Building with a $500 budget

I'm building a PC for my brother. My budget is ~$500 after MIR excluding monitor and peripherals. He is a graphic designer and will be using Adobe CS4 Web Premium. He also likes to play MMORPG games (ei. WoW), and probably a few hardcore games. He will be hooking his PC to a monitor (undecided), and a wacom drawing tablet. Help me decide on what parts I need.

Motherboard
Processor
Memory
Hard Drive
Case
PSU
Optical Drive
Video Card
Wireless Card

The monitor should be around $1xx. Something good for a graphic designer and gamer.

Looks like Proximon did a good job finding components for a decent budget build. The Gigabyte board can add even more value in case your brother needs a little more horsepower. That board should be able to OC and push the e5300 to 3.4 GHz (13 multiplier X 266 fsb). I'd go with a 9800 GT. They're as low as $79 as open-box items on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 814127406R
I often buy Newegg open box items (3 video cards, 2 motherboards so far and no problems) and you'd know within the 30 day period if you need to return for a refund.

Of course, but building a full computer for under 500 bucks with that CPU is a problem. Unless you use a junk PSU and case.

Prices from Newegg.com

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Retail

$139.99

SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

$84.99

Foxconn A76ML-K AM2+ / AM3 Ready AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

$59.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM

$69.99

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS550-PCARE3-US 550W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Retailpply - Retail

$54.99

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

$39.99


OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (The Official Memory of the Championship Gaming Model OCZ2F10662GK - Retail

$30.99

Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-216DBK - OEM

$22.99

Total: $503.99

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)

For $4 more after mail-in rebate...

Out of these 4 which memory is the best? Here

Those are all good name brand memory, I personally have used Corsair and OCZ memory recommend either. If you want to get technical the Corsair memory has a slightly tighter tRAS timing (the 15 at the end) which is faster, but the 18 timing in the OCZ is more stable.

But that is really the only difference, and guess what: it doesn't matter because you will never be able to notice a difference. Any of those sticks will be ok, just go with the cheaper one.

Proximons build is good , but sassans is much better .

The cpu is much stronger , the gfx bit weaker , and the hard drive twice the size , the ram is adequate

but if the OP is desperate for 4 gig then scale back on the hard drive and spend that money on ram

I like Sassans build better myself, except for the PSU. You should definitely not use the PSU.

Luckily, we have the whole "after MIR" thing to save the day:

OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W

Updated Specs

Motherboard. This was chosen by someone from a different forum because this is the only unique mobo offering SB 710 and has gotten a lot of good comments from anandtech. Does this make it special?

Processor. Chosen by majority of the members.

Memory. Specs were chosen by majority of the members, pricing was chosen by me, and brand (corsair) chosen by proximon.

Hard Drive. Chosen by majority of the members

Optical Drive. Chosen by majority of the members.

Video Card. Chosen by majority of the members.

Wireless Card. Chosen by several members and no opposing views. I don't think it got a lot of attention (probably because any wireless card would do).

Power Supply. Spec (~550W) chosen by majority of the members, model chosen by proximon, and final decision chosen by me (because of the ridiculous discount, Winner of Anandtech's Gold Editor's Choice Award, and the 5yr warranty).

Case. Chosen by proximon and me (google yielded a lot of good reviews)

In the end after rebates it's $562 lol. Now if I can buy some of the parts used from FS forums or from an auction I can probably get it down to $500 more or less (or persuade my parents to bump up the budget). But before that anyone opposing this build?

the nvidia 9800 gt is cheaper now I think it will perform better under some game with a decent monitor like a 19 or 20 inch. and the price should be less then the ati 4850.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231166

Check this ram out, same specs lower price.

If your router supports wireless N then get this adapter it's $64 a bit more but your speeds in gaming and everything would be smoother.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833124069

Overall great

also use bundle deals it will save you alot.

You can also order from www.ncixus.com and they will price match and you can get low shipping fees or free shipping if you buy a $10 giftcard, usually your entire order will be free of charge. Give it a try see what they offer you.

Here's the same complete desktop at Walmart USA. Considering your price range, shipping costs, building headaches, warranty this seems awesome.

I CAN confirm an available PCIe x16 slot.

The PSU should handle the following card with peak power of roughly 59W, so with the onboard chip being turned off your tasking the system by roughly 40W more at peak. You may need an adapter like a molex->6-pin if your PSU doesn't have one. I don't know but those are next to nothing. Considering the 59W max power and the PCIe x16 should handle 75W it may not need a 6-pin at all. The sample was an engineering one.

Here's the upgrade card you should end up getting (coming soon):

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/26 [...] wed-loved/

The prebuilt system I recommend:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/pro [...] d=10910181

cheap prebuilt = poor quality in my experience. I used to work at best buy but would never want to build a gaming rig around even the new PCs we sold, even the "high end" media center's we offered.

Building your own system, while more work, will ensure you get the best quality parts necessary for your target performance system.

If he needs an OS then:

AMD Anthlon 64 x2 7750 CPU - $60
Asrock A780LM mobo - $55
HIS Radeon HD 4830 512mb video card - $90
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 memory - $40
Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive - $50
Antec NSK6580B Case with 430w PSU - $100
Samsung DVD+-RW Drive - $25
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit - $100

Total: $515.92 with $10 MIR

While this won't run Crysis on the highest settings and anti aliasing, it will play every game, including Crysis on medium to high settings. I think a lot of people have become so brainwashed about buying the enthusiest level GPUs and triple or quad core CPUs because of how cheap and inexpensive they have become. My brother's PC has an AMD x2 6000+, 2GB of DDR2 memory, and an 8600GT and can handle anything out there no problem. The only two games he has that he can't play on full settings is World in Conflict and Crysis, but are very playable on medium to high and the games still look beautiful.

+1 to jtp709
excluding the psu
BFG Tech GS-550 550W fore $55
got the anandtech gold award

+1 Definitely agree, IMO the beta runs faster and more stable than Vista ever did.

sorry i missed that the psu came with the case
that would be better then

Ok change of plans guys. After talking it over with my dad, he doesn't appreciate mail-in-rebates because he asked what it was before rebates (didn't seem to care about the after rebate part), was surprised (despite getting a good deal after rebates), and didn't like it one bit.

I know it's a bit ironic that he said $500 "AR", but now he thinks it's a bit too much (the "before rebate" always frightens some people regardless if the final price after rebate matches your budget) My budget is $600-$625 and this includes the monitor. Keep rebates as minimal as possible please.

The PC will probably last 3-5 years I would say.

For something affordable I looked up newegg and found 19" (1680x1050) to be the best affordable price. You need a high resolution for graphic design and that's the best resolution I could find for the price.

I should add that cheaper monitors are more prone to "stuck" pixels, lower viewing angles and other issues. Budgets are tricky but for a reasonable amount of $220 this one is available that is 22" and 1920x1080

http://www.amazon.com/HP-2159M-21- [...] B001UHOX2I

The CPU will come with a stock Heatsink/Fan combo.

The only way to meet your price is to reduce the quality a bit, plus adding shipping will add up. The only way to meet your budget is this way (which isn't necessarily bad):

$350 (on sale) Desktop at Bestbuy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspag [...] cat0500000

$140 monitor (1600:900, 20", good reviews)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspag [...] 8049005548

$110 (or so)
Buy the ATI RV740 (HD4750 ?) when it is released. It should be okay for your PSU. It'll give the most performance per Watt (max about 59W).
http://www.guru3d.com/article/rade [...] view-test/

Total:
$490 (before ATI RV740)
$600 or so (after the ATI RV740)

When will the new video card be released?

Here's the new card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102835

There ya go.

Which ram should I pick? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 35&bop=And

mobo + cpu combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.181196 Is this fine? He can OC the cpu if he needs to.

Decided to upgrade the Case back to antec 300.

Anyone have a recommendation for a PSU besides the one I posted? It needs to be about $55 or less.

Everything else the same.