In looking over your system specs, AND considering what this PC is going to
be used for ( "a gaming, Internet, and a PC for my wife to do her college
home work on, that is Fast, reliable, and good enough to play the newest
games out.") I would suggest the following:
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131540 $167 Super
stable w/ silent cooling - dual core ready right out of the box.
AMD Opteron 175 Denmark
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103584 $508.00
Supeior server-quality CPU
Total for this mobo & CPU = $675 Savings = $261
The Opterons are AMD's hand-picked server quality processors. This Opty 175
at 2.2Ghtz will perform just as well as that 4800+ at 2.4Ghtz, and down the
road you could always overclock the Opteron to 2.7Ghtz e a s y on stock
air. (AMD's forum:
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showforum=18)
Are you hooked on ATI??? They have redeemed themselves a bit lately with
the release of their X1900XT series cards. Why pay the premium for a 512MB
GPU at this time? The performance "sweet spot" is in the Nvidia line-up
with the 7800GT cards. I recommend:
BFG Geforce 7800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143037 $320 Best
warranty out there, super support & active community online. Savings: $180
Savings so far: $ 441
Now lets take a some of our savings and spend a little more on the best
cost/performance power supply out the
Tagan TG-480-U22 480W Modular
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817101516 $91 Split
rail capable, smooth & stable delivery, SLI ready. For the money, simply
can't be topped. Check out the reviews online. After all, the PSU is
arguably the most important component in your PC.
Remaining savings: $350
Check out this HDD - 90GB's mor for $12 less = B A R G A I N!!!
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB 8MB Serial ATA150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148065 $103.00
Savings so far: $453
R A M. Once again, let's spend a little more here. Especially with a
dual core set-up. Value RAM = trouble. Your wife won't need 2GB's since
there's very little difference in performance between 1 and 2 GB's of RAM in
almost all applications - see this article:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mem...y/2gb-ram.html So let's
splurge a bit and get a kick-ass 2 stick kit (2 x 512):
OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 1GB kit (2x512)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146890 $167
Savings so far $401
I don't know about that case you have picked out, but the components don't
warrant anything but a good, air-cooled chasis. Suggestion:
Wave Master TAC-T01-E1C
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119023 $130 Sexy
enough to turn back the clock on your marriage 5 years. For the money, it's
sleek, well-cooled and packed with builder friendly features (e.g removable
mobo tray, no sharp edges, thumb screws)
Total savings: $491
With the money saved, if you thought it was necessary - you could grab
another 7800 GT and put it in SLI for tremendous video capability!
Good Luck!
My specs:
Silverstone TJ-03 Silver
SILVERSTONE SST-ST60F 600W Modular
ABIT AN8 Ultra (BIOS 19)
Athlon 64 4000+ SanDiego @ 2.75 Ghtz (11x250) 1.47V
XP-90 w/ 92mm Panaflow fan
2 Gb (2x1GB) OCZ Platinum at 2-2-2-5 2T @ 2.9V
eVGA 7800GTX w/ACS @ 496/1380
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 300GB HDD
Plextor PX-716SA / ASUS 16x DVD ROM
Creative X-FI Platinum
Klipsch Promedia 2.1
XP Pro SP2