Help me build a budget system

I'm planning to build a new system -- my last one was homebuilt by my brother in lawabout 5-6 years ago, so it's time for something new. This new system will be my first time building one on my own. I need some advice, so I don't waste money, or underspend:

Part I: I would like to know what I can get for around $500 (not including OS or monitor). Basically, given this budget, where should I put my money for the best possible performance. For detail on my typical usage, see below.

Part II: Next, I'm wondering if it would be worth spending more -- up to about $750 or $800 approximately. Given the above ($500) system recommendations, what would change if you now had an $800 budget? And, what would I notice different about this machine on a day to day basis?


Here are my usage considerations:
-- I don't usually play games but would like the ability to do so. I wouldn't need the best gaming machine, just something that can handle a game well (so it's fun, not a hassle) if desired.
-- multiple programs and applications simultaneously (including firefox, Word, Excel, iTunes, Vegas Movie Studio, Picture Project, etc.)
-- storage for a lot of pictures and video...I have a 10 MP dSLR camera, so the pictures can get fairly large; I have kids, so I take a lot of photos.
-- would like to be able to edit and create DVDs from my home video footage.

I would defently spend the extra money to get a q6600 system. You probably want to get atleast a 750gb Hard drive
180 for CPU
150 for hard drives
80 Mobo
150 for gpu
80 for 4gigDDR2PC800
p35 would be best bang for buck Mobo chipset

so your lookin at atleast 640 and that isnt including case & PS so you might be lookin at 800 for a q6600.

If you wanted to stay at 500 you would be giving up the quadcore for an overclocked pentium C2d, might save 100 bucks there, less hard drive space and a weaker GPU. For 800 bucks you would have a good multitasker that would be very good at games now and in the near future.


Since it seems your main usage is image/video editing and multitasking the benefits of having a quadcore will be substantial in reduced processing time shaving minets from encoding times, and your environment will be much more responsive with mutliple windows/tasks running.

You can do that without a problem.

Excellent..thanks for these suggestions. I have a DVD/CD burner that I should be able to use, so that'll take it down another $25-30..

Also, how's the performance/price for the HD3870 in contrast with the HD4850? Trying to determine if the extra cost will be worth it over the next few years. I plan to have this machine for a few years.

The Antec Earthwatts PSU is wholly seperate from the case and you can but it stand along on NewEgg
It's a very good, high efficiency power supply.