I am building my first system in about 3 1/2 years, moving up from a Pentium 4, no gaming and probably no overclocking, comments and suggestions welcome.

I am ready to hit the buy button after a week of tiring research.

Prices before rebates.

Suppliers: Newegg, Amazon, ZipZoomFly

I am still undecided between E8400 and Q6600, not much difference in price.

This system should last me awhile.

I am 64 years old, my computing interests are website development with Microsoft Visual Web Express, digital photography with Adobe Lightroom, music and general computing.

Thanks for your time and comments, not adverse to saving some $.



Case: Inwin F430 Mid Tower Red, I know, I just like it. but still open to suggestions.
$91.66

COOLER MASTER SAF-B83-E1 80mm Case Fan
$3.99

PSU: Antec earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12V v2.0
$59.99

Motherboard: ASUS P5Q Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P45
$184.00

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
$209.99

Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
$109.00

Video: Existing GeForce 8500 GT for now

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
$69.99

Optical Drive: ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T $34.99

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit English 1pk for System Builders
$99.99

I believe you need to have 64-bit Vista to be able to put to use the full 4gb of ram, otherwise it would read like 3 gb or 2.

it reads as 3.5 but there is actually 4 gigs and thats a pretty sweet setup you picked out only thing i would get is a 9600 from nvidia but thats me

The case you chose is 'interesting'. Looks plastic with a plastic front panel allowing zero air flow in to the system from the front. May cause some otherwise unnecessary heat problems. A case like this offers an excellent cooling/air flow solution. PSU mounts on bottom, you may need a PSU with slightly longer leads.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0283272

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042

This case offers great cooling also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119137

Also, a 2 x 2GB PC6400 kit for a little less that should do well in a system like your are building.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231122

I've used this PSU ($59 AR Free shipping) in my son's Q6600 system for about a year now with zero problems. The leads easily reach on the two cases I listed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341010

I have several of the ASUS lightscribe DVD/RW . They perform very well. I think most of mine are IDE.

I can't get over that red case. It drives me.

omg why 8500gt buy 4850 or 4870