<$1000 build

[SAP_Pete]

Looking to build a new rig for the wife, mostly for light duty digital imagery (not vids), and light gaming. I might sneak some games on there as well since it'll be faster than my old box, so I don't want to totally cheap out.

I've built and sold many boxes when 386-40s were hot sht (lololdfart), and my latest built was a Athlon XP 2800+ when that was top of the line, so I'm a little rusty.

I already have a 22" LCD, Bose speakers and keyboard / mouse the wife loves (Rocketfish bluetooth something).

So, at first glance, I have
Proc: E8500 (or Q6600?) $190
Cooler: Xigmatek S1283 + backplate $40
MoBo: Asus P5Q SE P45 (or the Gigabit?) $105
Ram: Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 2x2GB $100
Vid: Sapphire 4850 512mb $180
HD: WD 640 Caviar $85
PSU (if not with case): Antec EA 650W $100

So, I'm sitting at $800, and need a case, which leaves me plenty of options. Onboard sound should be fine for the time being, else I'll throw a $100 Asus Xonar in the mix.

My main question is if these components make sense together, but any comments are highly appreciated.

 

[dirtmountain]

Solid build, i keep hearing good things about the Asus P45 series. Pick a nice cool case for the overclocking and the 4850. Personally i'd go with the E8500, if you really need a quad core in the future you can always pop one in. Use the SATA interface.

 

[megamanx00]

For the motherboard I'd go with Gigabyte, preferably from their Ultra Durable II series. What OS are you going to use? Keep in mind that you need a 64-bit OS to use all 4 GB or RAM. Good choice in the CPU cooler, all tho the noise level mighnt seem a little high for something like that, with the 32 dbA and all. If your not planning to overclock though you can just put that extra $40 on a better CPU with the retail package.

Hey my previous system was an Athlon 3000+. At least with it's 1950GT it's somewhat respectable as my back up machine, but I eventually still had to upgrade to what I have now ^_^.

 

[SAP_Pete]

Thanks for the comments. Good point on the cooler noise, I have a Thermaltake Vulcano on my overclocked +2800, and it's been driving me nuts for years now. hehe
Maybe I'll see how the stock cooler holds up, I hear the one that comes with the E8500 retail is halfway decent and pretty quiet.

I'm not a huge fan of Vista, and my 2 desktops and 3 laptops all run XP Pro. I have some more unused XP Pro licenses, so I would just throw those on and live with wasting 1 GB of the 4 until I decide to go 64 bit.