450 dollar budget help

[alterleaf]

Approximate Purchase Date: March 21ish

Budget Range: $450 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, watching streams, flash games, youtube, research papers

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, case, hard drive, graphics card (GT 520), OS, dvd drive

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg, amazon

Country: US - Hawaii

Parts Preferences: reputable brands

Overclocking: no

SLI or Crossfire: no

Monitor Resolution: 1440x900. Possible 1680x1050 in future.

Additional Comments:
- Building for brother. He's a jobless stingy person so the budget is tight here.
- Seems to not care about upgrading this in the near future beyond graphics card. Would this cheapo board be worth it? Can I get by with what's currently on this or should I find another board?
- Recycling Windows 7 32-bit. Should I just pick up 8gigs if ram now since it's so inexpensive? He'll enter college in about a year and a half and can pick up a 64-bit copy. That or I could grab one for him in my next MSNDAA(sp?) renewal next year. Rather, how much of a hit will we see from running 1x4gb from a 2x4gb set?
- Recycling GT 520. I'd like to assume this can run GW2 on mid anyway. Upgrade plan is GTX 460 or better suggested equivalent if theres extra money. Only if he feels he wants to use it on that, otherwise savings is always good.

This is my current set up for the parts that need to be replaced.

ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157236

XFX Core Edition PRO550W (P1-550S-XXB9) 550W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275

thanks!

 

[alterleaf]

Unfortunately bumping. I'd like to assume what I picked out is good for it's price though since theres no otherwise being said.

 

[traumaiv]

stick with your cpu.

ram is fine for gaming.

psu id change to seasonic cause its the best brand : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095

more power plus its modular which is really nice.

 

[alterleaf]

That sounds like a good idea actually. Now that I think about it, theres no real space to tuck wires in the case so paying a bit more for modular would help. I was under the impression that XFX used Seasonic PSUs as a base though?

Can I assume this is as far as I can get away with a cheap board?

 

[hpdeskjet]

I think you're right about the XFX-SeaSonic connection.

Also, what you have originally listed is fine. Looks like a sound budget board. If your brother is getting Win7 64-bit in the future, it would probably be easier to just get 8GB RAM now since it is so cheap. Maybe something like this:

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BA1339 $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148347

I was going to suggest getting a slightly bigger PSU for a future graphics card upgrade, but the one you currently have listed seems to be able to handle a 460 fine.