My roommate has finally decided to replace his ten year old Dell and asked me to build him a system for under $600. I've been building systems for myself as well as friends and family for years now so I'm pretty confident in the build I've come up with but I always like to post here before I order my parts.
He mainly wants to use this computer for media, storing and viewing his collection and the like. He also said he wants it to be able to handle conversion software (AVS and Ulead products most likely) and maybe do some very light video editing. I'm a bit concerned about the video card I've chosen because of this, but he says he doesn't intend to work with much in the way of high quality video. Also he intends to do some light gaming, he isn't much of a gamer but has expressed interest in a few older games as well as some of the newer Call of Duty titles. Don't need them to run at max settings or anything, a decent frame rate at medium settings is sufficient.
He currently has a monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard he intends to use with this build as well as a copy of XP professional, however he has said he may want to upgrade to Windows 7 eventually so some of these specs are keeping a future OS upgrade in mind.
Also, this is my first quad core build (I've built three dual core machines but never a quad) so if there is anything special I should know about building and maintaining a quad core system please let me know.
CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819103291
CPU Fan & Heatsink: GELID Solutions Slim Silence AM2 65mm Ball CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835426021
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813128376
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231166
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100255HDMI Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814102820 (I've never bought a card manufactured by Sapphire before, actually I haven't bought a Radeon card in quite some time. If anyone has any advice about Sapphire it would be appreciated.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136320
DVD Drive: LITE-ON Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827106280 (He said he is fine with having just the one drive)
Power Supply: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817152028
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811119068 (Cheaper case but I've used one of these before in a dual core AMD machine I build for my father about a year ago and it hasn't had an issues so far)
With this setup along with some thermal compound and shipping costs this comes out to be around $580, he wants to order these parts within the next few days so any input would be greatly appreciated.
He mainly wants to use this computer for media, storing and viewing his collection and the like. He also said he wants it to be able to handle conversion software (AVS and Ulead products most likely) and maybe do some very light video editing. I'm a bit concerned about the video card I've chosen because of this, but he says he doesn't intend to work with much in the way of high quality video. Also he intends to do some light gaming, he isn't much of a gamer but has expressed interest in a few older games as well as some of the newer Call of Duty titles. Don't need them to run at max settings or anything, a decent frame rate at medium settings is sufficient.
He currently has a monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard he intends to use with this build as well as a copy of XP professional, however he has said he may want to upgrade to Windows 7 eventually so some of these specs are keeping a future OS upgrade in mind.
Also, this is my first quad core build (I've built three dual core machines but never a quad) so if there is anything special I should know about building and maintaining a quad core system please let me know.
CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819103291
CPU Fan & Heatsink: GELID Solutions Slim Silence AM2 65mm Ball CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835426021
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813128376
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231166
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100255HDMI Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814102820 (I've never bought a card manufactured by Sapphire before, actually I haven't bought a Radeon card in quite some time. If anyone has any advice about Sapphire it would be appreciated.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136320
DVD Drive: LITE-ON Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827106280 (He said he is fine with having just the one drive)
Power Supply: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817152028
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811119068 (Cheaper case but I've used one of these before in a dual core AMD machine I build for my father about a year ago and it hasn't had an issues so far)
With this setup along with some thermal compound and shipping costs this comes out to be around $580, he wants to order these parts within the next few days so any input would be greatly appreciated.