[Lexda]

I'm trying to put together a relatively inexpensive computer that still has a good bang for its buck, and after spending a few hours on Newegg and consulting a computer wizard friend of mine, I've come up with the following list. However, I don't want to order it right away; for all I know, I missed something big; either a huge deal, or something that isn't compatible, etc. What do you guys think of the build? I'm cannibalizing a keyboard, monitor, a mouse, and speakers from an old computer, so I don't need to worry about those.CD Drive - SAMSUNG Black 18X ... Cache IDE DVD Burner With LightScribe TechnologyCase - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid TowerHard Drive - HITACHI Deskstar 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/sVideo Card - EVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16Power Supply - XCLIO GOODPOWER 500W ATX 500WRAM - pqi 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM (2)Motherboard - MSI P6N SLI-FI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX IntelProcessor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775It's supposed to be a mid-ranged gaming rig, and I was able to get a few SLI compatible components if I ever want to upgrade. I think this is what I want, it's just that I need a second (or third, and so on) opinion before blowing $800 on this. Thanks a lot, guys!

[jbking]

For $800, you'll be building a low-end gaming system I think as if you look on Extremetech's list their "Bang for the Buck" PC at http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1825693,00.asp has a better video card in the 7900 GT. Now you do match up well to their "$800 Gaming PC" at http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1822641,00.asp so it is a good build at that level.I just think it worth pointing out that if you look at Ultimate Gaming PCs these tend to be $5,000 or more and in the case of VoodooPC's model this is without keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor. If you want to make it mid-range than either step up to a 7900 series video card or maybe consider one of those 8800 GTS ones that would really be nice.Lastly, what Operating System will this new machine have as you don't mention if you have a copy of XP to put on this or if it'll get Vista or Linux or something else...Regards,JB

[Lexda]

I have a copy of XP to put on it, and I intend to do a duel partition and also have Ubuntu on. I also realize that sometime in the future I'll probably want Vista, but that's not in the picture right now.While I'd like to upgrade to a 7900, I simply don't have the cash reserves to do that. I got a $600 budget to build a computer at Christmas, and while that got relaxed quite a bit, $800 is about as high as I can go; I can't get too greedy here.

[jbking]

So then whenever you plan to do an upgrade on this revisit the 8000 series cards from nVidia as over the next few years the price of some will likely come down some and would be my suggestion if you plan to do any gaming in Direct X10 which is in Vista and not XP.Overall it looks like a good budget build.Regards,JB