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[brain_stew]

Ok at $1,050 it was nice, but with the launch of the GTX460 and some decent combo deals, that Dell is not worth $400 more than this rig.
]

That isn't the point. You can't build a rig with those specs for $1200 and an $800 config doesn't change that. You're also missing a copy of Windows 7 x64 HP as well which is worth $100 to many people.

Its not perfect for everybody but for a prebuilt rig its absolutely the best you're going to find.

 

[brain_stew]

And you only have the quad-core not the six-core processor.

What's the diff betwen the GTX460 and the 5870?

What do I gain with 8gb of ram over 4gb?

The 5870 is faster ($230 GPU vs. $400 GPU).

 

[Im_Special]

Hey guys, with StarCraft 2 and all I'm ready to upgrade my old Nvidia 7900GTX video card to something more current, I don't follow them much so could you guys tell me which cards are the most economical right now aka most bang for your buck, I'm not looking for top of the line or anything but something in the price range of 100-200$CAN would be good start. Also of note it would have to be Nvidia based, as one program I use all the time works flawless with Nvidia and not so well with ATI.

Additionally my rig uses a 750W Power Supply if that has any baring, and an old E6600 Core2Duo Processor, the reason I mention my CPU is that I heard somewhere that there could be bogging down issues of either CPU or GPU when they are so far apart in power, not sure if true.

Bumping my self for the new page.

 

[Combine]

I've been extremely lucky with my Dell purchases going back to the 1990's. All of the machine's we've gotten from them have lasted at the very least 5 years. My current one is about to hit that mark and the only thing I've upgraded is the graphics card (from a 7800 to the 8800GT).

But of course, hearing the stories about SCII giving even newer machines headaches, I'm quite hesitant to install it on this one.

Also, the biggest problem with Dell now is how they install so much useless and bloated software on the machines (and put useless virus scanners like McAfee on them whether you like it or not). It's too bad there's no way to tell them not to do any of that.

 

[Blackface]

They already are less than $100 just ask my Athlon II x4 620 @ 3.2Ghz. I see what your saying however, since I had to OC to get that speed and I have no L3. Plus, Crysis still runs like shit on my system.


Also, today only Superbiz has 15% off with code SCHOOL15
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?categry=0&s=athlon+II&x=0&y=0

He could pick up a AMD Athlon II X4 Quad-Core Processor 635 (2.9GHz) AM3 for $85.00

When I said he could upgrade to an X3 or X4 over the X2 now I meant the Ahtlon series. When I said he could pick up an X4 in a year for $100 I was talking Phenom. Should have made that clear

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

Nah, don't want to use it as a HTPC.

I like Stoner's Invisible Glass. I use it on everything and have never had a problem.

 

[Blackface]

Bumping my self for the new page.

5770 or a GTX 460 on sale. Both will dominate the game. 460 is faster, but also more money. You could find one for $190-199 on sale. The 5770 you could find for $150.

 

[f0rk]

My current system is a Q6600 (at stock speeds), a 4890 1gb card and 4gb ram on windows 7 32 bit <).
What's the weakest part of this set up and how long do you think it will be before an upgrade is required to play games well on high? I'm satisfied with in in SC2, but thinking about an upgrade. I saw this, how easy would it be to rip out my old shit (abit motherboard, antec 900 case) and replace it with this bundle? I bought the system online (yoytech, was a very tidy build) and replaced the 8800gt myself. I would do a fresh windows 7 64bit install of course.
Looking at some online comparison charts, the 4890 seems to still be a pretty good card still, is this accurate?

Thanks in advance, so my post is a bit of a mess.

 

[Milabrega]

Here's what I am considering pulling the trigger on:

About the only combo I can put together is $10 off the OS. A day late on the cpu/mobo combo deal.

I was going for power, noise and temp efficiency above all else, but decided the 460's 7db higher fan and 40ish higher wattage at full load is a worthy sacrifice over the 5770 for better performance and drivers.

I used this power supply calculator which put me around 360 so I should be good with that 400 corsair or no?

Any changes I should be making?

Or comparable pre-builts worth considering instead?

 

[DrForester]

Here's what I am considering pulling the trigger on:

About the only combo I can put together is $10 off the OS. A day late on the cpu/mobo combo deal.

I was going for power, noise and temp efficiency above all else, but decided the 460's 7db higher fan and 40ish higher wattage at full load is a worthy sacrifice over the 5770 for better performance and drivers.

I used this power supply calculator which put me around 360 so I should be good with that 400 corsair or no?

Any changes I should be making?

Or comparable pre-builts worth considering instead?

If within your budget I'd probably step up a tad on the Power Supply just in case you add something in the future (Extra optical drive, hard drive, etc).

Here's a combo for your case of choice, and a nice 650w power supply for only $10 more ($115 total for both) 650w might be overkill, but it's a good price and the PSU has some really good reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458428

 

[pyros]

this is the list for my build, first one in over 18yrs, any suggestions or criticism would be great. I need to add a CM HAF X tower to complete my list

1 x Evga X58 Classified Motherboard
1 x Intel Core i7 Processor 930 (2.8GHz/8M Cache)
1 x Cooler Master V10 CPU Cooler LGA1366 Ready (RR-B2P-UV10)
1 x Sapphire HD5970 2GB DDR5 PCIE VGA
1 x Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
1 x Creative Inspire T6200 5.1 Speaker (Black)
1 x Razer Death Adder 3500, 3.5G Optical Gaming Mouse
1 x Sony DRU-870S 24x Int. SATA DvD Writer
2 x WDC Caviar Black 1TB SATA-3 7200RPM 64MB HD
1 x OCZ Pc3-12800 Intel i7 XMP DDR3-1600 Triple Channel 6GB Kit
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit (OEM)
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Home
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W 80+ Silver Power Supply

S$3,879

 

[sharkmuncher]

Looking to buy later this evening. Any suggestions for last min. changes?

 

[Smokey]

this is the list for my build, first one in over 18yrs, any suggestions or criticism would be great. I need to add a CM HAF X tower to complete my list

1 x Evga X58 Classified Motherboard
1 x Intel Core i7 Processor 930 (2.8GHz/8M Cache)
1 x Cooler Master V10 CPU Cooler LGA1366 Ready (RR-B2P-UV10)
1 x Sapphire HD5970 2GB DDR5 PCIE VGA
1 x Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
1 x Creative Inspire T6200 5.1 Speaker (Black)
1 x Razer Death Adder 3500, 3.5G Optical Gaming Mouse
1 x Sony DRU-870S 24x Int. SATA DvD Writer
2 x WDC Caviar Black 1TB SATA-3 7200RPM 64MB HD
1 x OCZ Pc3-12800 Intel i7 XMP DDR3-1600 Triple Channel 6GB Kit
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit (OEM)
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Home
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W 80+ Silver Power Supply

S$3,879

Might as well add a SSD to this machine..

 

[brain_stew]

this is the list for my build, first one in over 18yrs, any suggestions or criticism would be great. I need to add a CM HAF X tower to complete my list

1 x Evga X58 Classified Motherboard
1 x Intel Core i7 Processor 930 (2.8GHz/8M Cache)
1 x Cooler Master V10 CPU Cooler LGA1366 Ready (RR-B2P-UV10)
1 x Sapphire HD5970 2GB DDR5 PCIE VGA
1 x Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
1 x Creative Inspire T6200 5.1 Speaker (Black)
1 x Razer Death Adder 3500, 3.5G Optical Gaming Mouse
1 x Sony DRU-870S 24x Int. SATA DvD Writer
2 x WDC Caviar Black 1TB SATA-3 7200RPM 64MB HD
1 x OCZ Pc3-12800 Intel i7 XMP DDR3-1600 Triple Channel 6GB Kit
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit (OEM)
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Home
1 x OCZ Z-Series 850W 80+ Silver Power Supply

S$3,879

The 5970 is a shitty card, overpriced, way too long/big, no OCing headroom and restricted by its 1GB framebuffer.

Dual GTX 460s are a better buy (2GB versions if they hit in time and are reasonably priced).

Get a Samsung F3 not a Caviar Black, they're too noisy and overpriced.

Get an SSD.

The hell are you buying XP for!? :lol

 

[pyros]

Might as well add a SSD to this machine..

already got a ocz agility ll 120gb, brought it for my mac pro but couldn't find 3.5 brackets

The 5970 is a shitty card, overpriced, way too long/big, no OCing headroom and restricted by its 1GB framebuffer.

Dual GTX 460s are a better buy (2GB versions if they hit in time and are reasonably priced).

Get a Samsung F3 not a Caviar Black, they're too noisy and overpriced.

Get an SSD.

The hell are you buying XP for!? :lol

I got these games from steam,
morrowind, kotor, the witcher, risen, mass effect, oblivion, gothic2 and fallout 1-2, seems there's some issues with win 7 and older titles, didn't want to waste time troubleshooting, booting xp natively might make things easier for me.

thanks for your suggestion, will check on the cards and hd

 

[Salaadin]

already got a ocz agility ll 120gb, brought it for my mac pro but couldn't find 3.5 brackets

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/177-3242663-2398910?a=B002OJO4SY I got this to get my 2.5 ssd in a 3.5 bay. It worked perfectly.

 

[pyros]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/177-3242663-2398910?a=B002OJO4SY I got this to get my 2.5 ssd in a 3.5 bay. It worked perfectly.

thanks, you made my day

 

[Max]

PCGAF after getting a new mobo and new ram installed my PC takes forever to shut down and in the event logs I have a ton of critical's and errors listed for boot up and shut down. I checked "ClearPageFileAtShutdown" to see if it was set at 1, but it's at 0 after googling for people with the same problem. Win 7 64 here.

If anyone has and idea how to fix this other than a clean install

 

[Sanjay]

I got these games from steam,
morrowind, kotor, the witcher, risen, mass effect, oblivion, gothic2 and fallout 1-2, seems there's some issues with win 7 and older titles, didn't want to waste time troubleshooting, booting xp natively might make things easier for me.

thanks for your suggestion, will check on the cards and hd

Kotor, The witcher, Risen, Mass Effect and Oblivion all work fine on windows 7.

I'm sure Morrowind works fine too, not sure about fallout 1/2 and Gothic 2 but I know Baldur's Gate II works fine so I'm sure this will too then.

 

[WEGGLES]

If within your budget I'd probably step up a tad on the Power Supply just in case you add something in the future (Extra optical drive, hard drive, etc).

Here's a combo for your case of choice, and a nice 650w power supply for only $10 more ($115 total for both) 650w might be overkill, but it's a good price and the PSU has some really good reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458428

That one isn't modular. Kind-of worth noting.

 

[DrForester]

Man, what's with newegg shipping prices. Basic UPS 3 day. $7. Next cheapest is UPS second day for $132. :lol :lol :lol

 

[DrForester]

That one isn't modular. Kind-of worth noting.

Didn't notice that. Was just looking at the combo deals for the case he wants. That's a big case though, and the PSU is mounted on the bottom. Non-Modular won't make a huge mess in there.

To be fair I've never had the chance to work with modular PSU's before, but the one in my new rig I just ordered will, so I might change my tune. Can see the advantages of it, but more in a top mounted PSU than lower mounted.

 

[kagete]

Man, what's with newegg shipping prices. Basic UPS 3 day. $7. Next cheapest is UPS second day for $132. :lol :lol :lol

How many lbs are you asking them to ship? An entire build In my experience,sourcing some of the parts from Amazon is the way to go. Especially if you have Prime, as Amazon is way easier to deal with for returns and shipping is ace.

 

[Hawk269]

I dunno. If comparable Intels are thought to generally outperform their AMD counterparts, I like this rig better.

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668627.php

Since I am a noob...how about this gateway? Will it be that much better than the one you linked??

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668723.php

Thanks!

BTW...I want to be able to hook this up to my HDTV, run it at 1080p etc. So, whichever rig you guys recommend, at minimum, I want to run something like Starcraft 2 on Ultra at 1080p rez. with a good frame rate etc.

I just want to buy one, bring it home, hook it up via HDMI to my Tv and hook up a wireless keyboard/mouse and be good to go...so ideally it should be a pre-built rig that will allow easy hook up for both video/audio.

Thanks again for the input...I am too much of noob to build one myself..so I think I am settling on a pre-built.

 

[DrForester]

How many lbs are you asking them to ship? An entire build In my experience,sourcing some of the parts from Amazon is the way to go. Especially if you have Prime, as Amazon is way easier to deal with for returns and shipping is ace.

Case is heavy, that's probably why. I also want everything to get to me on Thursday or Friday. Checked Amazon and everything was more expensive, except the case (would have saved $10, and the processor (same price)

 

[kinggroin]

The 5970 is a shitty card, overpriced, way too long/big, no OCing headroom and restricted by its 1GB framebuffer.

Dual GTX 460s are a better buy (2GB versions if they hit in time and are reasonably priced).

Get a Samsung F3 not a Caviar Black, they're too noisy and overpriced.

Get an SSD.

The hell are you buying XP for!? :lol

Whoa, what the hell?

The 5970 is long as a sunavabitch, and definitely overpriced, but it's hardly a "shitty" card by any stretch of the imagination stew. A shitty value is more like it, and def. getting two 460's is a much better way to go.

However, the 5970 not having any OC headroom is just plain fucking wrong. I mean, way off the fucking mark my friend. The 1GB framebuffer is hardly a crippling limitation too. For the former, I can OC my low-end Sapphire model from 725mhz core to 950mhz. Not sure what planet you're from where that's considered low headroom. Memory too, can be pushed to 1200mhz. The latter hasn't prevented me from running damn near all my games at 1080p max details 8xAA at way over 60fps no-vysnc. It isn't until resolutions past that and WITH high-end i7 9xx CPUs that we're finally seeing the GPU become the bottleneck in the chain. Of course, if you REALLY need over 1GB, there's always the SLI 480, or the Ares as an option. Both being equally shitty values as well :lol

Yeah, hardly a shitty card. In fact, a pretty incredible card that unfortunately isn't priced as well as it performs.

 

[pyros]

Kotor, The witcher, Risen, Mass Effect and Oblivion all work fine on windows 7.

I'm sure Morrowind works fine too, not sure about fallout 1/2 and Gothic 2 but I know Baldur's Gate II works fine so I'm sure this will too then.

ok, will try them in win 7, but still going to keep xp ready, this build will be my first window pc, and steam troubleshoot threads scare me

 

[leroidys]

So is DX11 worth it at all? I'm looking to get a relatively budget card, and I'm looking at getting a Radeon HD 5750 @ 120 after rebate. Alternatively, I could get a radeon hd 4870 for 110, which it seems offers better performance on most games today. It seems to me it would be better to get the DX 11 card now, and then when the cards get cheaper and DX 11 is actually used, I could get another card and run them in xfire. If I got a 4870 I would basically have to start over. Is this logical? Or should I just get the card that runs games better now, but then have to start from scratch when dx 11 becomes prevalent?

 

[Aselith]

I was looking at processors and I noticed in some reviews for this one that they were talking about unlocking 4 cores...how does this work? And does anyone know potential hazards? I think I'm going to buy it regardless because 2 cores seems like enough to me. I'm not going to be burning DVD's and watching movies while a play a game so I'd rather have a higher clock speed on fewer cores.

I may do the unlocking though if it is worth and it won't most likely kill my processor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846

Also, anyone had experience with/ have an opinion on this processor? Seems pretty solid and a great price. 5 star rating on 275 reviews so I can't believe it's a piece of shit 100 or not.

One other question...if a motherboard says it can handle Phenom II processors, is it going to have issues with Phenom II x2 processors? I'd assume the x2 means the core count. Should I step it up to a board that handles x3 and x4 Phenom II's and would there be issues there? Basically, I can't find a board specifically saying it handles Phenom II x2 so I want to make sure I get one where there won't be issues. I found a nice ASUS board for $100 but it says it works with Phenom II and doesn't mention x anything.

 

[Gouty]

Will it be that much better than the one you linked??

Well for starters you may notice the CPU in our respective links are the same speed but they’re technically different, yours being the newer of two. I’ve read they’re by and large the same but that yours is a little easier to overclock. Keep in mind I’m not speaking from first hand experience. The OC’ing however appears to be a moot point as the bios for these Gateways prevents much tweaking. Your computer has an extra gig of ram with room for greater expansion but for general purpose computing and gaming 8 gigs is more than adequate. More doesn’t hurt but if we’re talking about the difference between $200 I don’t find that extra gig to be a particularly compelling feature. The HDD’s and graphic cards are identical. I’d take a look at the differences listed under external ports as there are some differences there. Oddly enough the cheaper of the two lists 7.1 audio while the other only has 5.1 listed. Not sure what that’s about. The only other thing worth mentioning is the bluray drive. I know very very little about computers so if anyone else wants to weigh in on this then please do but from where I’m sitting it looks like you’d be paying an extra $200 for a bluray drive that only reads and 1 gig of ram. The cheaper of the two appears to be the better value.

 

[Midas]

Memory question. You said that 6 GB with an i5 would reduce it to single channel or something like that. What about 8 GB? Would that work with an i5 for a good result or is 4 GB the only way to go?

 

[Osaka]

ok, will try them in win 7, but still going to keep xp ready, this build will be my first window pc, and steam troubleshoot threads scare me

They wouldn't really sell the games on Steam if they didn't work on the latest Windows.

You're fine.

 

[desh]

Here's what I am considering pulling the trigger on:

About the only combo I can put together is $10 off the OS. A day late on the cpu/mobo combo deal.

I was going for power, noise and temp efficiency above all else, but decided the 460's 7db higher fan and 40ish higher wattage at full load is a worthy sacrifice over the 5770 for better performance and drivers.

I used this power supply calculator which put me around 360 so I should be good with that 400 corsair or no?

Any changes I should be making?

Or comparable pre-builts worth considering instead?

Here are some more combos that might interest you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458438

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458447

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.446730

Not sure how that ASUS mobo compares with the Gigabyte you have chosen.

 

[IrishNinja]

Hey GAF - looking to buy a laptop next month @ best buy (no interest for 18 months looks good from here), was looking to spend around $500/less (ideally) on something to run my steam games/diablo 3 when its out/emulators (i dont know if i have a chance at ps2/GC emulators, but that'd be cool), pretty much just want the biggest screen size possible for that price - they've got a few dual cores with 4GB RAM, 500 GB of space, win7 etc but i dont know if the graphics cards are decent for the price or not, can anyone check the site & make some recommendations?

battery life isn't too big a deal, as it'd likely be plugged in at home/work, just never had one before so i'm not sure what else i should be looking for here.

ps debated posting in the OT laptop thread but this one has brain stew.

 

[SilverLunar]

Hey guys,
So i am trying to build myself a PC with a $800 budget, i really can't afford more than this.

I looked over some articles on how to build a gaming pc for a certain price range, the problem is that i have never done this before and I want a complete list of what to get in front of me so i though that this...:
http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/gaming-desktop-computer.html

..seems like a good choice? what do you experts think of it? parts that you think should be replaced etc?

getting parts that are upgradeable are a must of course.

 

[Mr_Brit]

Hey guys,
So i am trying to build myself a PC with a $800 budget, i really can't afford more than this.

I looked over some articles on how to build a gaming pc for a certain price range, the problem is that i have never done this before and I want a complete list of what to get in front of me so i though that this...:
http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/gaming-desktop-computer.html

..seems like a good choice? what do you experts think of it? parts that you think should be replaced etc?

getting parts that are upgradeable are a must of course.

Just look at Hazaro's list. The general gist is to get either an i5/PHII X4 or X6, 4GB RAM, a GTX 460, a high-mid range mobo with good reviews, a Coolermaster Hyper 212 plus, a cheap DVD drive, a 1TB Samsung F3 HDD and a 500W PSU if you're not planning to CF/SLI or a 750W if you are. You can choose the case yourself but good choices would be Antec or Coolermaster's midrange setups. Put that together and then OC the CPU and GU for some excellent performance.

 

[Hazaro]

Hey guys,
So i am trying to build myself a PC with a $800 budget, i really can't afford more than this.

I looked over some articles on how to build a gaming pc for a certain price range, the problem is that i have never done this before and I want a complete list of what to get in front of me so i though that this...:
http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/gaming-desktop-computer.html

..seems like a good choice? what do you experts think of it? parts that you think should be replaced etc?

getting parts that are upgradeable are a must of course.

Some small upgrades:
x6 for $40 more
1TB for $20 more
Cooler: Vendetta II, Mugen II, CM 212+, N520 ($30-$40)
i5 system for ~$60 more, but won't be upgradable most likely. Will have better near term performance

 

[SilverLunar]

Thanks for the quick replay! Will most likely use my HD TV as the monitor so i don't have to worry about this aspect.

bookmarked, need to write down the parts, thanks again.

 

[Salaadin]

Amazon DOTD:
Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green Hard Drive - $55.49
http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27

Figured Id pass it on in case anyone needs some extra storage. Im tempted.

 

[Midas]

Does anyone know about a good Wireless N PCI adapter with support for Win 7 64bit?

 

[Nabs]

Amazon DOTD:
Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green Hard Drive - $55.49
http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27

Figured Id pass it on in case anyone needs some extra storage. Im tempted.

just remember this is green (5400 RPM)

 

[Milabrega]

Here are some more combos that might interest you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458438

Thanks going to add this one in and finally pull the trigger now.

 

[Anton Sugar]

So, has anyone ever shipped a computer? I built my brothers and now need to ship it to him...

 

[vocab]

Is there an updated build for the ultimate budget PC? I need something for a neighbor, that's probably the best bang for your buck (not shit). It doesn't need a good video card at all, and is strictly for internet/poker/email.

 

[Minsc]

ok, will try them in win 7, but still going to keep xp ready, this build will be my first window pc, and steam troubleshoot threads scare me

There's really no need. They all run in 7, pretty much everything that works in XP runs in 7 (64-bit to boot). I have hundreds of games from the early 00s and 90s, and they all run in 7.

 

[1-D_FTW]

So, has anyone ever shipped a computer? I built my brothers and now need to ship it to him...

Ship it in the computer case box. I assume you kept the Styrofoam for it. It'll be nice and snug. Just like all those Dell's that ship.

Just weight it, write down the dimensions of the box, and go to all the different shipping sites to determine who's cheapest.

There's really no need. They all run in 7, pretty much everything that works in XP runs in 7 (64-bit to boot). I have hundreds of games from the early 00s and 90s, and they all run in 7.

Pretty sure there's plenty of problem games. Maybe it's wrong, but Steam makes a big deal out of saying Dirt 1 isn't supported by Windows 7. And that's only a couple years old.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Ship it in the computer case box. I assume you kept the Styrofoam for it. It'll be nice and snug. Just like all those Dell's that ship.

Just weight it, write down the dimensions of the box, and go to all the different shipping sites to determine who's cheapest.

I wish I'd thought of this before I tossed the box

 

[Curufinwe]

Hey GAF - looking to buy a laptop next month @ best buy (no interest for 18 months looks good from here), was looking to spend around $500/less (ideally) on something to run my steam games/diablo 3 when its out/emulators (i dont know if i have a chance at ps2/GC emulators, but that'd be cool), pretty much just want the biggest screen size possible for that price - they've got a few dual cores with 4GB RAM, 500 GB of space, win7 etc but i dont know if the graphics cards are decent for the price or not, can anyone check the site & make some recommendations?

For $500 you're not going to get a discrete graphics card and I think you'll struggle to run Diablo 3 without one.

I am also looking to buy a laptop from Best Buy soon for about that price, so hopefully you'll get more (and better) responses than mine.

 

[Minsc]

Pretty sure there's plenty of problem games. Maybe it's wrong, but Steam makes a big deal out of saying Dirt 1 isn't supported by Windows 7. And that's only a couple years old.

DiRT works great, you can't go by that crap. Just beat it 100% the other week actually.

 

[Diablohead]

dirt 1 works on my windows 7 64bit, only problem is that the game engine is shit and runs crap, grid improved on that however and dirt 2 made it one of the best performing pc engines out there.