For your typical light to medium duty user, here is an excellent configuration for a good system today with a strong upgrade path. The ideal user for this system wants to upgrade outdated hardware but is not necessarily interested in going as high end as SLI or Crossfire.
I consider this build my stepping stone pc to the killer rig I plan to have in a year or two. I plan to order it tomorrow night. Enjoy and critique.
Motherboard:
ASUS M2N-E Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131022
CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Orleans 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103633
RAM:
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220095
Video Card:
XFX PVT42EUDE3 6800 XTreme 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150130
Power Supply:
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-430 ATX12V 430W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817103928
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148144
Optical Drive:
SAMSUNG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner With LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827151118
Case:
Choose an ATX case that you like. You have about 50 bucks left.
I consider this build my stepping stone pc to the killer rig I plan to have in a year or two. I plan to order it tomorrow night. Enjoy and critique.
Motherboard:
ASUS M2N-E Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131022
CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Orleans 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103633
RAM:
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220095
Video Card:
XFX PVT42EUDE3 6800 XTreme 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150130
Power Supply:
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-430 ATX12V 430W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817103928
Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148144
Optical Drive:
SAMSUNG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner With LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827151118
Case:
Choose an ATX case that you like. You have about 50 bucks left.