Hi everyone.

I'm currently using an old p.o.s. (i.e. Compaq Presario s4000j cira 2002ish). It's got a Athlon 2400, Radeon 9200, and 512MB PC2100 RAM. And honestly, it's been pretty good for my use. I mostly use it for gaming, but it's handled TF2 surprisingly well (medium settings), and before that it ran America's Army pretty well too (until they started out-spec'ing me with the updates). Before AA I used it to play D2:LOD, which brings me to the purpose of this thread. When the news of D3 hit I immediately started looking into a new rig, and considering my rather tiny budget I decided to give a home build a try.

I'm on a $600ish budget (and undershooting that wouldn't be a bad thing). I already have a monitor (20" Acer widescreen LCD), crappy mouse and k/b (those'll have to wait to be upgraded until a later date), an IDE DVD-RW/CD-RW disc drive, and if possible I'd like to reuse my current crappy 80gig HDD and WinXP and use the new HDD for everything except the OS (assuming I can't reload the old OS on the new HDD).

So here are my main questions.
1) Can I carry over my current OS into my new build or do I have to buy a new one (I don't have the disc, it came with the system)? And if I can, can I reinstall it on the new HDD or do I have to carry it over on it's current HDD?
2) As a first time builder, compatibility is definitely a concern as well as omissions (am I missing anything?).
3) Am I under/over spending on any particular component? I'd hate to be spending extra cash on something the rest of the system can't handle and I'd hate to be bottlenecking an otherwise good system with a substandard component.
4) And this may be the most important, do you think this could handle D3? I know it's basically a guess at this point, but I'd still like to here what you think.

GIGABYTE GZ-X5BPD-500 Black SECC Steel / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail = $20
APEVIA CF12S-UBL 120mm Case Fan - Retail = $5
BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail = $80
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail = $130
MSI RX3850-T2D512E OC Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail = $97
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail = $30
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM = $60
XION XON-630P12N 630W ATX12V Power Supply 115/ 230 V RoHS, UL, CE, CB, CSA, FCC, TUV, Demko, Nemko, SEMCO - Retail = $40
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM = $6
CyberPower 6050 4 Feet 1 Transformer Spaced 5 Non-Transformer Spaced Outlets 1500 Joules Surge Protector - Retail = $12
Rosewill RTK-001 Premium Anti-Static Wrist Strap - Retail = $4

Total = $485 after MIRs
Shipping = $40
Tax = $45
Grand Total = $570

Oo. Whats an anti-static wrist strap?

You won't be able to re use your OS from a Compaq pre built to a home built.
A better power supply then that Xion is an Antec 430w Earthwatt $35 after rebate, fine for your system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371006
3 better choices for a graphic card at less or the same price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125086
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127365
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150294

Thanks for the reply, dirtmountain. I was actually debating between the HD3850 and the 9600GSO. THW's GPU chart put them at even and I figured the higher memory and 256-bit vs. 128-bit made the ATI look better. I'll take your word, though, and go with the 9600GSO (and save a few bucks in the process).

How future-proof is that Antec PSU? Like if I eventually decide to upgrade to a quad-core? Or update the GPU in a couple years? I've seen Xion recommended as a reliable PSU, and with 630W and 20+ amps on both 12V rails, I thought that one looks pretty good. I know the Earthwatt line is thought of very highly, but I'm concerned about only using a 430W (17amp on the 12Vs).

Actually about reusing the HD...I too had a compaq presario from about 2002 as well. 2 years later i replaced the motherboard, processor, and grahpics card and kept the same HD, and it worked fine. Granted that isnt a whole new rig..

Im actually curious about this because Im probably building a new computer for someone because their Dell motherboard died, and they need the data from there old HD.

Oh and if you plan on running windows Vista on this machine, Your going to want more than 2gb of memory.

If your running windows xp, thats fine

The Antec 430w is fine for this card and system, but if you upgrade in the future to say a HD4870 you'd be cutting it too close for comfort. A quad core upgrade would be fine. I'd still go with a better brand power supply if upgrading the graphic card is in the future for you.

What about this 600W PSU from OCZ with 4 18A 12V rails?

And with regards to reusing my OS, you're positive I can't even reuse it if I keep it on it's original HDD? I was REALLY counting on reusing it. If I need to fork over another $100 for a new OS, this build is going to take a serious hit in the hardware department.

Ok so after browsing the XP forum a bit, it looks like there's a chance that I could reinstall but there's no way of really knowing until I actually try. And considering that'd mean I'd already have to buy all the hardware, I don't think I'm willing to risk it. So here's my new (read: compromised ) build:

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit English 1pk for System Builders DSP OEI DVD - OEM = $90
GIGABYTE GZ-X5BPD-500 Black SECC Steel / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail = $20
APEVIA CF12S-UBL 120mm Case Fan - Retail = $5
BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail = $80
Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail = $70
MSI N9600GSO-T2D384 OC GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail = $89
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail = $57
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM = $60
Antec Basiq BP500U 500W ATX12V Version 2.01 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CB, CE, CSA, TUV, FCC - Retail = $40
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM = $6
CyberPower 6050 4 Feet 1 Transformer Spaced 5 Non-Transformer Spaced Outlets 1500 Joules Surge Protector - Retail = $12
Rosewill RTK-001 Premium Anti-Static Wrist Strap - Retail = $4

Total: $540 after MIRs
Tax: $47
Shipping: $37
Grand Total: $625

I wasn't really planning on doing any OCing, but since it looks like I have to drop down to the E2180 I'll probably have to reconsider that, too. When that time comes I'm going to need an aftermarket cooler, but that'll have to wait.