funny I guessed the price before I looked at the link!

[xytrius]

I would suggest getting rid of the Dell case on ebay (there would be people who need the case, and you will just reduce its value if you modify it, the max value is what you can get right now).

You can then begin to search for a good case/system since you have a limited budget. There will be many in this forum who can help you with a build given your restrictions of budget and requirements. You can also look at local (to where you stay) rebates and discounts for components required. It is usually a complex skill of finding good parts at the right time that can enable a quality low cost build.