Please Help Me Build My Dad a New PC

Good CPU, PSU, and RAM choices.

I would get a P965 motherboard instead of the P945. Take a look at this one: Gigabyte DS3 (rev 1.3)

Even better, if you don't need to play games or anything like that, get one of these motherboards with integrated video and skip the X1550 card.
ASUS P5B-VM or
Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3

Along those lines, I'd try using the motherboard integrated sound instead of the Audigy. You can always add a sound card later if you have to, but the onboard sound is actually quite good on modern motherboards, and can save you some $$.

I don't know why you're mixing and matching HD sizes and manufacturers, but Seagate and WD are both good choices. 320 GB seems to be the sweet spot for $/GB, might want to look at those instead.

I'd recommend this DVD-burner: Sony/NEC Optiarc. Yeah it's out of stock but says it'll be back Friday. This one is largely regarded as among the best of the "cheap" DVD drives (cheap compared to something like a Plextor).

I don't know anything about that LCD, can't help you there. Looks nice though.

You might also consider an AMD system, if you're not overclocking the E4400 an equivalent AMD processor would be cheaper, and they have the integrated video 690G chipset which is better than the Intel G965. Just a thought for your budget conscious system, your build should work fine as well. If you did want to consider AMD, look at this motherboard and this CPU.

Yeah, no real point getting a low end sound card when you can just use onboard, particularly if your not going to be taking advantage of the features of the card like EAX.

Thanks for the solid advise.

I updated the build.

Wow want a great system for only $724!!!!

I dont think I will ever get a Pre-built system again.

What case\keyboard\mouse will you be using?

Heh, I was just thinking that!

Some people use the argument that it's not worth the hassle to put it together by yourself.

However, I think that the fun of putting it together is the best part.

well... what is it he does that his old system is no longer fast enough for?
that info helps alot with recomendations.
though from what you have given an x2 3600 brisbane would be more than ample. also even 1 gig ram would suffice- excel word and music are not very demanding[by todays standards :roll: ] and dont think they'll be any more so in five years.
also 600 gigs of storage is alot unless you're talking pics,video, ect...
i dunno just my opinion.
edit: just thought a little more about it... what os are you plugging in? that will say alot for how much ram, cpu, video you need.

1. He has a really old p4 with 512MB ram

2. Most likely Vista Business

He is just sad that his computer is the oldest in the family. And it is getting bogged down w/ bloatware.

I just want to give him a performance boost that he will really notice.

And he wants all of the HDD space for all of his music on one HDD and everything else on another.

Hey jjnguy13, i dont know if you saw my build, but if he wants his music on a 2nd drive, I got a great WD 500G for like $129.00 Canadian at TigerDirect.

If he likes his music (like I do), ripping at a higher bit rate makes a huge difference but takes up a lot of space. 500Gigs at 129Cnd is to me now the sweet spot.

Just letting you know my opinion ;-)

Why not try a software RAID5 for him--hard drives have a tenancy to fail so adding a hot drive should be optimum, especially if he has alot of unique music (my Uncle uses a SCSI Hardware Raid5 with about 1TB of storage for his extensive music collection, including the conversion of thousands of CDs (he has several thousand CDs), hundreds of tapes, LPs, vinyls, and other music). You can get less-expensive WD3200AAKS drives, single platter, for $80/each.

I have no idea. I am going to let him pick out one(case) that he likes, and I think he already has a mouse and a keyboard.

I looked at the 500GB HDD's and they do look like they are worth the money. I might switch those around a bit. Maybe 160 and 500 or something.

Thanks