I have a challenge for anyone who is willing to accept it.

[drchoi21]

Servers racks generally have a lot of ram and cores, which makes them great for gaming, and Xeons go down in price by exponential rate, which makes them ideal for gaming PC

 

[drchoi21]

AMD FX8320 -100
Gigabyte 970A-UD3 Socket AM3+ ATX AMD Motherboard - 75
nVidia GTX 550Ti 1GB - 60
EVGA 500 Watt 80 Plus Power Suply -45
NZXT Classic Series Source 210 Mid Tower ATX Computer Case -30
WD Blue 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive WD10EZEX - Bare Drive -60
Adata DDR3 4GB - 35
Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -70


from microcenter.com

 

[amtrak2041864]

Sorry for that awkward pause, I thought that no one would help me. But I rasied my limit to 500, I made some more money and 500 seems reasonable. But my computer is crap. I am really getting a new PC for Trainz 2. But here are my specs.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 UltimateVersion 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz, 2327 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name Joathans-PC\Henry Family
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 2.97 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.52 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.41 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.97 GB
Page File Space 4.45 GB


Name NVIDIA GeForce GT 430
Adapter Type GeForce GT 430, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce GT 430
Adapter RAM 1.00 GB (1,073,741,824 bytes)
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1600 x 1200 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32

Crap I know.

But are server chips good?

 

[nicky9499]

Your current motherboard uses LGA775 socket, the absolute fastest chip for this is the quad-core QX9650 which is about US$220 on eBay. This is good enough future proofing for a couple years, but if your board is still using DDR2 memory you might want to get a cheaper CPU for the moment and replace the entire board in a year or so. Capacity wise I would advise get another 1GB module on the cheap bring your total up to 4GB. Buying lots of DDR2 RAM is a waste as you can't continue using them when you upgrade to DDR3.

You should use a significant portion of your budget for a good graphics card such as the AMD 7850 as these can last you for a long time; you can continue using them on the new board as they all fit in PCIe slots. Of course, please also let us know your current power supply ratings (can usually be found on sticker at back or written as a big number on the side). You might need a new power supply if the new graphics card power usage exceeds what your current one can provide. Lol, so much new stuff.

Server chips are built for absolute reliability under 24/7 conditions. You will not be able to overclock them and depending on which motherboard it comes with (usually custom-made), upgrading other parts might also be an issue. Something to consider.

Cheerio,
Nicholas

 

[lewisner]

This graphics card http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-1085MHz...TF8&qid=1393758001&sr=1-2&keywords=gtx+750+ti is an ideal "budget upgrade" - plenty powerful with 2GB onboard RAM. The only disadvantage is that you can't SLI it.

 

[drchoi21]

actually you can modify lga 771 xeons to run on 775 socket which is cheaper than Q9650, but better

 

[drchoi21]

Your current motherboard uses LGA775 socket, the absolute fastest chip for this is the quad-core QX9650 which is about US$220 on eBay. This is good enough future proofing for a couple years, but if your board is still using DDR2 memory you might want to get a cheaper CPU for the moment and replace the entire board in a year or so. Capacity wise I would advise get another 1GB module on the cheap bring your total up to 4GB. Buying lots of DDR2 RAM is a waste as you can't continue using them when you upgrade to DDR3.

You should use a significant portion of your budget for a good graphics card such as the AMD 7850 as these can last you for a long time; you can continue using them on the new board as they all fit in PCIe slots. Of course, please also let us know your current power supply ratings (can usually be found on sticker at back or written as a big number on the side). You might need a new power supply if the new graphics card power usage exceeds what your current one can provide. Lol, so much new stuff.

Server chips are built for absolute reliability under 24/7 conditions. You will not be able to overclock them and depending on which motherboard it comes with (usually custom-made), upgrading other parts might also be an issue. Something to consider.

Cheerio,
Nicholas

The one I choose uses mATX format with standard ATX connectors, so making a Budget gaming rig shouldn't be a problem