016 -- u trying to double him up on budget? he'd be plenty happy spending within his limits for now,, get better system later once your more seasoned and know what you like,,, hell I was happy with a Voodoo 3 for a long time, went "up" to a 8500GT, now I've owned a 460GTX,,
as I mentioned in my previous post, to get any better it'll be at least another 30% more just to up the CPU & MB,, and another 30% if he adds the GPU you mention.-- also he'd need a bigger PSU