Extreme Budget (Gaming) System Build

My college laptop is a two year old Compaq and takes 5 minutes to open Matlab 7 and VS 2005 (two programs I need), so I decided to get a new computer. I was looking at Dells at first but decided to build my own rig after advice from some friends...and it looked like fun! Frankly, being a college student I needed to stay at a budget so it isn't as "extreme" as some of your rigs. The PC will be used for mostly college work and light gaming. So no Crysis...sigh. Here goes:

- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
- XFX 8600GT XXX 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI
- Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC ATX 430W Power Supply
- COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower
- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black PATA Model SH-S202G

The total cost is around $570 after MIR...which falls under my budget. I still need a LCD monitor and will probably go for a Samsung 19".

agree with the intel recommend. it's intel's time in the sun. I'm not sure how much you are paying for the 8600gt, but the 3850 can be had for $150, so if it,s in your budget it would be worth a little extra money. that being said, the 8600gt is still a capable card. I had one and played crysis at 1024x768 with most settings on high. I would look for an antec earthwatts or fsp psu, quality cheap psus. I have the same case, love it. go with ddr800, worth a few extra dollars. never buy a pata drive. sata only from here on out.

FWIW, this is deal:

http://www.ncixus.com/products/25878/ADO5000DSWOF/AMD/

You might as well get ASUS M3A since it supports Phenom & AM2 cpus out of the box. The same can't be said for many AM2 boards.

No, nothing wrong with the 430W. It will work fine. For a while. We are always trying to suggest good psu's that last a long while. Yep, I would get something else like Earthwatts 380W or Fortron/Sparkle. The 8800gt recommends a 325W.

I used to think PATA dvd drives had problems with Windows. Turned out it was just me. I'm using a SATA one. XP SP2 CD loads up just fine. SATA cables are thinner & not impeding airflow as much as PATA cables.