$500 budget for student

[Luke200046]

BUDGET: $500
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: A week from now

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, and some programing for school.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard/Mouse, speakers, monitor, psu, case

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg, or tiger direct

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: would prefer AMD

OVERCLOCKING: No

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: (e.g.: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: My motherboard died and its time for an update anyways. I need a CPU, RAM, Motherboard, HD, OS, and video card for 500 or less.

I was thinking of this:
MB: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128392

CPU + RAM
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core +
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.285928 $172.

HD:SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822152181

OS:Win7 Home premium 64 bit $107
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116754

Gfx Card: Unsure....I have heard students can get windows 7 for 30 dollars, which would free more room for the VC.

Thanks!

 

[jbakerlent]

What you've picked out so far looks good, but what is your resolution? How much of your budget is left over for the GPU?

 

[Luke200046]

My resolution is 1920x 1080 and my left over budget is 125 for VC without the student discount...but if I can pull off the student discount, it will be 150-160...

 

[jbakerlent]

Then a 5770 could work
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447

 

[hugoender]

Being that you are a student, you can get Windows 7 Professional for $30. You do not need to spend $107. Go to: http://www.win741.com/

There you can find Windows 7 Home Edition for $30 but if you click on the small link that says something like "On campus and need to connect to the network?" it will let you get Windows 7 Professional for the same price. I have done it and it works. I have already installed it on my desktop (clean install since I had XP previously).

Also, whatever motherboard or processor you decide on, think about the future. By this I mean, make sure you choose a socket that offers upgradeability. When I purchased my motherboard, it had a socket that was on it's last days and as a result, if I want to upgrade my CPU now, I need to upgrade my motherboard as well.