Need opinions on a build

[dcox2004]

This is intended as a cheap gaming, programming system. No need for the usual suspects (keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.)

Gaming will mostly be on a 720p monitor for now, upgrading to a 1080p in the near future. I wouldn't mind being able to play the latest games, but I'm mainly after back catalog titles that will be cheaper. Programming use will be mostly VS2010, and Eclipse. It will also need to be able to run multiple virtual machines (2 windows based, 1 centOS 5 based unning under VBox or VMWare Player) at the same time with decent performance for testing code runs.

Most of the parts are coming from Amazon, as they are cheaper, but I'm providing newegg links for reference. This was based off of the December $500 PC, so it looks good. I'm a little worried about the PS. The card says it needs at least 450, and this is a 430. However, the system builder PC ran overclocked with a 380W supply from the same series (antec ea380d). Input appreciated!

MSI GeForce GTX 460 768MB Video Card $149 (20 rebate)
SAMSUNG HD502HJ 500GB Hard Drive $43
LITE-ON Black 24XDVDRW SATA $20
AMD Athlon II X3 450 $80
Antec NSK 6582B Case W ea430D power supply
ASRock M3A770DE Motherboard $60
A-DATA Gaming Series 4GBDDR3 1600 Memory $49

Total with shipping: 488.76 ($20 in rebates)

 

[eloric]

If you unlock the 4th core on that CPU, with that Graphics card you are right on the edge of your PSU. Antec usually has good Power, so you should be OK, but don't plan on overclocking.

You won't notice a difference with slightly cheaper memory: Patriot 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 for $35 AR

Everything else looks good.

 

[dcox2004]

If you unlock the 4th core on that CPU, with that Graphics card you are right on the edge of your PSU. Antec usually has good Power, so you should be OK, but don't plan on overclocking.

You won't notice a difference with slightly cheaper memory: Patriot 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 for $35 AR

Everything else looks good.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated.

Out of curiosity, how was the $50 build able to overclock effectively with more or less the same setup on 50 watts less? Is it because they failed in unlocking the fourth core of the AMD, or did they just not care of the power supply fragged itself during testing?

 

[eloric]

Not sure what Paul Henningson, who gave us the Dec $500 build, used for his calculations, but 380W is underpowered in my estimation even if it is an Antec.

I use the Antec power supply calculator, which is fairly standard as far as these utilities go. I factored in 25 percent for capacitor aging, which gives you a couple of years of heavy use, and is a bit conservative. The calculation came out to 418W, before overclocking.

 

[dcox2004]

Best answer selected by dcox2004.

 

[dcox2004]

Thanks again! I went ahead and pulled the trigger on it. I feel a lot better doing it after your input!