Budget Work/Gaming - Case, Motherboard, CPU, Power Supply - $250-$350

[laeelin]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: this week
BUDGET RANGE: $250-$350 (Before Rebates)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: work, gaming, video (I don't do anything hardcore for work. Just programming - mostly in eclipse , surfing, ms office, etc)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:
keyboard
mouse
monitor (24" widescreen)
speakers
OS (XP 64)
Hard Drive (SATA 500bg seagate)
Video Card (Geforce 6600)
Ram (4gb old DDR2)
DVD Drive

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I'm using newegg.com, but feel free to suggest items from somewhere else.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States

PARTS PREFERENCES: None

OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200 - Will be running dual monitors.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
Last time I did a homebuilt system was 2001.

Motherboard died in my current system, so I'm upgrading sooner than expected.

To save money I'm going to use my HD, ram, and video card from my current system. In a few months I plan on replacing the ram and my old video card with a decent dual card setup.

I'd like a e-sata port.


CURRENT SYSTEM IDEAS:

Case: $49.95 Antec Two Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power Supply: $84.99 Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified
Cooler: $21.99 XIGMATEK HDT-SD964 92mm Rifle CPU Cooler

Subtotal: $156.93 (Before MB and Processor)

Intel Version:
Motherboard: $129.00 ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
CPU: $67.99 Intel Pentium E5300 Wolfdale 2.6GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
Intel Version Total: $353.92

AMD Version:
Motherboard: $109.99 ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 780a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU: $87.99 AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz Socket AM3 Dual-Core Processor
AMD Version Total: $354.91

Currently I'm leaning towards the AMD version.

I'm open for any suggestions!

Thank You
David

 

[lunyone]

Here's an AMD combo to consider:
$168 shipped!!
Comes with AMD Athlon II x4 630 (this should be droping in price soon, due to the 635 coming out this week??) and a Gigabyte 785g mobo (which has a good onboard GPU - AMD 4200!!).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.320281

Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 1
Video Ports - D-Sub + DVI
HDMI - 1 x HDMI
USB 1.1/2.0 - 6 x USB 2.0
IEEE 1394 - 1 x IEEE 1394a
eSATA - 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s
S/PDIF Out - 1 x Optical
Audio Ports - 6 Ports

I'd also consider getting this Case/PSU combo:
$136 shipped! Antec 300 w/Antec Neo ECO 620w PSU!! The Anec 200 you listed has $15 shipping, so the Antec 300 is $5 less
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.315684

 

[laeelin]

The motherboard you suggest only has one full PCIE slot, so i'm unable to use it for dual video cards, however, I decided to follow your suggestions for 2 reasons anyway.

1) My wife needs a new computer, and she does almost no 3D gaming (flash games don't need dual video cards *grin* )

2) I'll use this to replace my crashed system for today, but later on I'll pass this system on to her and order another budget system for myself with dual video cards.

Thanks for the advice
David

 

[laeelin]

Best answer selected by laeelin.

 

[lunyone]

YVW!! Let us know how it all works out, when you get the parts.

 

[laeelin]

arrgh, the extra ram I had is DDR not DDR2

time to buy some ram as well

 

[lunyone]

OUCH! Do you need help with those too?

 

[laeelin]

I'm loving my new computer ... most software is already installed and it's sooo much faster.

It's nice to load IE in less than 3 seconds. (even if i never use it)

 

[lunyone]

NICE!! Glad to hear that your system is running well and meets/exceeds your expectations!!