Mid range build

[Dauntae]

I finally found someone to build a PC for, Unfortunately it's for a long time friend and I do not charge friends for pc work and friends don't abuse the privilege so it works out. He wants a gaming rig but low budget for it. So I went over what we can do and this is what we agreed on, Not the best but decent. Mainly if you see anything that could be better let me know but nothing too much more. As for the MB I have used Biostar in the past but I mainly used ASUS boards and he wanted the one I use so I got him one close, I have the P5Q SE/R and he got the P5Q SE plus because it was cheaper and he will NEVER use raid.

Newegg.com - ASUS P5Q SE PLUS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS500 500W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Power Supplies
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
4-4-4-12 timing
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
Newegg.com - LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

So how did I do for a decent system for a lower to mid range build? already have a case and wanted to get a little higher cach on the CPU but he didn't want to go any higher BUT wanted quad core.

Dauntae

 

[Druid]

4GB of ram for $35 - Newegg.com - OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

 

[philbar71]

instead of the q8400 i would spend a little more dough and get a q9400. it's worth it, trust me

every thing else looks good.

 

[MrFeetZ]

great choice on mobo.... assuming your friend will never want to go SLI/Xfire. However, if you think he might ever want to add a second vid card you'll have to go with another mobo, like the asus P5Q Pro or GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P and switch to an ATI vid card like a 4870. I mention this only because I just built a system for a friend who at first said he only wanted 1 video card and would never want to go 2. Well, then after a short time, he wanted to add one more video card but had to buy two ATI's cause his board did not support SLI and he got an Nvidia.

GTX260 is a great card. I had that exact same model before I did trade up. That card is easy to OC to superclock speeds.

q9400 is $180 at microcenter.com - go with that as philbar71 suggested. Microcenter usually has better pricing on CPU's. I think their Q8400 is around $150

Micro Center - Boxed Core 2 Quad Processor Q9400

power supply... i would say spend some extra and get a slightly more powerful unit. I like over planning on the power suppply. That way you might be able to re-use it on the next upgrade. You can get the 610 watt pc power & cooling at newegg for the same price as the 500 watt after rebate. But if you can, go even higher to 750watt.... might not need it but it never hurts.

RAM.. like Druid suggested, I'd go 4gb (2x2gb) from any name brand (OCZ, Corsair, Mushkin, etc). Dont worry too much about timings. You'll spend about $15 more, (after rebates) but it's worth it.