Budget Build

[Dangman]

My bro's computer is seriously outdated. It actually uses Rambus! The death of his PC's hard drive is pretty much what is prompting for a new build.

Anyway, over the past few months, he's managed to scrape up enough money to pay for a new PC. His budget is $600 exactly including shipping and tax.

He's a gamer and does a lot of music and video editing as well. Hence the selection of a dual core processor. Other wise I would've gone the AMD route.

Hoping to get some input on the parts list:

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 - $92.00
GIGABYTE GA-945P-S3 LGA 775 - $90.99
FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN 450W Power Supply - $48.99
Kingston 1GB DDR2 667 - $106.99
BFG Tech Geforce 7600GT 256MB - $144.99
HITACHI Deskstar T7K250 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $53.99

Parts: $530.46
Tax: $44.38
S&H: $16.04
Total: $598.37

I chose that particular motherboard in case he gets enough money to buy a Core Duo processor or prices drop down, whatever comes first. We'll be reusing his old case to cut down on costs.

So any recommendations for parts are welcomed. If you found a cheaper price for the parts I listed, please link them! I want to try to keep costs down as much as possible.

Thank you.

 

[J Macker]

looks great for the budget.
only thing I'd change is up the psu to the FSP 450 W for $48.99
still falls within the budget, and you can never have too much power

 

[Bbq]

I'd drop the fsp psu, and go with this. That would mean 10 over, which you can reclaim with a slightly cheaper board (why that one anyways?) like this board.

 

[Dangman]

@ J Macker

Thanks for the suggestion. That's a good price for a 450W P/S.

@ Bbq

I want my bro to be able to upgrade to Core Duo when he's able to. The Gigabyte board was the only Conroe board that was within budget and appealed to me.

 

[J Macker]

I'd drop the fsp psu, and go with this. That would mean 10 over, which you can reclaim with a slightly cheaper board (why that one anyways?) like this board.

You're kidding, right? Drop FSP and purchase MassCool?!
And how many people here will testify for FSP?

Do you see Masscool on the list?
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1000883


unless the masscool is the same powersupply as Sytrin Nextherm 460W, then I'd say no. But if it is, it may be alright
http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/NexthermPSU460/

 

[engiNURD]

A conroe is still possible with a 600 budget, but sacrificing a bit of gaming performance...
185 - Intel Core2Duo E6300
90 - 3D Fuzion 3DFR76256GSE Geforce 7600GS
80 - ASUS P5L-MX
90 - G.SKILL 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2-533 F2-4200PHU2-1GBLA
43 - HITACHI 7K160 HDS721680PLA380 80GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
42 - FSP Group AX400-PN 400W PSU
==========
$530 + $15 (shipping) = $545 + Tax

Not the greatest of parts, but still, a damn cheap conroe system. Though, I'd wait and scrape another $250 together and get better parts, like a DS3 board, E6400, DDR2-667, 7600GT, etc. The prices should settle down in a couple months. So, if you can scrape $250 together within a couple months, i'd say wait.

 

[Dangman]

Sacrificing game performance is not an option. I want my bro to be able to play Battlefield 2 at very comfortable settings. But I did choose a Conroe ready motherboard in case he gets a sudden windfall of cash or if Intel drop its prices on on Conroe processor.

I've made my bro wait a whole year for a new PC. He deserves a new PC after toiling away for five years now on a Pentium 4 with 256 Rambus ram. So waiting is also not an option.


Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll be ordering the parts tomorrow morning.