Hey Trog,
I agree with you completely.
However, I do have a decent idea.
I think you should wait to build this system for at least a month.
Let the new AMD M2 CPUs come out and the new GeForce 7900 come out.
This should make prices drop of the current AMD socket 939 processors and some of the GeForce GPUs.
Hence, 500 dollars might be able to go a lil further.
But if you want to build it right now I would go with a slightly difference setup than graves gave you.
Here is what I think (I know I did post this before, but prices have changed as they do everyday):
- I would go with at least a Athlon64 3200+ (Venice Core) for $169
(
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535). THis CPU can
be overclocked rather nicely too.
- Memory I would go with Corsair or OCZ. I found this Corsair XMS 1 GB which isnt priced
that bad (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450).
- GPU I would go with nothing less than a 6800GS to tell you the truth. The reason with
that is bc if your friend wants this to last then you are going to at least need this. I also
wouldn't tell you to go higher since your GPU will be bounded by your CPU and RAM. Here
are two of them the XFX (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E
16814150118) and the Evga (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E
16814130267). The XFX is $5 more. I tend to buy XFX over EVGA usually.
- For a motherboard you could go with the MSI K8N since it is a good motherboard
(
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130491), but really any
939 pin set motherboard with a PCI-E slot is good.
- For a hard drive, CompUSA and Circuit City always has great deals on them (usually
Western Digital or Seagate EIDE Hard Drives). Dont waste your money of raptor drives
since they arent for a budget system. They always have them on sale for $40 (from
anywhere for a 100-160 GB). So look out for those (usually have them every week on
sale).
I have a question to ask now? I noticed you didnt need a PSU. What kind do you have? If it is a generic one I would recommend on getting a decent one (for this system you dont need a huge amount of wattage). So the total is $574. If you wait a month or 2 this system will prob. drop a lil so you wont have to spend that much (but it might not drop that much). Also, please also note that besides the new AMD sockets coming out, by the end of the year AMD will unleash a quadruple core CPU (which will be sick) for desktops, so if your friend can wait it out (which is a while lol), you could prob. get a dual core for cheaper. Good luck.