New Build

[legato]

Sup guys & gals...Would like to build a new machine for 64b Win 7.

Greatly appreciate any feedback in advance!

Current running system:
200gb OS & apps drive, 320gb storage, 500gb storage, 200gb ext. storage, 500gb ext. storage
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64(FX) Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Processor Socket 939 Retail
Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2PT 2GB (2X1GB) Kit DDR400
EVGA 01G-P3-N984-AR GeForce 9800 GT Akimbo Super Clocked 1GB DDR3
SB Audigy 2.0 (using this for my sub-par 2.1 speakers and onboard sound for my earphones)
Antec Performance One P180B
Corsair TX650W Power Supply
Windows XP Pro w/ sp3

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
web, email, word, excel, light gaming, anime, cad, revit

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
min $500, max <$1,000

3) Where do you live?
Hawaii

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
AMD CPU
memory
motherboard
(budget) soundcard with multiple outputs (please refer to #9)

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Antec Performance One P180B
OCZ 60gb Agility SSD (have not installed, waiting on new build, and intending to use for OS & app drive only)
all existing int. and ext. hdd for storage
EVGA 01G-P3-N984-AR GeForce 9800 GT Akimbo Super Clocked 1GB DDR3
SB Audigy 2.0 (please refer to #9)
Corsair TX650W Power Supply

6) Will you be overclocking?
no, but would like to get a mobo & cpu combo that I can unlock cores

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
currently a 22" samsung 225bbw, plan to upgrade to a 24" down the road

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
~2weeks

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
onboard lan
usb 2.0 (at least 6 on-board would be great)
onboard sound or if available a soundcard for dual outputs

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit? Windows XP Pro 32bit and Windows 7 64bit

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shadowssong]

The cheapest I would go with:
Phenom II X4 925 + Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3
G.Skill DDR3-1333 4GB (2 x 2GB)
~$300

If you want to make sure you spend atleast $500 (although the above build would do fine) you could go with:
i7 930 + Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
G.Skill DDR3-1600 6GB (3 x 2GB)
~$650

Or a middle ground:
Phenom II X6 1055t + Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3
G.Skill DDR3-1333 4GB (2 x 2GB)
~$370

I would go with the first or last and then invest the extra cash in a better GPU or possibly a single 1TB drive and scrap all those random drives you have.

All modern motherboards have decent onboard audio and unless your an obsessive audiophile it should work fine.

 

[legato]

Shadowssong: Thanks for the quick response! The AMD setups sound great