What do ya'll think? I've been going back and forth between building a machine for someone, versus pointing him towards a pre-built. I finally got the price down on a box pieced together myself, everything from NewEgg.

• COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 Case
• GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
• EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB
• OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply (Overkill?? This is $100..phew!)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
• Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (This is on GB's approved mem list)
• Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA

Any input or opinions always appreciated.

Oh, also, I am going with the on-board audio on this thing. Heard good things about it, don't want to blow $60-80 on a sound card for nothing.

The price of this thing, without a monitor (he has one). I also included decent mouse, keyboard, DVD/CD, etc, in the price... got everything for under $1,000, which was my limit. It's for gaming, BTW.

Looks good. If you wanted to save some money, these rams are also compatible with Gigabyte. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820211165

Sweet man, thanks!

I really wanted a good, reliable, beefy power supply for this machine. I've bought cheap ones before and they create HUGE headaches (random reboots, lock ups, etc). This PS seems like it'll handle about anything thrown at it and it should last through another build even! But, maybe I've gone a little overboard... if I can find a good one with power to spare, and save $50 bucks, I'd do it...

The general consensus is that power supply is not the place to save money. Look at the PC P & C 610 Silencer PSU as well. Here's a good site. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=108088

Okay a change on the PSU will get you a better and more powerful PSU than the one you listed. It has 49A on the 12V rails and the OCZ 600w only has 35ish Amps on its 12V rails, so you can decide. It's only about $2 more (if you include shipping cost on the OCZ).

$119 shipped - Promo code at checkout (EMCABCCBG) $10 = $109!!
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, CE, CB, TUV - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] _-17703005

Looks good, same basic components as my rig. Very easy to OC to 3.2.

For $25 more you can get 2x WD1600AAJS. Two drives provide a huge performance boost, put your OS and apps on one, data and paging file on the other.

Since you are only going with a single vid card, this PSU will do the job nicely. 34a on the 12v rail is plenty. Quality is very good. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371007

The other PSUs suggested are indeed higher quality, but unnecessary for your system.

You guys rock! Yup, I've seen that link before on the PSU's, and chose the OCZ off the tier 2 list. But the PC P & C is top quality and not much more $$$. I don't ever want to get burned by a PSU again, even though it's still possible I suppose even with a higher tier one, but just less likely.

I think I'll go with the PC P & C 610 Silencer PSU.....

Better jump on it then, the promo code doesn't last forever!

You should be looking at the E8400 processor, rather than the E6750. It's faster, cooler, and costs the same.

Clint

$50 w/google and small rebate - Corsair 450
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-vx [...] 66485.html

$57 w/google and small rebate - Corsair 550
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-vx [...] 52646.html

$80 w/google and small rebate - Corsair 520 modular
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-52 [...] 70716.html

Sign up for their Visa and knock another $30! off any of the above. All have free shipping....never buy a PSU from the egg, it's one thing they rip people on...

as cneufeld said, don't buy the E6750... the E8400 will be better, not to mention faster...

I'd say that is the case 90% of the time. There are times though you can't get it cheaper, with MIR's, than at newegg. I check newegg first and then I go to ZZF and buy.com to verify costs. Sometimes I even go to ewiz, but that is only if I'm really looking hard.