First new build in 6 years, please tell me what you think.

[Squint]

Hello to everyone out there. I was hoping to get some advice on my new build. So, here is my situation. I am hoping to spend about $500-$600 max on this build. I have a monitor, OS, KB, that type of stuff. I will be loading XP onto this system and upgrade to vista later. I do light gaming (WOW, HL2, would like to try crysis), light photo/video editing. After reading the majority of the posts on this forum and checking around, this is what I have come up with. Is this setup any good? Better choices out there? Thanks.

E5200 $72.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX $119 w/MIR $15= $104
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

Kingston HyperX (2x1 gb) $27.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134586

Antec 300 $69.95 w $10.00 instant rebate= $59.95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

MSI Radeon HD 4830 512 mb $99.99 w/ $10.00 instant= $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127394

Corsair 550w $104.99 w/ $20.00 instant = $84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro $37.99

WD HDD SATA 250gb $69.99 w/ $30.00 instant = 39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

Grand Total = $532.88
Right in my range for pricing

 

[WR2]

It's a good looking list:

Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound $6.99 - You can leave this off your list. The AC Freezer 7 Pro already has MX-2 pre-applied to the heat sink.

I was going to suggest you could get the Corsair 450VX but with rebate the 550VX is actually less expensive than 450VX with it's rebate.

If you're staying with WinXP the 2GB of RAM isnt a bad choice.
Otherwise, for Vista, I think I'd go for 4GB of DDR2 800 over 2GB of DDR2 1066
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $44
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146692

To get your URLs to post correctly:
(1) Don't use the forum URL tool - just post the URL as you copy it from the webpage
(2) If you do use the forum URL tool - post the item description in between the bracket sets: ]description here[/url

 

[Squint]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I was wondering about the links. Thanks for the info. Good to know about the thermal compound. One question I also have is in the future when I decide to upgrade to vista, can I just load it over XP? Or do I do wipe the HD and do a fresh install?

 

[theAnimal]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I was wondering about the links. Thanks for the info. Good to know about the thermal compound. One question I also have is in the future when I decide to upgrade to vista, can I just load it over XP? Or do I do wipe the HD and do a fresh install?

It's best to do a fresh install when upgrading to Vista. And get the 4GB even for XP, 3.25 is much better than 2.

 

[darkside_gamer7]

+1 Animal

Definetly go w the 4 Gb especially if you wanna try crysis. Too bad you don't have a slightly larger budget. Cld upgrade the mobo and cpu for better play and Higher settings on Crysis.

 

[jasontsnyder]

I'm building a similar system, what settings do you think you will be able to run fallout 3 with?

 

[darkside_gamer7]

Man I wld go quad core w/ Fallout 3 if I were you. Should get decent settings w/ the 4830 but I wld try 4850 or 4870 w/ 1Gb Memory.

 

[jasontsnyder]

I'm limited to the size of my tax returns minus $1000 into savings. Looks like it'll be about $900. Plus I'm due for a new monitor. I was thinking the E7300, a geforce card(I know, I'm partial) and 4 gigs of patriot with the low latency, the ones from the article on this site. I'm hoping that I'll be able to go with this system for 5 years or so. I don't mind lowing settings too much, I just want to be able to play newer games. Haven't built a system since 2003. I've got an Athlon and a fx5700 Ultra. So yeah, it's about time.

 

[darkside_gamer7]

Man IDK on that budget when it comes to new games.

 

[darkside_gamer7]

I wld post "need game build for $900 budget"

 

[darkside_gamer7]

New topic that is...do what you want though brother...your call