New Builder

First, I just wanted to thank TH and everybody on the forums, this site and everybody on it is incredibly helpful.

I've never built a PC before, and wanted to do so now. I'll mostly use it for internet/word processing, but I do sometimes play games (though often older ones, like Oblivion) and use Photoshop once in a while. I also like to watch movies on my pc, though I'm not into blu-ray or anything yet. I'd also like the machine to last for a while.

Since I have no experience building, I'd rather not overclock this first time around.

I thought I had my build mostly worked out. I've already acquired an Antec 900 case (more than I need, probably, but I figure if I ever build another pc after this one I can reuse it), an Antec earthwatts 500W power supply, and 4Gb of Crucial Ballistix SDDR2 (I don't know about crucial quality, but the ram was very cheap with a rebate, so I snapped it up).

I then planned on buying:
AMD Athlon 6000+ Windsor
A compatible motherboard, I wasn't sure what to choose.
Radeon 4850
An average sized hard drive.

I was looking at between $500 and $600. (I already have Vista)

Then, I was given an early Christmas present of an additional $300 to spend. I don't have to spend it all, and will get the money whether I buy better parts or not.

So what do you think? Given what I'm using the machine for, what should I buy? Or should I stick with what I have and pocket the money? (If I stick with this processor, any advice on the motherboard would be nice).

Also, I'm in no rush to build this, so I can wait for deals, etc.

Thanks everybody so much.

You didn't mention any video editing or encoding, so a quad core is not really neccessary. A E8500 or E7300 will be sufficient for your daily tasks and gaming. The Asus P5Q Pro is a good mobo to pair with either of those dual cores + its not too expensive. Gigabyte is also suitable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131299
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128359
As for harddrives, the most popular drives are teh 640GB from Western Digital and Seagate. Both are similiarly prices at around $80. The Seagate drive does have 32MB of cache while WD's only has 16MB.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136218
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148335

Yes, the Intel chip is much faster. AMD has not been competitive for about 2 years. You can check the link in my sig for full explanations if you like on all the parts.

I put together a list for you, partly because I needed a new reference at this price point. It's pretty good actually. You can get a lot for 700 bucks.
The parts as listed say $720, but that is before the combo deal on the case/PSU and any rebates, of which there are several.
Newegg public wish list.

You should add Vista 64 to that list:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488

Yep, for just a bit more that UD3P looks nice.

aeiouandxyz: I am probably being presumptuous to answer for proximon, but for this guys needs, the 9800gt will work just fine, and its cheaper than the 4850.