Advice on building a system

[phoenix27]

Hey,

I am looking to build a machine for my brother who is currently in college and definitely short of money. Its been a while since I did anything with my system and I was wondering what the preferred cost effective CPUs, MBs, and graphics cards. I would ideally like to build something for around 500-600, maybe more if for the extra money you get a much better value. I know it doesn't leave a lot of room to play with, but what I want most are a good CPU and MB, leaving me the ability to upgrade video cards and whatnot. He doesn't really have any parts that can carry over to a new system, except monitor, keyboard/mouse. I don't have an interest in overclocking, or anything like that(well I do but not for my brother). Do you guys recommend sticking with single cores? What about 64 bit; a must? Thanks in advance for the responces, and I know there are a lot of posts about this but I didn't see quite what I was looking for.

 

[usdeeper]

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Model #: CAC-T05-UW - $44.99

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Model #: A8N-E - $109.99

Thermaltake TR2 W0070 ATX 430W Power Supply - Model #: W0070 - $39.99

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Model #: ADA3200BPBOX - $169.00

Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD1G400KH - Model #: PSD1G400KH - $79.99

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - Model #: WD800JD - $55.00

LITE-ON Black IDE Combo Drive Model SOHC-5236V BK RTL - Model #: SOHC-5236V BK RTL - $29.99

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2 - Model #: N09-01528 - $88.95

Subtotal: $617.90

I already had a low-mid pc priced up.. so this might be a good starting point for you. Even though you are on a budget, going with a 939 allows for a better upgrade path. You can remove the DVD burner if one is not needed or you already have a cd player. WinXP can be removed if you already have a copy.

You can also reduce your memory to none dual and only 512.. that will lower the price to around $45.

I have not included a graphic card since I do not know your gaming plans. You can pick up a cheap (decent) graphics card for as little as $50.

 

[MBrookins]

or go even cheaper and use onboard video if he doen't game

 

[phoenix27]

Hey, thank you all very much for your input. Knowing what MB and processor to look for narrows it down a lot. Let me ask one more quick question, although it was kinda answered already. I was wondering if 64 bit windows isn't worth it when you have a 64 bit CPU. More out of curiousity, I will probably install XP Pro on his system. If I have time at all today(I'm at work now) I will do some newegg window shopping and let you guys know what I come up with, thanks again

 

[usdeeper]

I was wondering if 64 bit windows isn't worth it when you have a 64 bit CPU.

Not unless you have applications that can make use of the 64bit arch.
All those prices I quotes were straight from newegg..