Building New PC for Friend Need your help Please.

[jimmyforeman2]

I'm building a computer for my friend. The component list is displayed below.

Hopefully you can help me pick parts that are the best bang for his hard

earned buck. He will be using his new computer mainly for Microsoft Office

applications, film/photo editing, TV and movie watching and some light

gaming. The budget he gave me is fifteen hundred canadian. I'm buying all

the parts at "http://www.tigerdirect.ca/" so I am limited to their selection. I

narrowed down my component picks in each category. But I'm still not sure

of my selection. I'm hoping you can help me find the component in each

category that would best suite my friend's needs and budget (for I don't

want to disappoint him.)

Thank you in advance for your help, I really appreciate your effort! And

naturally my friend will be in debt to anyone who helps bring his dream

system into reality (He's been saving up for awhile to purchase a half decent computer.)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 OEM (No CPU Fan) $239.99

XFX GeForce 8500 GT $132.99 with rebate $117.99/EVGA GeForce 7300/7600 GT 109.97/159.99 with rebate $79.97/$129.99 (respectively)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy SE $46.99/Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Audio $69.97

Abit IL9 Pro $119.99 with rebate $109.99/Biostar 945P -A7A $113.99/Abit IB9 $132.99 with rebate $117.99/Biostar 945P-A7A $113.99/Abit IB9 $132.99 with rebate $117.99

Patriot 2GB DDR2 667MHz $159.99 with rebate $114.99/Corsair 2GB DDR2 667MHZ $132.99

Maxtor QuickVeiw 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA-300 OEM 172.99/Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 400GB/500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA-300 OEM $159.99/$199.99 with rebate $139.99/$169.99 (respectively)

Ultra Black Aluminus (No Fans) $89.97

LG SuperMulti GSA-H5ON 18X DVD 48x CD $46.99/Sony DRU-120C Multi-Drive 16x DVD 48X CD $49.97/Pioneer DVR-112DBK 18x DVD 40x CD OEM $53.99

Coolmax CX-550B 550 Watt 120mm Power Supply $79.99 with rebate $59.9/Coolmax CXI-500B 500-Watt 120mm Fan Power Supply $106.99 with rebate $81.99

Ultra Fire Copper Core CPU Fan $24.97

Ultra 120mm Sleeve Bearing Case Fan (5-Pack) $13.99

Thank you so much!

 

[Okitasoshi]

don't get the 8500GT, it's a waste of money. the 7600GT or the Ati x1650GT are the way to go for budget cards.

for RAM I'd personally go for G.Skill, prices for them recently dropped.

 

[b1gapl]

I suggest buying from ncix.com.......tigerdirect.ca overcharges their prices. Heres a suggested list:
NCIX.com - Buy Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 ATX LGA775 Conroe P965 DDR2 PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 GBLAN Audio Motherboard - GA-965P-DS3 In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 Dual Core Processor LGA775 Conroe 1.86GHZ 1066FSB 4MB Retail - BX80557E6320 In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy Corsair Value Select PC2-5300 2X1GB DDR2-667 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit - VS2GBKIT667D2 In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy EVGA E-GEFORCE 7600GT PCI-E 256MB VGA DVI-I HDTV Out Video Card - 256-P2-N615-TR In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy FSP Fortron SAGA AX400-PN 400W ATX12V 2.0 20/24PIN Power Supply W/ 120MM Fan P4 AMD Ready Retail - AX400-PN In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive - ST3500630AS In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy Samsung SH-S182 DVD+RW 18X8X16 DVD-RW 18X6X16 DL-8X DVD Writer IDE Lightscribe Black OEM W/ Software - SH-S182M/BEBN In Canada.
NCIX.com - Buy Coolermaster CAC-T05 Centurion 5 Aluminum ATX Tower Case 5X5.25 1X3.5 4X3.5INT SILVER-BLACK No PS - CAC-T05-UW In Canada.

Comes to $989.83 w/o shipping. So you have a lot of headroom, if you want to get better parts, since his budget was $1500.

 

[saltynay]

don't get the 8500GT, it's a waste of money. the 7600GT or the Ati x1650GT are the way to go for budget cards.

for RAM I'd personally go for G.Skill, prices for them recently dropped.

for gaming but for a htpc he will want a 8500gt in the UK they are £60 you can't really go wrong and as previously stated they are designed for htpc use and as he will be doing minor gaming, watching tv, general use then it is suited for his needs . However it might lack in speed when it comes to video editing but if it is rare video editing or just low priority it will be fine. 8500gt is also available passively cooled so you can build a silent system......................

add an extra gb of ram on b1gapl's build to make 3gb