First off, thanks to all of you who's comments have helped my research tremendously!

I'm building this rig to game with for the next 1-2 years. Games like BF2, QW:ET, and hopefully a decent MMO.

I'm going to be ordering today, so I'd appreciate any input.

CPU: $183
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115005
I might splurge another $40 and get the E6400, but I'd rather put $40 towards RAM or GPU.

GPU: $215 (after $40 rebate)
HIS Hightech Radeon X1900XT 256MB CrossFire Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161027
I don't know anything about HIS. $215 seems amazing for an x1900xt, but is a risk?

MoBo: $143
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Socket T Intel P965 Express ATX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128012
Seems to be a highly recommended board for the Intel C2D chips.

RAM: $266
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227139
One area I'm not shy in spending more money on. I definitely want the 2GB for gaming.

PSU: $87
Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550 550W - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817103932
I'm not too familiar with PSUs, but this one seemed to be a popular choice when using the x1900xt.

HD: $95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148140
Seemed like a nice drive for the price. I don't have to have the fastest load times, but I don't want my HD to be a huge bottleneck either.

Case: $85
LIAN LI PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811112099
Again, seems to be another popular choice for a case; however, I'm not partial to any case, as long as it's easy to work with and doesn't embarass me at the next LAN.

DVD: $29
MadDog DVD Burner - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827152074
Whatever on this... I just need something that will work. I wanted the NEC one, but it's on backorder.

Cooling: $36
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler - Retail ($30)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186134
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835100007

Total Damage: $1179 + $35 shipping

I've got XP Pro and an Eclipse keyboard, G5 mouse, and 19" ViewSonic CRT monitor I'll be using from my old system.

Did I miss anything? Thanks for looking and for your comments!

Looks good to me.

Not a fan of OCZ RAM, I prefer Corsair. But that's just me.

Which Eclipse are you getting? I heard the red one is slow. Just kidding.

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound not required with the Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler. It has thermal compound pre-applied to the heatsink for ease of installatiion. And it works just as well (or better) than AS5.
Review showing MX-1 vs AS5 comparison

Your 2.1v RAM and 965 chipsets have some issues with the higher speed higher voltage RAM. A new motherboard BIOS usually fixes that - but some have found they need a cheap 1.8v RAM stick to boot up to do the BIOS update.

Everything else looks good.

Based on what the OCZ support forum says you should be OK with the most recent RAM modules.
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/s [...] hp?t=24261
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/s [...] hp?t=22942

for a little more money you can get a Nvidia geforce 7950 gt ! with 512 mb of ram i would get that ! dont depend on rebates i bet you never see it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130061

Thanks for the links WR2! Good to know I can save another $6.

So I shouldn't have an issue with the RAM/MOBO combo? I don't have an old stick of RAM laying around for me to boot with... so I hope it's really fixed. (I guess I could always find a way to get one if I had to...)

I see two glaring mistakes (IMHO) that you have made. First you painfully don't have a real sound card. Second that Mad Dog DVD Burner stinks...and will "Burn" out sooner than you would like. So here are my remedies:


Sound Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6829102006

DVD Burner:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106013

The Lite-On is only 2 dollars more but comes with free 3 day shipping...so you are actually saving 3 dollars and getting a far superior product.

All looks very good! Can't think of any improvements, apart from maybe changing the x1900xt to an x1950 PRO if you can find one for a good price.

HIS is a good brand; that setup is looking mighty fine.

Looks good, I can't comment on the MadDog burner, but you should be fine, I have an NEC3550A that I love so far.

Stick to the x1900xt 256, its a good deal and proven to work well. Also, stick with on board sound at first, it'll be fine. Once you get everything set up, se how it sounds and then decide if a soundcard is worth it or not.

*slap*
Ocz rules in my experience, there gold and plat stuff is very overclockable.

Cosair doesnt have as good timings either.

Id move up to the 6600 Conroe, because its the best value out of all of them. its enough 130 bucks, but eh, MORE POWER.

But $130 can be quite a lot to someone, especially when spending around $1200 in one go. Adding another $130 can really hurt! Especially if you're a student.

Negative.

The whole point is to put something together right at that break point where it gets a lot more affordable.

If I was going to spend an extra $130 I'd put it into the GPU.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to agree with TSIMonster's advice and pass on the sound card for the time being.

However, I will change to the Lite-On DVD burner, based on your recommendation.

Thank you!

X1900XT wipes the floor with the 7950GT! HIS is a great card maker!

Best,

3Ball

What he said.

If you want this rig for the next 2 years then you should get a GF8 series.because it will be a DX10 cards and you will be able to enjoy play games for a longer time. you only have to wait another month.. And the wait will be worth it in the long run.

In the end, you can upgrade to a quad core processor in a few years, it should just drop right in.

I'm a student but also a bartender so i put a rig together off of tips

I've battled back and forth on that.

In the end, I've decided that if I get really impatient for DX10, I'll just sell off this rig and upgrade then. (I've found it's usually pretty easy to sell a rig like this in a year or so for around $6-800 to someone who's not really into gaming but needs a good PC for cheap)