Did I make wrong decision on building s775 desktop instead of i3 or cheap x4?

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Smashed Ixnay

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 13, 2006
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My mother asked me to build my nephew a computer. She really didn't want to spend much, so I tried to keep the cost low.


e8500 - $60
ASUS P5N-E SLI - Free
8gb pc6400 - Free
PALIT GTX460 2GB - $75.99
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - $19.99
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 - $59.99
Western Digital WD VelociRaptor 300gb - $69.99
Zalman CNPS9500AT - $35.89
Cyber Acoustics Subwoofer Satellite System speakers - $34.98
Logitech Keyboard K120 - $9.93
Gigabyte GM-M6800 mouse - $14.99
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 550w - $54.99



I had a spare s775 motherboard and 4gb pc6400 RAM, so I built it around that as I could find an e8500 cheap with 4gb ram free, to have 8gb for the setup. I was going to need mostly everything new, so that's where most of the cost was, but I'm kinda doubting I did the right thing to build it around a s775 setup, as it is older. My nephew will only do some light gaming (l4d2, cs:s, The Walking Dead, and flash games).

Total cost is $436.74 for the setup. I could of kept a stock cooler and kept it under $400, but I wanted to give it a mild OC to 3.5ghz, so I bought a better cooler with that in mind. I still need an LCD, but even with a 22-23" lcd, the total will come out to around $550. I actually have a spare Dell 2007wp 20" lcd that I may give him to keep it under $500. I really wanted to keep it under $500 as I know he didn't need anything crazy fast and to try to save her some money, although she told me up to $700 was fine b/c that's what she was going to go spend at Best Buy.


I know the HDD won't run at full SATA 6Gb/s speeds, as the motherboard only supports Sata 3Gb/s, but I got it at a good price, so I jumped on it without really thinking. Now I'm just wondering if I should have spent a little more and at least got an i3 setup, but would have required much more money as the i3 cost more, and then I would of needed dd3 ram along with a motherboard. Had I even chosen a cheap amd x4 setup, I would of needed ram and a motherboard also, which is why I just built it around the s775 cpu.


EDIT:

Had to edit it some as I left some parts out, lol.
 
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thats still a pretty good computer man. itll play most games maxed out im sure your nephew will love it
 
The hard drive won't even saturate SATA 1.5GB bus regardless of motherboard, so I wouldn't worry about that much. The Zalman was a bad buy IMO. Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo is around the same price and cools a lot better.
 
You made a bad call with the PSU as well: That PSU isn't that good quality. If you can, return that PSU and get this significantly higher quality PSU instead:
$59 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

Case wise, IMO, the HAF 912 is a tad outdated since it doesn't have USB 3.0 whereas the similarly priced NZXT Source 210 Elite and Corsair 200R do. Not to mention better looks for either cases.
 
Had to edit the OP because I left some parts out. I knew when I was listing money it seemed too low to be true, lol.


I figure in a year or two I can just buy him a better cpu, memory, and motherboard and he'll have a brand new computer again. I could of bought some a cheaper case, psu, video card, and maybe hdd, but I figure he can still use those later on as they are decent stuff.

I guess the HDD will be more future proof then, because his next motherboard in a year or two will definitely support SATA III speeds. I really hesitated on the heatsink and tried to do some research, but I'm out of the loop on that, so I went with the Zalman. I really didn't even want to spend that much on one, but I figure I better get a good one if I want to OC. I probably should have asked more, but that's what I get for not asking. It's better than stock, so it'll work for now.


Would a Sata II ssd help speed it up or would it be in the same boat as the WD hdd? I have a spare 120gb OCZ ssd just sitting around that I could throw in there to help speed it up if needed. I just didn't want to give him that b/c I know he would probably fill it up fast. I guess I could always put both of them in there and just install Steam on the WD, so he doesn't fill up the SSD quick.
 
Danny Bui said:
You made a bad call with the PSU as well: That PSU isn't that good quality. If you can, return that PSU and get this significantly higher quality PSU instead:
$59 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

Case wise, IMO, the HAF 912 is a tad outdated since it doesn't have USB 3.0 whereas the similarly priced NZXT Source 210 Elite and Corsair 200R do. Not to mention better looks for either cases.
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I'll have to see if Amazon will let me return it. I already opened it up, so I don't know if they will. I only had it maybe 2 weeks, so I will see what they can do.

I didn't even think about the usb 3.0, but it's no big deal now. I guess the motherboard could take care of that in the future. I know having some usb spots on the case do come in handy though. In the future if it's that much of an issue I'll just have to get him a new case also, lol.
 
Smashed Ixnay said:
I figure in a year or two I can just buy him a better cpu, memory, and motherboard and he'll have a brand new computer again. I could of bought some a cheaper case, psu, video card, and maybe hdd, but I figure he can still use those later on as they are decent stuff.
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Again, if there's any part you should replace right now, replace the PSU. That's not a good PSU.

Smashed Ixnay said:
I guess the HDD will be more future proof then, because his next motherboard in a year or two will definitely support SATA III speeds.
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No it won't. It's still basically a regular hard drive. No regular hard drive in the world comes close to the limits of SATA 3.0Gb/s let alone SATA 6.0Gb/s.

Smashed Ixnay said:
Would a Sata II ssd help speed it up or would it be in the same boat as the WD hdd?
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It would. But you have an SATA 3.0Gb/s OCZ SSD which means that it's probably not all that great in the first place. With that said, might as well reuse it if you don't mind being the guy that has to replace whenever that OCZ SSD dies.

EDIT:
Smashed Ixnay said:
I'll have to see if Amazon will let me return it. I already opened it up, so I don't know if they will. I only had it maybe 2 weeks, so I will see what they can do.
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They might let you return it with a small restocking fee. Even with the fee, still worth returning it considering the shit quality of that PSU.
 
e8500 + gtx 460 is a damn good match actually

off-topic, I also like the offspring
 
Yeah, I think you did. I had a single GTX 460 and an E6400 @ 3.3Ghz, and when I upgraded to an i3 2120 it was a WORLD of difference. EVERYTHING was better (games and just general performance). I would say an E8500 to an i3 is a bigger leap than an i3 to an i7.


The good news though is that you can build a cheap i3 system (I'm selling my i3 2120 if you're interested) with used parts, sell your socket 775 parts, and you really wouldn't have spent that much more money.
 
I would say that you got a bad deal on everything... first off, $60 is a lot for an older dual-core. If it were quad-core, that would be about right.

You could have gotten a G630 for that price... a G630 in an LGA1155 socket with a far better upgrade path, I might add. Or even an AMD. The others have mentioned the cooler, but I know that the reason you got stuck paying for that one is because there aren't a whole lot of LGA775 coolers on the market to choose from, limiting your selection.

I feel like the main thing that tempted you was all that DDR2 memory you had access to. But DDR2 is a LOT slower, and more expensive than DDR3 right now. You only really saved $30 by keeping it... if you would have sold your DDR2-800 on eBay like I did, you could have almost paid for a new DDR3 8GB kit.

Second of all, that ASUS P5N-E SLI is not a great motherboard for overclocking at all. I used one once, sold it on eBay for $30 a few months ago. I tried to overclock my Q6600, and it wouldn't budge. Became unstable if I raised it 0.1GHz point above stock, I kid you not. Couldn't overclock the RAM either. It's one of those motherboards that only seems to work right if you don't overload it... I also was thinking of doing a RAM upgrade on it, but I read online that there's instability on that model with more than two sticks of RAM inserted. Getting the idea yet? It's not up to ASUS's usual standards at all, IMO. The nForce 650i chipset is to blame.

The VelociRaptor was also a waste of money. Unless you go SSD, you won't notice much of a performance boost over an ordinary drive, and that's a pretty small hard drive for $70. Could probably have gotten a 1TB for that price, or a 500GB for $10 less.

I'm also questioning why you shelled out $10 for an ordinary K120. There are $6 keyboards that are about as good, and to be honest a lot of people have excess keyboards laying around that came with a new computer or something. You probably could have found one of that quality for free or cheap if you'd shopped around. It's a minor quibble, but it all adds up.

As for the Graphics card and PSU... well, I really think you could have gotten a smaller, higher quality PSU if you had gone with a GTX 650. Roughly the same performance but draws a third of the power. You'll want to replace that PSU if you ever run anything more demanding than the single 460GTX, although I think it could handle it temporarily.

Overall... better luck next time, but since you've already sunk that much money into it, you might as well have them use it for a while.

Honestly, long term, you actually costed them money. Had you spent an extra $100, you could have very easily given them a decent modern machine with a reasonable upgrade path. Now they'll pretty much have to replace everything if they want to upgrade. The price/performance ratios you got were awful, and I don't think that system will last more than a year before something breaks, especially since you're overclocking on that poor thing. One rule of computing... The cheap stuff now is still equivalent/better than most of the best stuff 4 years ago, even if it looks similar on the surface.

You did ask us for honest opinions, I don't mean to come off harsh. But that's what I think. Not judging or anything. I mean, I've made some rather bad choices too... that's how I learned. Just recently, I paid $250 for a Samsung monitor that wasn't as good as a $110 BenQ.
 
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bigted said:
e8500 + gtx 460 is a damn good match actually

off-topic, I also like the offspring
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I think for a beginning computer, it'll be fine for a year. My nephew is only 9, so he doesn't need anything crazy powerful.

And yea, The Offspring are awesome! :D

PRogers86 said:
Yeah, I think you did. I had a single GTX 460 and an E6400 @ 3.3Ghz, and when I upgraded to an i3 2120 it was a WORLD of difference. EVERYTHING was better (games and just general performance). I would say an E8500 to an i3 is a bigger leap than an i3 to an i7.


The good news though is that you can build a cheap i3 system (I'm selling my i3 2120 if you're interested) with used parts, sell your socket 775 parts, and you really wouldn't have spent that much more money.
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I should have done more research before I built this, but I didn't. I honestly didn't realize how old the e8500 was. I been out of the loop on processors also. I just remember my e8400 being pretty awesome, but after looking at it now it was about 3-4 years ago when I had it. I'll have to throw L4D2 on it and see how well it performs. It's really only that, minecraft, cs:s, and flash games he plays, so I think it'll be okay for a year. Hopefully by then there will be cheaper i3's or even i5's that I can could get him.


yelsewshane said:
I would get a better PSU and case :) Those 2 items you can use in future builds
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I'm going to see what Amazon will do about letting me return it. If there is a small restocking fee, then I'll just pay it as I want the PSU to last. As for the case, I'm just going to keep that because it came from Newegg and shipping is going to kill me, along with having to pay a restocking fee on that.

athenian200 said:
I would say that you got a bad deal on everything... first off, $60 is a lot for an older dual-core. If it were quad-core, that would be about right.


You could have gotten a G630 for that price... a G630 in an LGA1155 socket with a far better upgrade path, I might add. Or even an AMD. The others have mentioned the cooler, but I know that the reason you got stuck paying for that one is because there aren't a whole lot of LGA775 coolers on the market to choose from, limiting your selection.

I have been out of the loop with cpu's, as I mentioned in the other thread, but I'm just going to let him have this for a year. I should of came here and asked before I bought everything, but my mistake.

I just tried to find a cooler with decent reviews. I probably should have just kept stock and upgraded later as I only intend for him to have this a year max. At that point I'll just keep the parts and use it for an htpc or something.

I feel like the main thing that tempted you was all that DDR2 memory you had access to. But DDR2 is a LOT slower, and more expensive than DDR3 right now. You only really saved $30 by keeping it... if you would have sold your DDR2-800 on eBay like I did, you could have almost paid for a new DDR3 8GB kit.

Not just the memory, but the new motherboard I had gotten from an RMA. I honestly didn't want to deal with selling anything because I don't have the time to ship stuff out. I don't want to ruin my heat or Ebay feedback because of something as stupid as not being able to ship an item out. That's why I haven't been selling anything here, although I do have some stuff I need to offload.

Second of all, that ASUS P5N-E SLI is not a great motherboard for overclocking at all. I used one once, sold it on eBay for $30 a few months ago. I tried to overclock my Q6600, and it wouldn't budge. Became unstable if I raised it 0.1GHz point above stock, I kid you not. Couldn't overclock the RAM either. It's one of those motherboards that only seems to work right if you don't overload it... I also was thinking of doing a RAM upgrade on it, but I read online that there's instability on that model with more than two sticks of RAM inserted. Getting the idea yet? It's not up to ASUS's usual standards at all, IMO. The nForce 650i chipset is to blame.

It wasn't the best, but I know I was able to get my e8400 to 3.5-3.6ghz (at least) on that. After that mobo I switch to a DFI that let me get to 4ghz on air, but I no longer have that. So long as I can get 3.5ghz, I'll be content with it. And I hate Asus, but I bought my current mobo from them because at the time it was getting rave reviews. I'm pretty sure it'll be my last motherboard from them.

The VelociRaptor was also a waste of money. Unless you go SSD, you won't notice much of a performance boost over an ordinary drive, and that's a pretty small hard drive for $70. Could probably have gotten a 1TB for that price, or a 500GB for $10 less.

I never had one, so I found it for $69.99, which I thought was decent. I should have done more research on this also, but for now it'll have to do. When I fired up the system as it is now, it seemed to work decently. It'll just have to do for now.

I'm also questioning why you shelled out $10 for an ordinary K120. There are $6 keyboards that are about as good, and to be honest a lot of people have excess keyboards laying around that came with a new computer or something. You probably could have found one of that quality for free or cheap if you'd shopped around. It's a minor quibble, but it all adds up.

I just bought a cheap keyboard and didn't want to spend more than $10. I didn't have any spares lying around, nor do I know anyone that does, so I'm not worried about the extra $4 I spent on a keyboard that could of been had for $6. The $4 I could of saved isn't a deal breaker for any other parts on the system.

As for the Graphics card and PSU... well, I really think you could have gotten a smaller, higher quality PSU if you had gone with a GTX 650. Roughly the same performance but draws a third of the power. You'll want to replace that PSU if you ever run anything more demanding than the single 460GTX, although I think it could handle it temporarily.

I really would have loved the more efficient 650, but I didn't see it on sale till after I purchased the 460. I still may sell the 460 and just buy the 650, but really hate the fact that I'll have to sell something and somehow have to try to make time. If I sell it on Ebay that won't be an issue, but then I have to deal with all the fees there, which I don't want to do. I'll think about it since I know the 650 is on sale atm.

Overall... better luck next time, but since you've already sunk that much money into it, you might as well have them use it for a while.

Honestly, long term, you actually costed them money. Had you spent an extra $100, you could have very easily given them a decent modern machine with a reasonable upgrade path. Now they'll pretty much have to replace everything if they want to upgrade. The price/performance ratios you got were awful, and I don't think that system will last more than a year before something breaks, especially since you're overclocking on that poor thing. One rule of computing... The cheap stuff now is still equivalent/better than most of the best stuff 4 years ago, even if it looks similar on the surface.

If it cost anyone money, it'll be my money. I'll probably just keep the e8500 afterwards I upgrade his PC and keep it for an htpc build. If not I'll find some use for it somewhere. The worse I can do is sell it. For a year, I think it'll be fine. I'll have to try it at stock speeds, but most likely will keep it at 3.5ghz.

You did ask us for honest opinions, I don't mean to come off harsh. But that's what I think. Not judging or anything. I mean, I've made some rather bad choices too... that's how I learned. Just recently, I paid $250 for a Samsung monitor that wasn't as good as a $110 BenQ.
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You didn't come off harse, so it's no big deal. I appreciate the honesty.
 
You probably already gave this to your nephew.....

but, for a speed up buy a Corsair 60GB accellerator....75 bucks and the loading and transfer speeds are very snappy. Works with SATA I just fine. Simple to set up.

I'd also echo the PSU could be better.

I have an old P5N-E SLi and it flat out will not OC anything.....other than that, it's a solid board.
 
Right now I wouldn't pay more than $1/GB for SSD. Even the 840s go for less than that. A good deal to get would be $0.50/GB... I scored an OCZ 55GB for around $25 a few months back. But OP already has a 120gb SSD, that would work wonders for the system.

I'd worry less about the power supply, if you plugged it in and it's working fine, and you tested out the system, there's little reason to change it. It's good to buy a good one from the start but if you have one already it's not worth it to change it out, unless you can get a guaranteed return with your money back. Now if you could get all your money back, I would say go with one of the cheaper Corsairs or Antecs, some which go as low as $25 AR (for the CX430).
 
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Eureka! said:
Right now I wouldn't pay more than $1/GB for SSD. Even the 840s go for less than that. A good deal to get would be $0.50/GB... I scored an OCZ 55GB for around $25 a few months back. But OP already has a 120gb SSD, that would work wonders for the system.

I'd worry less about the power supply, if you plugged it in and it's working fine, and you tested out the system, there's little reason to change it. It's good to buy a good one from the start but if you have one already it's not worth it to change it out, unless you can get a guaranteed return with your money back. Now if you could get all your money back, I would say go with one of the cheaper Corsairs or Antecs, some which go as low as $25 AR (for the CX430).
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As far as the Accelerator is concerned......it's for caching.........the software included is excellent and more that makes up for the cost......of course it will not be sufficient as a main drive or an OS drive, but it excels as a cache drive.
 
I would of got a 120GB SSD for $100 instead of the spinner and aftermarket cooler. 120GB should be a decent size for a 9 year old and has more of a performance impact than a mild overclock. Even on Sata 2 its worth it.
 
Danny Bui said:
You made a bad call with the PSU as well: That PSU isn't that good quality. If you can, return that PSU and get this significantly higher quality PSU instead:
$59 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

Case wise, IMO, the HAF 912 is a tad outdated since it doesn't have USB 3.0 whereas the similarly priced NZXT Source 210 Elite and Corsair 200R do. Not to mention better looks for either cases.
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USB 3.0 support in the *case* is becoming a non-issue with more motherboards including (or allowing as options) USB 3.0 front-bay inserts - examples are the ASUS P8Z77-V (and above) which either have as an option or include one, or the BIOSTAR TZ77XE4 which now includes USB 3.0 mountable either front or rear (standard - used to be optional). (In both cases, the bay can replace the deprecated 3.5" floppy drive.) Also, the HAF is more commonly available than either the Source 210 or Corsair 200R when buying brick and mortar.

You are correct, however, on the PSU - I replaced my Eagle Voltas 600 with a same-wattage Diablotek EL600; I can upgrade to any GPU that requires auxilliary power (such as the discounted nVidia GTX 550 Ti) without worrying about my PSU flunking lunch.

Not everyone is into looks so much on cases (and it's irrelevant when the case is going under the desk instead of atop it) - I'm still using Ye Olde Reliable Lian-Li ATX mid-tower case from 2004.
 
PGHammer said:
USB 3.0 support in the *case* is becoming a non-issue with more motherboards including (or allowing as options) USB 3.0 front-bay inserts - examples are the ASUS P8Z77-V (and above) which either have as an option or include one, or the BIOSTAR TZ77XE4 which now includes USB 3.0 mountable either front or rear (standard - used to be optional). (In both cases, the bay can replace the deprecated 3.5" floppy drive.)
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It's a non-issue if you're buying those mid-range and above mobos like the two mobos you posted. However for budget setups, it is an issue since not many sub $120 mobos that I'm aware of comes with the feature you're talking about.
PGHammer said:
Also, the HAF is more commonly available than either the Source 210 or Corsair 200R when buying brick and mortar.
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While this is correct, the problem is that we don't know whether or the OP bought the case online or in a store. If store, than it's definitely understandable why he chose the HAF 912. If online, then I still say he made a bad call there.
PGHammer said:
You are correct, however, on the PSU - I replaced my Eagle Voltas 600 with a same-wattage Diablotek EL600; I can upgrade to any GPU that requires auxilliary power (such as the discounted nVidia GTX 550 Ti) without worrying about my PSU flunking lunch.
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I would still be worried considering that's still a Diablotek PSU. Diablotek is still pretty pathetic in terms of quality. I mean come on, a $25 600W PSU? You don't see anything wrong with that? I'm willing to bet it can't handle more than 300W at best.
 
Danny Bui said:
It's a non-issue if you're buying those mid-range and above mobos like the two mobos you posted. However for budget setups, it is an issue since not many sub $120 mobos that I'm aware of comes with the feature you're talking about.

While this is correct, the problem is that we don't know whether or the OP bought the case online or in a store. If store, than it's definitely understandable why he chose the HAF 912. If online, then I still say he made a bad call there.

I would still be worried considering that's still a Diablotek PSU. Diablotek is still pretty pathetic in terms of quality. I mean come on, a $25 600W PSU? You don't see anything wrong with that? I'm willing to bet it can't handle more than 300W at best.
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The 600EL I bought was NOT $25; however, the Voltas was indeed at that price. Consider how much a quality 600W PSU still costs - upwards of $70 when not on sale, even at MicroCenter. (By *quality*, I'm referring to the usual suspects - Antec, Corsair Builder series, etc.) Further, until recently, I didn't have a multi-GPU setup on the radar (due to both the persnicketiness of multi-GPU and the price issue); despite recent price drops (especially for the GTX 550 Ti), multi-GPU is not exactly a high priority. The only reason I'm looking at even 600W at all is because this is a quad-core I'm looking at. (Fortunately, the Diablotek has nary an issue driving the Q6600 at all - if anything, the i5-3570K, even with an OC to 4 GHz, will, at most, match that draw.)

Online vs. retail is, in fact, why I put the statement in terms of the case exactly that way. In terms of motherboards, I also mentioned the BIOSTAR TZX77XE4 - which undercuts the P8Z77-V; where the differences lie are in terms of VRM phases, Intel gigabit, and Wi-Fi GO (all of which are present in the pricier ASUS board).
 
PGHammer said:
The 600EL I bought was NOT $25
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It is:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/380709/EL_Series_600_Watt_ATX_Power_Supply

Original price is $35.
PGHammer said:
Consider how much a quality 600W PSU still costs - upwards of $70 when not on sale, even at MicroCenter. (By *quality*, I'm referring to the usual suspects - Antec, Corsair Builder series, etc.) Further, until recently, I didn't have a multi-GPU setup on the radar (due to both the persnicketiness of multi-GPU and the price issue); despite recent price drops (especially for the GTX 550 Ti), multi-GPU is not exactly a high priority. The only reason I'm looking at even 600W at all is because this is a quad-core I'm looking at. (Fortunately, the Diablotek has nary an issue driving the Q6600 at all - if anything, the i5-3570K, even with an OC to 4 GHz, will, at most, match that draw.).
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The thing is that you're still not getting 600W worth of usable power out of that Diablotek. Note its +12V rail: It's only 40A or 480W which actually puts that Diablotek around the 500W mark for usable power. Even with your overclock, you still would have been fine with a solid 400W to 500W PSU. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a 400W to 500W PSU from Antec or Corsair Builder series than a 600W PSU that's can really only output 500W of usable power and whose quality is pretty much assured to be crap. It's sheer luck that your system is still alive.
 
Danny Bui said:
It is:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/380709/EL_Series_600_Watt_ATX_Power_Supply

Original price is $35.

The thing is that you're still not getting 600W worth of usable power out of that Diablotek. Note its +12V rail: It's only 40A or 480W which actually puts that Diablotek around the 500W mark for usable power. Even with your overclock, you still would have been fine with a solid 400W to 500W PSU. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a 400W to 500W PSU from Antec or Corsair Builder series than a 600W PSU that's can really only output 500W of usable power and whose quality is pretty much assured to be crap. It's sheer luck that your system is still alive.
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So what would you suggest someone that is budget-limited to do? Compromise wlsewhere (like the CPU, for instance)?

While prices HAVE dropped in all other areas of building a system, the two areas where prices have gone nowhere are PSUs and cases. In the case of PSUs, the price of quality has gone up - not down. (Worse, the quality of even Antec's lower-end PSUs has taken it on the chin - you have to move up in terms of price to get quality compared to even five years ago.)
 
PGHammer said:
So what would you suggest someone that is budget-limited to do? Compromise wlsewhere (like the CPU, for instance)?
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Yes compromise where it makes sense. There's no good reason to go with a PSU that has a low chance of surviving and a high chance of damaging hardware.
PGHammer said:
While prices HAVE dropped in all other areas of building a system, the two areas where prices have gone nowhere are PSUs and cases. In the case of PSUs, the price of quality has gone up - not down. (Worse, the quality of even Antec's lower-end PSUs has taken it on the chin - you have to move up in terms of price to get quality compared to even five years ago.)
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Maybe at your local Microcenter. However, online, the price of some PSUs have gone down or at least have remained relatively stable. Case in point: The Antec Neo Eco 520C I recommended earlier use to cost around $70 to $80. Now it's $55. The Corsair CX430 was launched at and has remained at around $50 and can be found on sale for $40 occasionally.

As for cases, I would argue that while we're not getting substantially cheaper cases, we are getting substantially better cases for the money we're paying. I mean compare the Antec 300 which came out in 2007/2008 at around $50 to $60 to the similarly priced NZXT Source 210 Elite, Coolermaster HAF 912, or Corsair 200R/300R cases that you can find today. The latter three cases are significantly better than the Antec 300 in virtually every way.
 
I'm just going to keep the PSU as it is getting the job done and I already have it. I also decided to add my 120gb SSD in there for the OS, Microsoft Office, Mozilla, and a few other important files that will get used everyday b/c it seemed a little sluggish (maybe I'm just used to using SSD's on everything). For his games I'll just store those on the HDD. I'm also going to give him my Dell 2007wfp to help keep cost down. So in the end it'll be about $436.xx for this computer.


I also gave the e8500 a mild OC like I wanted of 3.5ghz. It seems to play his games pretty well, so I think this will easily last him a year, probably 2. The system hasn't froze up or gave me a BSOD while playing games. I'm about 2 hours into prime95 stress test w/o any errors, so I think it's a safe OC. The highest temp I have seen so far is 49°F while it's been stress testing.


I didn't try to OC it higher than 3.5ghz b/c that's all I wanted. I'm pretty sure when I had my e8400 I was able to get it to 3.8-4ghz, but I don't remember if it was with the Asus mobo in the system or if it was with a DFI Lan Party mobo I had.


EDIT:


I don't know how old this case is, but I'm pretty impressed with it. I really like the look of the case and it 'feels' roomy. I'm going to buy an extra top fan and a side fan since one didn't come with it. I need to look if they got a newer/bigger version b/c I may be interested in one for me if they do.
 
Good to hear that you have the system up and running.

I also gave the e8500 a mild OC like I wanted of 3.5ghz. It seems to play his games pretty well, so I think this will easily last him a year, probably 2. The system hasn't froze up or gave me a BSOD while playing games. I'm about 2 hours into prime95 stress test w/o any errors, so I think it's a safe OC. The highest temp I have seen so far is 49°F while it's been stress testing.
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You need to run Prime95 for significantly longer than 2 hours. I would suggest letting it run a bare minimum of over night, but if you're able to, run it for 24 hours straight. Even a minor overclock can cause some instability, and better that you find it now, rather than in 6 months and have to spend hours/days figuring out what the issue is.

Good luck with the build, and take the lessons learned to heart! :)
 
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