Good set-up?

[CovertFirewall]

I am ready to build my first PC and I would like your opinion on my hardware list.
I will be using this computer for high-school work, occasional video-editing, some gaming, etc.

Case - APEVIA X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail $60

Motherboard - MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital AM2 AMD 690G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $80

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO4000DDBOX - Retail $66

RAM - Transcend AxeRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TX800QLJ-2GK - Retail $75

Hard Drive - EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8160S 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $46

Video Card - ASUS EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/256M GeForce 7300GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $59

CD/DVD - ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T OEM - OEM $19

PLEASE TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS!!! Anything I need to upgrade, downgrade, if they are compatable... whatever! Please respond and thanks for help :)

P.S. All hardware from Newegg.com

[Yellowhello]

Welcome to HL!

What's your budget? I think we can make you a better machine...

[halutzparilla]

first off WELCOME TO HARDWARELOGIC...

second: is AMD your final choice cause mind you Intel C2D[core 2 duo] and Q2D [quadcores] are on the top these days and needless to say cheap with comes to price vs. value.
Although AMD is good too.

and with itcomes to your video card, now a days and the dawn of DX10 games this 7300GT will or already outdated.

well YH beats me to it, show us how much your willing to spend...

but it looks like its a super budget PC to me...

[Yellowhello]

Yeah, I was thinking that you can get a pretty decent Core 2 Duo for cheap these days...

[stinger608]

Well I can tell you one thing, the APEVIA X-Dreamer II case is a pretty nice budget case, but you really need to crap the power supply that comes with that case!!!!
It is a very low budget power supply, and that, after all, is the very heart and soul of your new build! Do not, I repeat, do not skimp when it comes to purchasing a new power supply!

Here is a great power supply, and not real expensive either!

Newegg.com - OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS ATX12V / EPS12V 600W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CB, CE, CSA, UL, FCC - Retail

This power supply was one of the units that is recommended on our main page, that you can find here:
HardwareLogic - Recommendations

And a big warm WELCOME!!!! From the staff at HardwareLogic

[CovertFirewall]

Thanks for the info. My budget is probably under $600 or around that. Yeah, so any other suggestions will be appreciated!

[gvblake22]

Right off the bat, I can tell you that you are not going to get a complete system (including case, PSU, optical drive, HDD, etc) that will play modern games for less than $600. How important is the gaming aspect to you? What kind of games do you play? At what resolution do you game?

[CovertFirewall]

Actually, I am willing to spend around $650 (ballpark)

P.S.--- This includes an OS, which will probably just be XP Home w/ SP2

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Right off the bat, I can tell you that you are not going to get a complete system (including case, PSU, optical drive, HDD, etc) that will play modern games for less than $600. How important is the gaming aspect to you? What kind of games do you play? At what resolution do you game?

Well, I will probably play games like Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, maybe Counterstirke, you know.....not really hard core gamer stuff

it really isn't extremely important to me. Just some fun stuff to do when I'm bored

[fstroupe]

The X-Dreamer is a nice case, especially for the money, that's what I used for my first build. It's a basic side-window case with stealthing for two optical drives. (be careful when you take the front from the drive...I thought I had trashed a brand new unused drive)



But ditto on the PSU. Beware of pretty much any PSU that comes with a case. Yeah, I know that it really takes a chunk out of your budget, but I promise your life will be easier if you shell out extra money for a PSU. For a low end rig like yours, you can expect to pay minimum $75 for a decent PSU, but it is unlikely you could recycle it into a better rig later at that price.

I used the PSU that came with my X-Dreamer in my first mod:

[Yellowhello]

Here's what I came up with:

Newegg.com - Intel Dual-Core E2140 Allendale 1.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Newegg.com - ABIT IB9 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H165PRF256N-R Radeon X1650PRO 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Newegg.com - APEVIA X-Dreamer ATXB3KL-BK/420 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail

Total - Before Rebates: $437
After Rebates: $357

EDIT: You can upgrade CPU, GPU, HDD, etc to fill your budget.