I'm hooking up a good friend of mine at work.. he asked me to build him a computer and usually i don't like to do this for people.. but he begged ^^.

He wants a new computer for him and his wife only , no kids..

Out of what i gathered they seem to be using it for general purposes.. I know his wife likes to throw millions of digital photos on their computer and i'm sure she enjoys photoshoping them up.. they'll be doing a lot of DVD burning and if he's spending money on it i'd like to get him into playing a game or two here and there. As well as video's he wants nice sound as well..

Knowing i'd like to keep his budget near 1200 for the tower to a little lower.. i was considering just using san diego 3700+

I'd like some feedback if you feel this would be great for him.. or if you think i should consider an X2. I'd like reasonably fast load times and no stuttering for their multimedia. Keep in mind they are going from a 500mhz p3..

Thinking epox single pci exrpess board with s ata II support even though i guess that really doesn't matter...

Some ok ram.. no ocing is needed here.. so i'd like to find ok ram timings.. and of course 1 gig. I'm having troubles finding ram compatibility charts for motherboards..

7800gt evga Nvidia card.

antec truepower 2 550W PSU, due to my latest problems and issues i will no longer trust Fortron or Enermax.

Western Digital Sata II HD 250 gm w/ 16mb cache..

Lite On DVD/CD burner 2mb cache..

why a 7800gt? if he only plays a game or 2, won't a 6600gt be enouf then? this will safe them 200$...


about your ram, just use kingstons: KINGSTON 512MB PC3200 Valueram 45€ (here en europe) but take 2 of them and take the advantage of dual channel!

as a mobo, just take the a8n sli, and for good sound, use the CREATIVE Sound Blaster X-FI Music which you easily can buy with your money you saved up from the 3d-card

Agreed. Single Core I think would be fine - unless the budget allows for an X2.

If he has the money for a 7800GT, it's gonna be a much better choice, then the old, pretty much useless 6600GT. He's gonna be much happier with the 7800.

That's quite useless comment.. How can someone would be happy having a top of line gaming card sitting there displaying 2D pictures...

The 6600gt or the x1600xt, coupled with a dual core CPU will do much better at photoshop. The 3800+ or the 4200+ should do great.

For OP, for a motherboard.. Get something with passive chipset cooling. You don't want an Asus board with the fan stop running in 6 month. And you don't want to have the wife to complain at how loud is this thing..

I like Samsung HDD. I have a nice SATA2, 250 gigs that it's quiet and very fast.

As for the burner.. well, I like the BenQ1640, but I guess the Lite-on shoud do good.

So, I would get her (remember, you have to do it for the wife.. she'll be the one that will complain about everything..)

X2 3800+ or 4200+
Asus A8R-MVP
Normally priced ram..no need for extreme. Simple generic or corsair value should do great
Samsung 250 gigs HDD SATA
BenQ or liteon burner..
The Asus board has hi-def sound onboard .. will do good for sure.