Super Budget Computer build

So, I originally planned to spend about $800 to get a new computer for myself. That idea has been scrapped, and I'm now going to be dissecting my old computer for parts and buying some new stuff (CPU, mobo, RAM, video card, power supply). This is supposed to be as cheap as possible while still giving me a huge performance boost for gaming (I currently have an athlon xp 3200+, 1gb ram, radeon 9600xt, so I'm a little outdated at this point).

I'm trying to stay in the $500-550 range. Here's what I've got for the 5 parts I'm buying:

$35 - Antec Earthwatts EA-500D
This was suggested in another thread on Tom's Hardware and it looked like a great deal.

$210 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Don't plan to overclock. I know lots of games don't take advantage of all the cores, but I'll have this thing around for years, so I'm not too worried.

$160 (after $30 rebate) - Radeon 4850 512MB
It seems like a good video card for the money, it's getting awesome reviews, too.

This ($57 after $35 rebate) or this ($67 after $20 rebate)?
I've heard Corsair is good for RAM, but the other one has lower timing (Is lowering timing even good? I dunno!) and higher voltage (bad I think?). The price difference is about $10.

$40 (after $10 rebate) - Motherboard
This one I really don't know about. I know almost nothing about motherboards. I just want it to be able to use 4gb RAM, my video card, IDE ATA100 HD (tee hee, might have to upgrade that later/soon), CD/DVD drive). Any suggestions here specifically would be REALLY appreciated as I'm lost It would be nice to have a little bit of room for upgrading in the future IF it's still in the price range; I can live without it if it exceeds the price range.

$10 Shipping
$502-$512 Total

I think I'm pretty well set on everything but the motherboard and RAM. I could really use some suggetions on those (motherboard especially). There is some room left for changing up the motherboard to something a little more expensive, but I just because I have a maximum limit on the budget doesn't mean I have to reach it; The lower price the better.

Thanks!

well i will say this $40 for a motherboard..... if i may give any example that is like taking a 700hp engine and putting it in a 10 year old station wagon just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be.....

ok to fix that the 4850 is the new hot thing and it is great but any 8800 or 3800 series is going to destroy your 9600xt in gaming trust me...

so i would step down just one llevel to ethier a 9600gt 8800gt or a 8800gts (g92) for about 120 to 150ish this way you can put about $100 to
yoyur motherboard and get a P35 or 45 ....

another example if your not into cars... your heart(CPU) can extremely healthy but if your vanes (motherboard) get a clot or whole body can breakdown.

Makes sense to me about switching up the motherboard/video card. How's this work then? I'm looking to buy this either today or tomorrow, so I hope I can get this nailed down fast.

$35 - Antec Earthwatts EA-500D
$195 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield OEM
$21 - MASSCOOL 8WA741 92mm Ball CPU Cooler
$57 - OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
$120 - ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GTS G92 512MB
$80 - Motherboard

$21 - Shipping
$529 -Total
($85-$90 in rebates)

For the motherboard, the only brands I've heard of (I don't even know if they are good )that are on the cheap end of the P43/45 are MSI ($80) and Biostar ($80). They both look like they'd suit my needs and more. Seems to me like most of the motherboards so far in the thread look really similar (minus the one in my first post); Could I just pick one at random and be okay?

How does this all look?

(Also, What's the voltage difference on the RAM you suggested ausch30 and the one I have picked mean? And what sort of difference will the different timings make? It's only a 8 dollar difference so I'm fine with picking which ever is better, but I haven't heard of mushkin before.)

edit: Just noticed the cooler doesn't have the quad core thing listed under it's "compatibility" list; will it still work for my cpu?

Different companies use different level quality components in their different models to sell at different prices. That is the reason you should look for some reviews before just buying the cheapest.

JEDEC is the governing body that certifies RAM speeds and their standard for DDR2 is 1.8v. All the other RAM that has different voltages is being sold at it's EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) speed and you will have to go into the BIOS and manually set the memory to those timings and voltage. If you look through the list of memory you will see a lot sold at similar timings but different voltages and this is because companies will jack up the voltage on lower quality chips to get the timings of higher quality chips.

MicroAtx boards perform badly, and are meant as bottom level boards. G31 chipset is not good. It ocs badly and has more ram compatibility issues. The $20 dollar difference is not worth it.

That board is p35, not p45. While still quite good, it's a level below. Also, it's Open Box. Those are motherboards that other people rmaed due to a variety of problems. It's a bad idea to buy them.

To crossfire 4850, you need an expensive X38/48 motherboard with dual PCIE2.0x16 slots. Anything lower will bottleneck.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/ [...] index.html

Open box doesn't sound like my sort of thing. I doubt I'll be upgrading anytime soon (last built a computer 3 years ago maybe, haven't upgraded since then, just now building a new computer), so the motherboard I do get doesn't need to be able to do crossfire/SLI stuffs.

it looks to me like the cooler doesn't have thermal paste so just get some artic silver 5 it cost like 5 bucks other than that great changes

I think that CPU cooler comes with a patch of thermal compound already applied:
from the Masscool website: http://www.masscool.com/masscool/Product.aspx?ID=283

yay, glad to hear the stuff I picked now isn't gonna be a pile of crap. I'll be buying this tomorrow I think. Thanks everyone for the help.

Compared to the old g80 8800gts, it's 30% faster. Compared to g92 8800gts, it's the same.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_4850/10.html