A $750 budget PC (OS not required)

[Guest]

I would like to build a PC which I have not done in quite sometime(I found the laptop more practical for school).

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of April

BUDGET RANGE: < $750 before any rebates or taxes

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: School work, Internet, and would like to do some light gaming(mainly older titles)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Operating System or anything outside the tower

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Any legit website

PARTS PREFERENCES: Western Digital for hard drives(anyone really except Seagate), Intel for processor

OVERCLOCKING: Not likely SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Doubt it fits in the small budget

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

-Would like it to not be very loud if possible although anything not ridiculously noisy will do
-I would either like to install Windows XP Pro or Windows 7 64 bit Pro on this machine

Really need advice/tips as I have not been keeping up with tech news or built any machines lately.

Looking for the best you can build on this budget really. I know it is not extravagant but I am hoping it gets me something decent and perhaps upgradeable to last me a while.

 

[r_manic]

Have you consulted the last System Builder's Marathon, and tecmo34's really helpful thread? They will give you good ideas on what you can choose.

 

[MadAdmiral]

The SMB systems are pretty bad. You're better off just looking at them and then moving on.

I don't care what you say about not wanting Seagate. Right now, WD is losing the battle. The new 7200.12s and Samsung Spinpoint F3s are faster, quieter, cooler and a lot cheaper. They're also very reliable.

An Intel CPU is way out of budget. The cheapest CPU I would recommend is the i5-750, and it's $200 by itself, or about $40 more expensive than the best AMD CPU. The boards for it are also $50 more expensive. That's almost $100 sucked out of the budget for no real gain.

CPU/Mobo: X4 955 and Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 $265 after rebate
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1333 mhz CAS Latency 7 $110 (as long as you're not OCing)
GPU: HD 5770 $150 after rebate
HDD: Seagate 7200.12 500 GB $55
Case/PSU: Antec 300 Illusion and Earthwatts 650W $130
Optical: Cheap SATA DVD burner $24

Total: $734