Alright I am going to upgrade my computer. I have some things already. What do I not have? An ATX motherboard, a new tower, more RAM, and a new processor. So I need a few suggestions. I want to be able to play most new games coming down the line. I'd like (mostly) just to run World of WarCraft flawlessly at max settings. Try to keep this as cheap as you can, I'm not looking for absolute top of the line gear. 1) A motherboard than can handle PCI Express x16 and a Pentium Processor (I am thinking 2.6 GHZ or so). Don't ask why I want a Pentium, but I do. Don't suggest Athlon, just help me out with the Pentium deal. It would be nice if the board took both DDR2 as well as old school RAM. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of these, but I don't want the 512 ram I already have to go to waste. Any boards that accept both (I've only seen one) would be nice. If not, oh well. Just DDR2 will be fine then. 2) What isa reliable, cheap brand of DDR2? 3) I need a decent PCI Express video card. nVidia preferably. 4) A VERY simple case. No fancy crap, I hate that. Maybe I'll just grab a cheap Dell case, the simpler the better. That about does it. Any suggestions for any of those five things would be appreciated. Thanks people.

First off, what kind of RAM do u have already, if you have th eold PC133 stuff, then forget about it. If you have RAM like PC2700 or above, then we can work with something here. Anything with PCIx is prob not going to be cheap. The cheapest mobo i found was 132$ at newegg.com. And then for a 256-bit bus PCIx vid card, your looking at 180$ from Nvidia, if you go with 128-bit bus then your looking at as low as 120$. Found a really cool case for 49.99$. And I found memory DDR2 for as low as 63$. Found a 2.8 for roughly 160$. I found this all on Newegg.com But it is going to cost a pretty penny. You can be amused by the simplest of things. The smartest people in the world, over-look the smallest objects. War does not determine who is right, only who is left.

Dude, your "dream machine" is not gonna be cheap, especially since you insist on Intel. You're gonna need a new power supply that supports the new P4 CPU/P4 motherboard, plus it will have to be powerful enough to support your proposed PCI-X video card. I don't know what your definition of cheap is, but here's a rough guess of costs: ATX case w/450 watt P4 PSU = $40 -$100+ (depends on quality) 2.6Ghz/800FSB motherboard/CPU/fan combo = $175 - $250+ (depends on quality) 512mb or 1GB dual channel PC3200 = $75 - $150+ (depends on quality) nVidia PCI-X = $80+ (depends on what you want/need) Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @8x210mhz 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

So what's with the set-in-stone Intel and Nvidia requirements? AMD Athlon XP2200+ Aero7 lite 512mb Crucial pc2700 Abit NF7-s V2.0 80GB Seagate SATA 120GB Seagate SATA Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb Benq FP767-12 17" 12ms SB live 5.1 Digital

Personally for gaming, i rather go for AMD and ATi? >_> Rig #1 Abit IS7 P4 2.8ghz eVGA FX5900 SE OCZ 1GB CL2 Rig #2 Asus K8N-E AMD 64 3000+ ATi 9800 Pro Samsung 1gb

Being able to play most new games & keeping the PC cheap is a tough balancing act. Building a rig that will be able to handle most new games & have some longevity is inherently costly. AMD would definitely be a cheaper alternative, but if you insist on Intel, I'd suggest last gen's chipsets, the 865PE & 875P chipsets. The new 915 & 925 are going to be costly, especially because DDR2 isn't very cheap & PCIe graphics cards aren't the easiest to find yet. If you read any benchmarks around the net from say anandtech.com or extremetech.com, you'll see that the new generation of mobo's perform on par or slightly slower in some diciplines than the previous generation. There's a few factors that can be attributed to that, but the bottom line is, it's gonna be more expensive. I recommend: 1) An 865PE mobo (It's cheaper than the 875P & performs just as fast in most cases, unless you can find a good deal on an 875P mobo) 2)At least a 2.6 proc (2.6C). However, you now have 2 choices of P4's. I'd say, if you stay at or below 3GHz, stay with a Northwood core P4, unless the price between a Northwood & Prescott are very competitive. Personally, I'd stick with a Northwood core for the socket 478 realm. Prescott doesn't appear to be worth it until you reach 3.4GHz+, which I believe is in socket T territory & it runs alot hotter. 3) At least 1GB of DDR400. If you can't afford that, then definitely don't go below 512MB (2 sticks of 256 for dual channel operation). 4)Your current hard drive will suffice, as will onboard sound (for now), unless your really picky about audio, but a good soundcard isn't worth it unless you have a nice set of speakers to go with it. 5) A nice bang-for-your-buck video card can be had in the form of the Nvidia 6600 GT. Although, I'd recommend the base 6800 if you can afford the additional $100 over the 6600. 6) Also keep in mind that you'll want at least a 350W PS & be careful about the case. You may not be able to use the old Dell case because of the proprietary PS's they use. If you can get an off the shelf PS to fit, then I suppose you should be ok. P4C 2.6, Asus P4P800 Deluxe, 1GB Kingston Hyper X DDR400, SB Live! Value, BFG Tech 6800 GT OC