New Budget System Review

[tjohana]

I'm looking to build a mid grade system. Some gaming but not too intense. I'm looking to keep the budget about $1000.

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
ASUS M2N4-SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA4800IAA6CS - OEM
ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
VIKING 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VGDDR212864PC667/2 - Retail
ASUS 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DRW1608P3SBLK - Retail
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/SP2B - OEM

Any comments or recommendations would certainly be welcome. this will be my second build.

 

[Arcygenical]

Just... In my opinion, I'd go for the next lower processor, and step up to a 7900GT.

Those X2's easily overclock to 2.5ghz... Free upgrade in essence.


Looks good, however!

 

[engiNURD]

To get the best performance out of am2, you'll need DDR2-800.

Though, with $1000 budget, I'd go for a core2duo system instead. Here's why:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=4

Since you don't game much, a 7600gt will be fine. Though, if there were dx10 games that you will want to play, you may want to delay your build until dx10 cards are more affordable. Build suggestion:

$313 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz
$210 - G.SKILL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$100 - Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$115 - BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE Geforce 7600GT 256MB ($145 - $30MIR)
$110 - ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W PSU
$110 - Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/SP2B - OEM
$95 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200RPM SATA300 16MB Cache
$50 - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver w/ Side Window
$31 - NEC 18X DVD±R DVD Burner 7170A-0B
==============
$1134 + tax and shipping (after rebates)

If thats over your budget, go for the E6400 or E6300 instead:
$220 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz
$182 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz

If you don't like foxconn, go for one of these boards:
$116 - GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$150 - GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
$185 - ASUS P5B Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express
Though, the foxconn OC's just as well as those boards.