Finally got a build i'm happy with, throw me some feedback

[LabaR]

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E4300 - Retail

A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model ADQPE1A16K - Retail

ePOWER ZU-550W ATX12V Version 2.0 / EPS12V 550W Power Supply - Retail

SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Comes to a total of $839.92 -$50 MIR = $789.92

Hows everything look?

 

[skyguy]

Quite good! I'm not familiar with that power supply though, you should really get some feedback on that. I know it's an important component that alot of people tend to skimp out on.....so DON'T! Someone else here can comment on the PSU.

I assume you're not overclocking? Your RAM really isn't good enough to do much overclocking. The CPU is, and the mobo is, but not the RAM. So if you want to overclock, get some better quality RAM. If you don't want to overclock, then consider a cheaper motherboard because that one is great but more than you'll need if you're looking to cut down on your overall price.

Other than that, the other stuff looks great.

 

[LabaR]

What kind of RAM do you recommend? According to the Motherboard specs i'm suppose to have RAM thats 1.8v. I notice you got the same Mobo as me, but have RAM thats above the 1.8v. I would like to overclock eventually. Yeah i'm not familiar with the power supply either, but it seems to have pretty good reviews, so i'm going to give it a try. I originally had a $100 in my cart, but stumbled upon the one I got now and I thought it seemed pretty decent.

 

[skyguy]

Motherboard/RAM problems generally occured when they were first released last Fall. Those issues are virtually unheard of now. The BIOS updates and RAM revs have fixed that. You still need to update your BIOS though after you install Windows.

Honestly, if you can swing a bit more money, get the better RAM. Your setup is BEGGING to be overclocked, and you can get there without much effort, even on stock cooling.

I would recommend the same RAM I have, it's quite good, gives very respectable overclocks, and won't break the bank. I live in Canada, however, and choices/pricing is more limited, but this OCZ Platinum here is simply the best stuff for the price. I've heard some good things about G.Skill too for bargain RAM.

But then get the DDR2-800, not the 667 if you want higher overclocks. People will argue about what's needed for the 4300 chips, but the 800 stuff I've mentioned really isn't expensive so I'd just get the 800 then. You have great overclocking room and it won't cost a fortune.

If you go this route, then you can get a monster of a machine from that little CPU. It won't help your gaming, but performance will improve on just about everything else, especially certain programs you'll notice a huge jump

 

[LabaR]

I'm really a lot more concerned with gaming than anything...what if i went with a Pentium D 805 smithfield, throw a Zalman 9500 on it, get some OC'ing ram, and from the money on the downgraded CPU, upgrade my GPU. How does that sound? Looks something like this maybe...(MB, RAM, CPU, and GPU)

CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model CM2X1024-6400 - Retail

ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100176L Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model HH80551PE0672MN - OEM

I don't plan on jumping to Vista anytime real soon, so RAM isn't a 'huge' deal to me right now and would be fairly easy to upgrade in the future, as well as the CPU.

 

[skyguy]

Well, if you're mostly interested in gaming, then:

-2 gigs cheap RAM
-P5N mobo is fine, but doubt you'll need an SLI mobo in your instance
-cheap dual core CPU (not necessary but helps your overall system. But the 805 is scary. Better to go with 4300 soon when prices level off)
-stock air cooling. Don't bother with the 9500, use that money to get the 4300 CPU instead
-best vid card for the buck you can find. All depends on your budget really. 1950PRO is good, but not sure if that's the best bang for your buck. Read this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/06/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/

-So, to recap:
-2 gigs cheap value DDR2 RAM
-cheap C2D mobo
-4300
-stock air cooling
-vid card that is a good deal for performance, that's the key.

 

[LabaR]

yeah, i'm looking more at that P5N now because i'm scared of memory compatability. I might just got in big time on cpu and ram now...and heavily skimp on the video card for a while and then snatch a dx10 when they come down a bit more...i dunno, decisions decisions

 

[LabaR]

Okay...heres what i'm driving with now....

ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $139.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6300 - Retail $187.00

Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G5300LLK - Retail $245.99 - $45 MIR

EVGA 256-P2-N443-LX GeForce 7300GT 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $69.99

Reviews on this 7300GT are saying they can play Battlefield 2 with highest settings no problem, and thats what i'm most excited about playing. I think I can roll with this for at least a year, then maybe treat myself to a christmas present next year or around this same time next year. What do ya'll think?

 

[NamelessMC]

Honestly, if you're using cheap ram and a low-range video-card, you'd be better off with a Pentium D and a better video-card.

I'm working with a guy right now that has the same budget range as you, except he only has $600 to spend but has a case, CDRW/DVD combo and a hard-drive already and he's walking away with: Pentium D 805, 1 GB performance ram, 7900GS and a Gigabyte DS3 965P.

You don't really need a 650i, and honestly, no point in getting 2 GB of any kind of ram or even a Core2Duo if you're going to bottleneck your system with a 7300GT.

 

[LabaR]

That 2GB isnt exactly 'cheap' its very good actually. Anyways, i know the 7300GT is a bottleneck. The rational is this...This year theres really no PC games coming out that i'm really looking forward to, there are however a lot of games like BF2, CS:S, HL2, etc... that this card will be able to handle smoothly. So whenever 2008 comes around or whenever the big must have PC game for myself comes out, then i'll upgrade into a DX10 video card and not have to worry about upgrading anything else. By that times DX10 cards will be cheaper as well.