Help selecting PC components

[Pudah]

I am soliciting comments on components I am considering for putting together a moderately priced PC. Here are the parts that I have in mind:

AMD Sempron 64 3000+ Socket 754 Processor

ABIT NF8-V PRO Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb ATX AMD Motherboard

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM (PC 3200)

Western Digital Caviar SE 80GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

GIGABYTE GV-N52128DS Geforce FX5200 AGP 4X/8X Video Card

Antec Solution SLK1650B ATX Mini Tower Case w/ 350W Power Supply

Use of the system will be primarily for working from home. Word processing, spreadsheets, presentation stuff (Microsoft Office), TN3270 emulation software, email (Lotus Notes), a moderate amount of graphics and photo editing, occasional DVD backup, web surfing.

It will be my first time building a PC so advice from those more experienced in doing so would be helpful and appreciated. TIA

[ripken204]

how much money can u spend?

[Grunth0s]

I would suggest that you throw away the PSU that comes with the case, and purchase an alternate, 'named brand' unit, with more power, as there is a good chance that the bundled PSU isn't really going to cope with the load.

1GB should be enough for what you are listing as main uses, but I would suggest 2GB just for convenience (especially with the graphics and photo-editing).

Your graphics card should be fine, but very 'weak' if you ever decide you want to play a game on this machine, would suggest possibly a GeForce 6600GT or something along those lines.

You may want to reconsider the CPU/Motherboard combination as well, with the socket 754 about to become obsolete. It will cost you a bit more, but a decent socket 939 solution will last longer.

[Pudah]

how much money can u spend?

I was trying to stay as close to $500 as possible.

Your graphics card should be fine, but very 'weak' if you ever decide you want to play a game on this machine, would suggest possibly a GeForce 6600GT or something along those lines.

I try never to say never, but I think I can safely say that I'll never play a game on this PC (or any other). I'm not a gamer.

You may want to reconsider the CPU/Motherboard combination as well, with the socket 754 about to become obsolete. It will cost you a bit more, but a decent socket 939 solution will last longer.

I keep hearing this. I suppose I have to take another look at the budget to see if I can squeeze out some extra $$$ for s939 over s754. I'll admit to being enticed by the budget prices.

Let me ask you all this question. Suppose I'm not much of an upgrader. My current PC is a 6 year old 600MHz PIII. Would you still recommend the higher end and price s939 for someone like me whose main concern is not spending too much? My thought is that I won't want/need to updrade the processor and/or mobo for 3 or more years. Comments?

[ripken204]

well s754 is outa here. s939 is the only thing that matters now. i would higly suggest gettin s939 b/c it will be much easier to upgrade in the future if you need to.

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEPA/

check out this link, if u sign up for it then you will have 6 months to pay off you stuff, so if you want to maybe spends a few hundred dollars more then you will be able to afford it

3000 venice 139$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103606

pqi turbo 2x512 78$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820141011

hitachi sataII 80gig 54$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822145082

asus a8n-e 110$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131530

antec SLK1650B 52$

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16811129150

antec smartpower 2-500watt 69$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817103937

sapphire x300se 52$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814102627

all of this is 554$

Edited December 17, 2005 by ripken204