Help w/ system: $500 Budget

Looking for some advice. Building a new gaming tower for someone with a ~$500 budget.

Also, no gigabyte parts for this user. User prefers nvidia over ati.

Resuing case, need new PSU.

With a mere 500$ budget, I'd recommend shopping for openbox / refurbished items, and a 90$ mainboard is probably a bit too much for what he's doing, a cheapie ECS, biostar, pcchips or any other budget mobo would work about as good, for about 30$ cheaper..

ex:

CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103760 - $122 (x2 3600 retail)
RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820144045 - $75 (1gig gskil, good warranty, good ram)
MOBO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813185093 - $51 (pcie, pcchips, cheap, no OC potential, but very budget oriented.
VID http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 814121549R - $80 (x1600pro, visually good, decent performance for price)
HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148142 - $75 (perp recording, faster)
PS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153023 - $37 (18A on 12v Rail, good manu)
OPT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106042 - $30 (High quality known brand, very fast)

total comes to 470+S&H.
You could swap for a 7600gt, but they're about equal in performance, but with the X1xxx series you get AVIVO (ATI Video in video out) which makes everything brighter, and videos play much smoother. You could also go to say an X1900gt or an x1950pro, but you're looking at ~100$ more, but the performance is like going from a honda civic to an acura NSX, or say a ford pinto to a mustang GT, you'll notice the difference.

If at all possible, have him save up an extra 150-200, you'll get much better quality products, such as a higher quality motherboard, and better performing video card.

Good luck with the build in any case

If you're going over budget already, I'd double check with him and find out his absolute maximum budget (S&H and all) and see what components he's willing to drag over to the new build (hdd, optical, etc)

If we can re-use the harddrive and optical, you should be fine.

Any reason he doesn't use ATI? I used to be biased towards Nvidia after 3 ATI cards (on a failing mobo) caused hive cluster crashes in XP, then went to Nvidia and had great luck, but my new x1900gt runs great, ATI really improved with their x series graphics cards, I'd recommend at least giving the options, because you can get a much quicker video card from ATI for the mid-range than you can Nvidia.

E6300 is a great way to go, but on a budget system, I'd recommend 4300 instead. Look for the AsRock 775 C2D board, should be around 60$ newegg.

If you go with a higher video card, or more devices internally (fans, optical drives) go with a power supply with a higher 12V line, or multiple 12V lines (2 12V 14A rails = better than 1 20/22/24A rail, more stability)

"If we can re-use the harddrive and optical, you should be fine."

No burner =( ... I'll probably reuse the HD. Puts him at ~$480

"Any reason he doesn't use ATI? I used to be biased towards Nvidia after 3 ATI cards (on a failing mobo)" ... same reason. He's had bad luck and I'm not going to force the issue.

"E6300 is a great way to go, but on a budget system, I'd recommend 4300 instead."

I would if he was willing to wait. As it stands right now I can't find an e4300 for even $15 more than I can find the e6300 for. Kind of defeats the purpose of saving $$ on ram.

"go with a power supply with a higher 12V line, or multiple 12V lines"
That $45 PSU has to 2 17A 12V rails.

There is a free PSU (+ shipping) with 1 16A and 1 18A rail, but given the reviews I don't know if I should trust that thing to power my alarm clock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817159062

"lol how much of a profit are you trying to make here ?"

profit? building computers? I've been going about this all wrong!

Considering the tight budget you are proposing, you may want to consider one of these two deals:

An Ultra 500w PSU at Fry's for free after a $40 rebate:

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4 [...] IN_RSLT_PG

This is the same PSU I have in my system and it works fine. You also get a lifetime warranty once you register it. I did get the rebate after the usual 6 weeks.

or Newegg has a Coolmax 500w PSU for free after a $28 rebate ($6.83 s&h):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817159062

I do not have any first-hand experience with Coolmax, but while the newegg posters commented on its light weight, they all said it worked fine.

Either one would free up some money to be spent elsewhere.

There's plenty of places to shop other than Newegg for gear at lower prices but with a reputable buyer.

ZipZoomFly I've heard is good, Mwave, TheNerds.net.

All you have to do is double check a company's name with resellerratings.com and make sure they're legit before you buy.

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