Gaming Computer + 22" Monitor with $500 - February 2012

If you want to build a complete gaming computer (plus 22" monitor) with budget around $500, you can follow this tips. Okay, the first thing that you should to know is I will going to Intel processors, why? well the Sandy Bridge has beat almost all AMD processor today, and sorry for AMD, I still waiting for the best gen of Bulldozer from all of your team. Next, add-on graphics card, yups, you need it for better gaming experience, and I choose the AMD HD 6670 series, it's not the best graphics card for gaming but still great for daily home computer gaming, but not for extreme / hardcore gamer. Okay check my system below.

Gaming Computer $500 (plus 22" LCD Monitor)

1. Processor : Intel Core G840 2.8Ghz
2. Motherboard : ASRock H61M-HVS - LGA 1155 Intel H61, SATA3
3. Hard Drive : WDC 250GB SATA3 Caviar Blue
4. Memory : Kingston DDR3 4GB PC10666
5. Graphics card : HIS Radeon HD 6670 (DX11), 1GB DDR5
6. Power Supply : Seasonic SS-400ES 400W
7. Display/Monitor : LG M2241A 22"
8. Optical Drive : LG DVDRW 24X SATA
Note: (Without Case, mouse and keyboard)

Intel G840 is cheap Sandy Bridge processors, comes with 2.8GHz of default clock speed, 3MB of memory cache, the G840 gaming performance has good enough, even it has closed the i3-2100 edition. ASRock H61M-HVS is cheap socket 1155 motherboards, and I thing it's enough for our system. The 4GB of memory size is not the best, but it has meet almost all minimum requirements of PC games today. AMD HD 6670 is one of my favorite value graphics card for gaming, it can play almost all PC games with medium to high setting.

Here is sample of HD 6670 game benchmark information
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
1. 1280x1024 : 76 FPS
2. 1600x1200 : 61FPS
3. 1920x1200 : 54FPS
(setting (Level: Contingency, 4xAA, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, All settings maxed out) & Bench with Core i7 965 @ 3.8 GHz, Windows 7 64-bit, Catalyst 10.4 AMD driver :: VIA guru3D)

The total cost for this system will meet around $500 or more but I'm sure it can't touch $600. So guys, why not go for i3 or i5 processor? or go for HD 6850? well I make it with balance system, the combination between Intel G840 + HD 6670 is good enough, and remember with less than $600, you can get LG M2241A LCD monitor which it has HDMI port and FULL HD resolution, nice huh?. Good luck.