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Building a system for my niece, plea for advice.

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Building a desktop for my niece. Cost is a large factor since, I'm paying for the whole thing myself and I might have to do the same thing for my other niece. Plus, I have to explain the expense to my wife.

It should be capable of some gaming. I know she played World of Warcraft.

What I've got figured (anything can change)

Antec Sonata II case with 450 Watt power supply, $69.00 after rebate
Samsung DVD Burner with Nero, $29.00
200 -250 GB Hard drive, I can get for under $50.00
Plantronics Multimedia headset
OS, probably XP Home for around $70.00


What I don't got figured

MB
Processor
Memory ( 2 GB of cheap and reliable)
Video Card
LCD Monitor, at least 17 inch would like 19
Mouse (I am not springing 45.00 for a mouse)
Keyboard (like Logitech, but I just need good and cheap)
A decent word processor program, suitable for sometimes student.


I've got a month to build this and I'm looking for the most bang for my buck. But one thing it has to have is a reliable motherboard, some overclock potential would be nice. I like the Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (would like cheaper), but I'm thinking that an AMD processor might give me more for my money. If I go that route, I would prefer the AM2 socket.


Any advice most appreciated.

Thanks
Tom

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I figure I can spend up to five hundred with few bruises from my wife. Once I hit $800 US, I should maybe shop for a grave marker and a nice burial suit instead. :D 


Tom

Quote:
A decent word processor program, suitable for sometimes student.


You can use Open Office for word processing. It's free. If you need Word you can get Works Suite which includes Word 2002 for ~US$65. Word 2007 Home goes for $115 but for $119 you can get Office 2007 Home which includes Word, Excel & PowerPoint. link
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I agree, OpenOffice would work great and it's free.

As for the hardware, you're pushing it with a budget of $500. I don't have time to link prices but I'd start with an X2 3600+ and a cheap AM2 board, and 1GB of cheap DDR400 ram.

I should not have tried to joke in my reply to you. A comedian I ain’t. :D  My budget probably tops out at $750. If I could keep it below $650 it would make it easier explaining to my wife.

Tom

Case: Cooler master Centurion5
Disk: Western Digital Cavar SE 160gb 16MB CACHE
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz 2 x 512KB (why? better cache and massive overclockability)
Ram: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (only 82.99!?!?! cant get better then that)
Mobo: BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
PSU: FSP Group (Fortron Source) Blue Storm II 500 ATX 2.2V 500W Power Supply - Retail
Video- EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail
Thermal Compound - Arctic Silver 5

Subtotal: $584.93
thats without shipping and assuming you have a copy of windows already if you dont change out the graphic card for a lower one

if your an overclocking fan buy the scythe ninja for 39.99 on newegg ull get great speeds out of the x2 3600+

if you have any questions just shoot me a pm or need any advice il help ya out
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