Looking for advice.

[NoctisReitop]

Blah. Here's the short story version of the story. I'm looking into piecing together a computer that's as cheap as possible, but its purpose will be to run average games (CS Source and Battlefield 2 will be about the most resource intensive progs that will be run). I only need them to run semi-smoothly on low graphics settings. I know I can simply browse newegg and filter by price, but I'm a little worried about getting something that is utterly too low quality. My laptop runs these games pretty well so I'll base what I want agaisnt that. My thoughts are:

|3ghz single core or cheaper dual core|
|256 meg video|
|1 gb ram|
|60-80 gb hdd|
|mobo to support cpu and ram with average fsb and 1 ethernet port|
|avg sound card (integrated sound possibly)|

I have a couple cases, so I might not need to purchase. I also have some psu's, but they might not be powerful enough. It'd depend on the total draw of the system.

I'll just list a few things to open a discussion: Maybe we'll go through this in parts starting with the video card.

Video cards:
I'm primarily concerned about clock speeds. I don't have a lot of experience with different speeds.

1)
Foxconn FV-N84SM2DT GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card:
Chipset ManufacturerNVIDIA GPUGeForce 8400GS
Core clock 450MHz
Stream Processors 8
InterfacePCI Express x16
Memory Clock800MHz
Memory Size256MB
Memory Interface64-bit Memory TypeGDDR2
DirectXDirectX 10
OpenGLOpenGL 2.0
RAMDAC400 MHz
$18.99 Free shipping

How is this looking for a video card to suit my needs? It's lookin' pretty good to me. What obvious detriments would this hold for me?

Motherboard:

1)
Foxconn 671M LGA 775 SiS 671 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU Socket TypeLGA 775 CPU TypeCore 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo / Pentium EE / Pentium 4 / Celeron D
FSB 800/533MHz
Number of Memory Slots2×
240pin Memory StandardDDR2 667
Maximum Memory Supported4GB
PCI Express x161
PCI Express x11
PCI Slots2
SATA 3Gb/s 2
Onboard Video Chipset
Integrated 2D and 3D Graphics
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC883
Audio Channels 6 Channels
Form Factor Micro ATX

$34.99 $6.33 shipping

Pretty much the first half decent mobo with pcie that I found.

I'll stop here for the moment. Seems the rest of my choices depend upon these.

[Yellowhello]

Any particular reason you went with mATX? You could probably get a better ATX mobo for the price.

8400GS... that is the lowest of the lowest in the 8 series. I think that card is better suited for a home theater machine. And who are you kidding, your not going to playDX10 games! I think you can get a better 7 series for the money... Newegg.com - EVGA 128-P2-N441-LX GeForce 7300GT 128MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail I had one in my old machine and it got decent framerates in the BF2 demo.

[NoctisReitop]

Well, I know it won't run any dx10. Wasn't intending to either. I'm not running vista on any of the machines I have. My girlfriend's laptop is the only one that has Vista, and sadly, she's stuck with an intel integrated graphics solution ='( *moment of silence*.
I was thinking matx for the price. I also wanted a 256 meg card, the one you have listed is a 128... The items I have listed are simply average deals on what I'm hoping to achieve. I merely chose them as a starting point to debate over.

[Yellowhello]

Here's a 256MB version of the 7300GT: Newegg.com - ASUS EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/256M GeForce 7300GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

[NoctisReitop]

So the one I have listed is 50mhz core clock faster but the memory interface is 64 bit instead of 128 bit of the one you listed. THose are the differences I notice, is that it? Do those differences merit $35?

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

So the one I have listed is 50mhz core clock faster but the memory interface is 64 bit instead of 128 bit of the one you listed. THose are the differences I notice, is that it? Do those differences merit $35?

I was just speaking from personal experience. I haven't used the 8400GS, but I have used the 7300GT, and it does pretty well in BF2.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

So the one I have listed is 50mhz core clock faster but the memory interface is 64 bit instead of 128 bit of the one you listed. THose are the differences I notice, is that it? Do those differences merit $35?

The 7300GT is a castrated 7600GT
128-bit bus width, 8 Pipelines with 8 TMUs and 4 ROPS.

The 8400GS is a weaker 8500GT
64-bit bus width, 12 Shaders with 8 TMUs and 8 ROPS.

What does this mean? The 8400GS has more pixel pushing power then the 7300GT, but is severely limited in memory bandwidth due to the 64-bit bus. This means the 7300GT can make more use of it's power as it's not as limited in the amount of data it can stream from it's memory to it's GPU, but in turn it also has less horse power to work with.
I don't have any benchmarks to back up my claim, but I think you'd see them work about the same, with the 8400GS probably even faster due to the increased Shaders (which are more efficent then pipelines) and double the ROPS despite half the bus width. Since you don't plan on running very demanding games, the 8400GS would be my choice.

However, I would ditch both of them and go for this card here: Newegg.com - XFX PVT86JUAHG GeForce 8500GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
The 8500GT is my pick for best budget gamer card, it handles even the new DX10 games very well at 800x600, and older games run perfect on it. It outruns the 7600GT, and is between 7600 and 7800GS in terms of power. Granted it'll cost you more, but XFX makes excellent cards and you get a double lifetime warranty on top of the much better performance. If you're on a strict cheap budget though, the 8400GS would be a good pick, or you can probably find a used 7600GT somewhere.

[Tech Geek Deluxe]

Ive had good luck with "Open Box" mobos from Newegg
Newegg.com - Open Box: ASUS P5B-Plus LGA 775 Intel P965

The above is a decent Mobo and will upgrade to Quad Core later.

I suggest the E2160 for a processor ... it will clock stable with stock cooling at 2.4GHZ