OMG NO!!!! not an FX 5200. The 256MB FX 5200 is a total POS. It's like the ricer honda of video cards. The 256MB does NOTHING for performance, all show. The GPU doesn't have the horsepower to handle anything that would benefit from 256MB. Manufacturers put it in luring misinformed people into buying products that are not right for them.

Let me help you major before you spend too much on the wrong parts.

As I see it you were looking at spending around $180 for the CPU, $100 for the MB, $100 for the video card, and $80 for the RAM, total of around $450 or so, is this right?

Okay for that $450 you are WAY better off with a better video card and a different CPU:

Athlon Mobile 2400+: $86 at newegg

The thing about these is that they can be EASILY made to run much higher than default speeds, at least equivalent to a 2.8-3.0 P4, and they're CHEAP.

ASUS A7N8X-E motherboard:$91 at newegg

Comes with GREAT onboard audio for gaming, low CPU utilization, excellent 3D sound, every bit of an Audigy 2 ZS. Built in gigabit... Oh AND it's a great motherboard. All for under $100.

for RAM I use Kingmax PC3500 $85 from newegg for a stick of 512.

Need a CPU fan, say $15-20 or so.

so we're at ~$300 after tax, and you can end up with room for a MUCH better video card.

For video card I'd recommend at a minimum a 9600XT, your budget should allow an nVidia Geforce FX 5900XT (some manufacturers call these 5900se). What I would do (and did) is go to eBay and get a Radeon 9700 Pro. About the same price as the 9600XT and signifiacntly faster.

I have both a Radeon 9700 Pro and a GeForce FX 5900XT and the 9700 Pro is faster in some games, while the 5900XT is faster in others. Mostly Doom3 will favor the nVidia more.

If you need help with this let me know. I am VERY well versed in budget gaming systems, as I have two myself, and have helped other friends and relatives save major dough on their computers. If you want to buy the stuff, I can even build it up for you and verify stability with the overclocking.

Just whatever you do, please do not get that 5200. I hang out on some gaming forums too, and I can't count the number of misinformed people who come in with low gaming performance only to find out they wasted money on a total DOG of a video card.

Just to put things into perspective on the speed (or lack thereof) of the FX 5200, it is about the same raw speed as my 4 year old GeForce *2*, just with more memory and support for more recent DirectX extensions (DirectX 9). The midrange GeForce 4 cards (GF 4 Ti 4200) are significantly faster than the FX5200s and many come with 128 megs. They also go on eBay for around $50

You can see some more Doom3 graphics benchmarks here:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2146&p=5

Note the absence of the FX 5200, it should be near the 9200 in speed, the Ti 4200 would be between the 5500 and Ti 4400. The 5900XT will be well above anything listed on that particular page, as would the 9700 Pro.

Also, for Doom3 CPU benchmarks look here:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2149&p=7

Any mobile 2400+ will reach AT LEAST equivalent to an AthlonXP 3200+. At that speed, you are squarely between a 2.8 and 3.0 P4, which means you're giving up ZERO CPU performance, yet spending about $100 less. And in a situation where budget is constraining your video card selection, that $100 is invaluable.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the crappier your graphics card, the more it is the bottleneck and the less your CPU matters. That particular graph has a VERY high end graphics card running at low resolution so that the effect of the CPU is amplified. In your situation, CPU is not going to have nearly as profound an effect on performance as you see in the CPU charts.

 

True.

The bottom line though is that his stated system is not well setup for gaming. With a bottom of the line video card and a mid to high end CPU. Balancing things out to bring both into the midrange on the same budget will yield significantly better performance and value for what he's looking to do. To this end EITHER nVidia or ATi is a good choice, as long as he's in the correct market segment for his application.

I'm not loyal to a particular company, as you may be able to tell from my owning both an ATi 9700 Pro and a nVidia 5900XT.