Tell me on a scale of 1-10 how do you rate my new budget build pc i just built. I use this PC to play all the latest games that are currently out at max or atleast decently high settings at 1280x1024. Planning on upgrading to a Q9300 and a Geforce 280 or Radeon 4870 later.

Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119068

MB: Biostar TSeries P43-D2A7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813138122

CPU: E7200 2.53ghz Wolfdale

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115052

HD: WesternDigital 160gb 7200rpm SATAII

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136075

RAM:G.Skill 2x1gb DDR2 800mhz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231098

VGA: EVGA 8800GT 512mb DDR3 Dual Slot Cooling

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130359

PSU: Antec EA650 650W ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371015


SoundCard: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6829102006

Total Cost With Shipping: $627

About a 6/10. There are a few reasons:
That PSU has too many 12V rails. It makes them have lower amps, and harder to balance. Corsair has a 650 for just $10 more after rebate with a single rail.
Biostar isn't too great. I'd go with a Gigabyte, or if you can afford it, an Asus.
Mushkin has a 2x1GB Ram set that has timings of 5-5-5-12 at 1.8v for $35 after rebate. If you're willing to spend $50, SuperTalent has a set of 4-4-3-8.
If you're willing to spend a few more bucks on the vid card, a 4850 is WAY better. If not, that's a decent deal.
I think the sound card you chose is a good deal. It's the first X-fi that has 24bit/192khz stereo output.
The Biostar is a good deal, it just won't have as many features.

I would have ditched the sound card and used the money to get a case with better cooling and a better hard disk and more RAM.

Still, you did very good. Excellent value for $627, and your PSU is good enough for the next video card.

So, you got a motherboard advertised as "Record breaking OC performance" but no aftermarket cooler for the CPU? I assume you will add the cooler and OC, right?

^+1 for a better HSF. I recommend XIGMATEK S1283 (+ bolt in kit).

Motherboard leaved to be desired, but every thing else looks good. I don't trust BIOSTAR after having two of their boards die on me. I always recommend ASUS or Gigabyte. If possible consider swapping the motherboard to a P45-DS3L or even a P45-DS3R (to do Crossfire).

Imo, the sound card is an over kill unless you have the quality speakers(ie Bose),etc to use the card 100%. You could have used this money to get a better motherboard.

the mobo isnt good. hey i got the msi p6n daimond for 99$ includes a x-fi card built in.
=]

Yeah i already had the sound card before i bought the system and i just stuck it in there. I bought it to go with a pair of audio technicas
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826402014 because i play FPS alot and it helps me out extremely with sound positional system and such.

I never really planned on overclocking due to the last and first time i tried to overlock my old celeron it litereally started smoking so yeah such a happy experience that was lol. But if i do go to overclock i was thinking of getting a Zalman 9700 or something.

Ram wise i couldn't get 4gigs in on the budget i was on and i only have a copy of win xp pro 32 bit and didn't really plan on buying a 64 bit version anytime soon

PSU wise i just figured that youd need more than one 12v rail for the newer stuff but if i had known that i didn't i shoulda went with the corsair

My budget was very strict like down the the penny as in money wise and i had got recommended the Biostar MB. Asus at the time was too expensive and i didn't really want an SLI/Crossfire board because by the time i buy another video card theyd probally have 8 core MBs out and maybe 16x 16x sli support and i was stuck on getting a PCIE 2.0 slot for that little extra boost. Gigabyte wise i didn't choose it because i didn't really like the layout of the board how the ram was kinda close the the video card and id have to remove the video card to add in more ram or something but other than that i shoulda got that board im guessing everything else looked good.

OK, since you already had the sound card and that was all the money you got, I'll give you a 10/10. I can't improve a thing without making it more expensive. Nice work!