Casual gaming desktop

[tiercel]

So, I'm looking for a desktop platform for casual gaming. By "casual" I mean:

I'm not going to be building a box from scratch
I'm not going to be overclocking
While I could probably figure out how to replace a graphics card on an existing system, I prefer not to have to worry too much about whether card X matches motherboard Y, power supply Z, case A, and cooling system B
I'm not looking to drop a lot of money, certainly less than $1000, ideally $600-700 at most for the box (w/o monitor)
I probably won't be playing any hardcore graphics hog 3D FPS games (e.g. Crysis)


Right now I play a few (very) old games on a laptop with integrated graphics and honestly I'm getting tired of not being able to play any game made in, oh, the last five years. Probably will wind up playing more RPG, RTS type games (though I know the graphics on those have come a long way since the venerable Diablo II and Age of Empires II).

I know I can get a low-end rig through Dell/HP/refurbished-deal-of-the-week-at-buy.com, which has integrated graphics, and then possibly figure out about dropping in a semi-decent card (I've read decent things about the Radeon HD 4770 as a graphics-power-per-dollar choice). If I try to add a graphics card directly through Dell or HP, I'm pretty much stuck adding only a garbage ATI Radeon HD 4350 or nVidia GeForce GT 220 (unless I go to XPS/Alienware, and then I'm stuck buying way more machine than I probably need or want, much less forget about budget), and since this is probably the first time in my life I've cared at all about the graphics card I feel like I can do better than that.

I tried looking at ibuypower.com and have cobbled together the following from their current Weekly Special B (http://www.ibuypower.com/IbpPages/WeeklySpecial.aspx):


iBUYPOWER Gamma Gaming Mid Tower Case (the most basic case)
AMD Phenom™ II X2 550 Black Edition Dual-Core CPU (I've read that so far, many games don't necessarily leverage a quad core so that, per dollar, the best thing often to do is crank up the clock speed on a dual core rather than get four slower cores -- and this 3.1 GHz processor is their highest speed AMD dual core, and seems to have high reviews, e.g. at Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680))
4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module
ATI Radeon HD 4770 - 512MB
Asus M3A78-CM -- AMD 780V/SB700 Chipset w/Integrated ATI video, 8-channels, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Single PCI-E MB
450 Watt -- Standard Power Supply
500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s
22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE
No O/S (I figure I can just use one of my old XP disks from a computer I'm no longer using for now, then worry about Win7 when the first 6000 patches have come out and maybe the price has come down and/or just buy an upgrade to WinXP, etc.)
No monitor (I'll worry about that separately -- there seem to be decent monitor deals floating around, and even though I know monitor speakers aren't special I wouldn't mind saving on footprint against my desk space)
iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard, iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse (OK, I could probably scavenge old ones but these are only $12 for the two, basic as they are new -- I suppose I could look/go for a deal on a wireless combo, but this is pretty small potatoes one way or the other)
iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System (though I'll probably look to go with some kind of basic monitor type speakers to start for less footprint, these are only +$4. again, small potatoes one way or the other - i can always add real speakers later if I feel the need)


Clocks in at $579 + tax (CA $56.45) + FS = $635.45.

If nothing else it gives me a benchmark; if I'm going to modify some existing basic rig by adding a graphics card, such a rig needs to at least match the modest capabilities of this box and run significantly less than ~$530 after tax and shipping (since the Radeon HD 4770 runs around $100), and it needs to be one that I know I can easily install such a card into.

(The fact that I will have to install an O/S is mildly annoying, but I'm a lot better/more experienced with monkeying with software than hardware, and in any case for any basic rig that comes with Vista, the first thing I will likely do is reformat and overwrite with XP anyway.)

So, SDers:

Would you consider this to be a decent, casual/budget gaming configuration (within the guidelines I've talked about)?
Can I do significantly better on price for a machine of at least this modest level of capability?


Thanks!

[AznCracker]

Its usually much cheaper to add your own video card in. I don't think this is a great deal, because its cheaper to just buy a pc with integrated graphics and add in the video card yourself. Plus it doesn't come with a OS.

It's not difficult at all to add a video card. All you have to do is plug it into the slot and screw a screw in. Almost all mother boards are PCI-Express compatible, so just buy a PCI-express video card and it will work.

[tiercel]

Hm... thanks for the feedback. Any suggestions as to what I should be looking at currently (or waiting for, if there's nothing currently running that would beat what I've posted so far)?

[muhsheesuh]

This same build will cost you ~$200 less if you build the computer yourself. You will probably end up getting even better parts than these if you take advantage of some of the slickdeals that were posted.
If you keep the budget the same, you can build a much better computer with the prospect of upgrading in the future. This current setup probably has a poor power supply, so that will be the first thing you will have to replace before you can add or swap any of the parts out.

It's really not too hard to build it "from scratch" and if you need any help picking out parts, we have a 'build your own pc' thread here: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=553826&page=80
A lot of the experienced system builders can help you out better than I can in that thread. Just read the first post and post your own response accordingly.

[tiercel]

This same build will cost you ~$200 less if you build the computer yourself.

Given I have no real hardware experience I was kinda hoping to avoid this (hence, my OP), plus, it's not obvious to me (at least just browsing through the front post of the thread linked to) that saving that much money is just a given:

CPU ~ $150 (for a 3.0+GHz dual core)
MB ~ $65 (or more)
RAM ~ $35
GC ~ $100
HD ~ $60
OD ~ $25
Power ~ $30
Case ~ $50

This is already over $500, not including any tax, shipping, mouse, keyboard, or O/S, and this isn't for particularly elite components; this would wind up being a configuration not much different than in my OP.

Could it work out significantly cheaper/better? Probably, eventually, if I find 8-10 buttkicking genuine slick deals, and I manage to go from zero to building my own box from parts without screwing up.

If I can get most of the way there with one or two slick deals, though (premade/configurable system, swapping in a better GPU at most).... well, that's why I phrased my original post the way I did. I can't believe that the *only* way to get a decently priced, modest-but-respectable box for casual gaming is to go straight from parts. If I was some hardcore gamer, possibly, sure, but I'm not.

[muhsheesuh]

You seem pretty convinced that the price and the build you have is cheap and effective for your purposes. Why did you even bother posting then? Just order it and be done with it.

[tiercel]

You seem pretty convinced that the price and the build you have is cheap and effective for your purposes. Why did you even bother posting then? Just order it and be done with it.

If I'd been pre-convinced, I wouldn't have bothered even looking at the thread you linked to about building your own computer. It's just that, I post here looking for advice about a halfway decent deal on a computer I *don't* have to build myself, and I get a reply saying "build it yourself" -- and the reply asserts essentially that it's obvious that will save me a lot of money while linking to a thread whose wiki says, basically, buying parts won't necessarily save me much.

What I was trying to get in bothering to post, I'll try to reword here if I've failed to be clear:

1) Ignoring price for a minute,does a system *like* the one I posted have reasonable specs for what I want it for?

2) If the system itself is reasonable, then is the price for that system reasonable? If not, what should I look for instead?

...what I'm getting so far is that the answer to #2 is "not really, and probably look for some system you can plug your own GPU into" and not much about #1.

*If* the system I've posted is probably OK for "casual gaming" in the way I'm talking about, *and* if the price is really not that good, then what system should I get instead, that has similar specs but a clearly superior price? (Or, if there's no deals out there right now, what would be a reasonable price for these kinds of specs that I should wait/look for?)

[meowmix52]

Given I have no real hardware experience I was kinda hoping to avoid this (hence, my OP), plus, it's not obvious to me (at least just browsing through the front post of the thread linked to) that saving that much money is just a given:

CPU ~ $150 (for a 3.0+GHz dual core)
MB ~ $65 (or more)
RAM ~ $35
GC ~ $100
HD ~ $60
OD ~ $25
Power ~ $30
Case ~ $50

This is already over $500, not including any tax, shipping, mouse, keyboard, or O/S, and this isn't for particularly elite components; this would wind up being a configuration not much different than in my OP.

Could it work out significantly cheaper/better? Probably, eventually, if I find 8-10 buttkicking genuine slick deals, and I manage to go from zero to building my own box from parts without screwing up.

If I can get most of the way there with one or two slick deals, though (premade/configurable system, swapping in a better GPU at most).... well, that's why I phrased my original post the way I did. I can't believe that the *only* way to get a decently priced, modest-but-respectable box for casual gaming is to go straight from parts. If I was some hardcore gamer, possibly, sure, but I'm not.

I would suggest you build it yourself. Much more fun :) Albeit time-consuming (only about an hour of your time). Also it is cheaper than the one you posted above, by more than $100 (which is like 1 day of salary for me...) And btw, 550 x2 is around 100 not 150 dollars