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advice/opinion on budget build

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I am currently in need of a gaming pc that uses Win xp. My husband is going to build this for me. He is not a gamer and does not know anything at all about parts so it up to me to select parts ( meaning I need to do the research on the various parts as I am not knowledgeable at all on it either) In the past, he has done upgrades on my pc’s such as video cards, ram, hard drives and cpu chips but has never done a motherboard. My budget is around 700 but if I can get it lower all the better.


What I currently have:
- 320 gig SATA hard drive
- 22 inch monitor
-mouse
-keyboard
-speakers
- windows xp

I will not be doing any overclocking. Stability and reliability are what is important to me in this PC. Also would like something that is not too noisy too without having to add additional components. I want to keep this as simple as possible as this is a first time build.

CPU.............. Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 $179
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030&Tpk=E6550

Motherboard

completely unsure here. I have no need of raid or SLI/crossfire or ability to overclock well. STABILITY is the most important thing.

EVGA 122-CK-NF66-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188017

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$94.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

ABIT IP35-E INTEL P35 CHIPSET ATX FORM FACTOR
114.99 but at mwave this is 89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127031

GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128048


RAM......... G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $80
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820231098

Case....... COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068

is there a big difference between this and the coolermaster centurion 534. they are both the same price.


Power Supply ...... XCLIO GOODPOWER 500W $50
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817189005


Graphics...... GeForce SAPPHIRE Radeon X1950PRO 256MB $137
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102061

would I be better off getting the nvidea 7900 gs for around the same price?

Dvd burner........ Lite-On 20x SATA LH-20A1S $33
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106070

DX 10 compatability is not a concern for this pc.

Let me know if you guys have any suggestions especially about the video card and motherboard.

Since I am so new to all of this , can you please inform if my selected parts are compatable with each other.

Thank you for your time

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I've heard people have had luck with the GA-P35-DS3L.
The difference in the cases is the fan setup. The one you picked out will be fine.
I've never used xclio PSUs. I'd look at Fortran for that price.
I believe that the X1950PRO is a tad faster then the 7900GS, but if you have any interest in Linux, I'd highly recommend nVidia.
All and all, I think you have a pretty decent budget build. My only suggestion would be to think about going with an AMD CPU or the Intel 2140 and spending the saved money on a better video card.

http://www.hollandpcservice.com/forum/showthread.php?t=...

He build it for about $1300 and you already have some of the stuff.
Lower the video card to a 8800gts 320MB (saves ya about $100)

or go with the one you have.. (note it doesn't support directX 10.0) so your new games won't look and play as nextgen, but if you don't want it.. save the $150.

the 650i motherboard will work for you... and you could even save a few bucks by going amd or getting a slightly lower dualcore intel processor.

And power supplies from what I've heard from Many Many people are "you get what you pay for", so I'd probably go with the one from the tutorial in case you want to upgrade down the road.

Ram is at a good price.. I'd pay the extra few dollars for corsair, but if you take $20-$30 off by getting a discount brand, you'll get closer to your target price.

You can probably get it under 900.
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The XCLIO PSU is on Tier-5 ("Do not buy") of this list:
http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon
FSP would be a better choice. This one is $58 on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I like my Gigabyte mobo, a GA-G33M-DS2R. The full-sized near equivalent is the GA-P35-DS3R for $130:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I have a 7900GS and like it well enough, but the x1950PRO should be a better performer.

The DVD writer you have chosen is OEM, meaning it won't include a decoder or other software. For another $7, consider a Retail drive like this LiteOn:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

OTOH, for a budget build you might consider AMD. This build features an 8800GTS, and comes in at $706 + shipping and government extortion but - $80 for the drive you already have:
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWi...

Go with the better power supply, keep the processor as your not saving much by downgrading. got with the evga mother board, your ram, gpu, dvdburner, and that brings you to about 650..

You could go AMD and save $100 on your cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
or pay a few bucks less and get a 6000+ at 3.0GHz.
You'd have to change to a new board though..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... is a good one

you could probably go with out a cooler since your system isn't that powerful, so $50 case will seal it at 700 if you go intel... 600 if you go amd :) 

I'd personally recommend though to wait a few more weeks save up another couple hundred, and to with a geforce 8x series, get a bigger case and get a cooler for the extra $200 or so.. You might not want it now, but a few years down the road, who knows? nextgen games with directX 10 won't look as good.

But the system you got picked out will work fine for most games.

The retail dvd burner does seem like a better deal.

I will look into that fortran power supply.

I want to keep the cost down on this pc as much as possible. dx 10 games will never be played on it thus I have no need of an 8x serIes card.

thanks for your comments
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