Partial upgrade, please help :)

[jms31207]

BUDGET RANGE: 400-600$ (budget is a little more flexible than that but im putting that for starters)

SYSTEM USAGE: Gameing, watching movies, surfing the internet

PARTS NOT REQUIRED/Parts i am reusing:

HD Radeon 5870

900W Apevia PSU

20" wide screen moniter, but would like a second one.

200GB WD 7200RPM HDD
2x 80GB SeaGate 7200RPM HDD

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg

PARTS PREFERENCES:

Processor- AMD AM3 socket
Memory-1066 or higher
Mobo- raid controler with raid 0, at least 4 ram slots
Moniter- 20" or larger, widescreen
Case- as good of cooling as you can get in a mid-tower or smaller

OVERCLOCKING: Yes

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: MID TOWER or smaller!!! thanks !!!!

 

[Outlander_04]

Pick any m-atx or atx mb for a mid tower.

A 790 series chip set mb from a good manufacturer. ASUS or Gigabyte IMO. A 790G or 785G board has onboard gfx which can help a lot when you are setting up , and later you get to recycle it into the HTPC you build in a couple of years .

1333 MHz DDR 3 ram with low latency like 7-7-7-20 performs as well as higher clocked ram with larger timings and its cheaper . Check the voltages . Lower is better.
If your hard drives are IDE then replace them . A 500 gig samsung f3 is waaaay faster and costs $50. Even in RAID 0 I dont think your 80 gig drives would keep up in general use
For a case its hard to go past the antec 300. Some models have front fans installed and are better value even if they cost a bit more

 

[jms31207]

the 200gb is IDE but the 80's are sata, i dont need a crazy amount of storage so i bought those smaller disks. i looked up some parts and this is what i was thinking:

Motherboard- $114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136068

Processor- $102
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680

Ram- $76
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148194

Moniter- $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009157