Need suggestions for a fast, cheap computer to play internet games.?

Question

What can you suggest for "barebone" components required to play reasonably well on line games.

Answer 1

I'd say an AMD Athlon X2 3200+ processor or faster with 1GB of RAM. AMD's chips are better than Intel for gaming, with the exception of Intel's brand new Core 2 Duo (Conroe) processors, which are the best of all worlds.

For video card, Nvidia 7900GS as a minimum. Those aren't too expensive, around $150

If your budget allows for Intel's Core 2 Duo, go for it. But don't waste money on Pentium-D dual cores. Today's games STILL don't make use of dual cores, so if your choices are a 2.8 Ghz Pentium-D or 3.2 Ghz single core Pentium 4 HT, get the faster single core chip (or better yet, go with AMD)

Answer 2

C-man's got good suggestions, but don't forget a DVD drive, the hard drive and a network card if not integrated into the motherboard (Don't even think about on-line gaming if you're using dial-up). A gig of memory will cost you about $100
This setup is reasonably fast but it's not cheap -- $800+.