So my friends pc is quite old and on its last leg. It delivers sub par performance at even the lowest settings in the games he plays. Mostly games like Vindictus and Tera. So we have discussed his options, and given his budget ($500) and his reluctance to build it himself, have decided that I will do the parts choice and build for him. I recently did a complete overhaul of my system and have some used parts which I will include as well as some new options. I think the build is fairly solid.
A link to the build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/CablePool/saved/MWt9TW
I think everything is set for the parts choices as the graphics and ram will be from my previous build. But I have some concerns for the processor. I am unsure whether to purchase a brand new Pentium or use my old FX6300. I have some reservations about using my old processor and motherboard due to the fact that I want it to last as long as possible and I have already put a year of hard use through my cpu and motherboard. But I also have some concerns about the pentium. It only has two cores, and though they are very fast, there are still just two of them (I do plan on overclocking the pentium if that is in fact what I choose for the final build). I am concerned that future titles (next 5 years or so) will start to faze out dual core support. Though considering the types of games he plays I am not sure it will be that big of an issue but I still want some input on it.
Note items set in stone: RAM and GPU
Also if anyone has better choices for parts please feel free to chime in. Note that I will be buying many of the parts local from micro center so that's why I have the mobo's price manually entered. And lastly he only games at 1600 x 1050.