Budget AMD 64 System - Need Help

[FadingTheory]

I need your aid. I have a budget cap of $600.00 (newegg.com) and want to build an AMD 64 budget system. Dont need to worry about extra stuff, just the things inside of the Case.

Heres what I have. This is pretty much the maximum cost I have, so any suggestions have to either be of something of equal or lesser value, or be a tradeoff with something else.

Case-Already bought, with 500 watt power supply ($50.00, should have spent more, I know...)
Motherboard-DFI Lanparty UT nVidia3 250 GB motherboard for socket
754 (Already purchased, $100.00)
Processor-AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle Core with 2.4 GHz and 512KB cache ($220.00)
Optical Drive-Rosewill (Already Bought, I will never buy another Rosewill product, I swear) DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive ($33.00)
RAM- Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512 MB DDR ($66.00, will add another stick later, I assure you)
Video Card-PowerColor Radeon 9550 Video Card, 256 MB DDR 128-bit with 250 MHz Processor and 400 MHz RAM, Supports DX 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0 ($80.00)

Can I make any improvements without spending more money, and will this be able to play Doom 3 and/or equavalent games at reasonable settings?

I than you in advance.

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Edit
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I already have a hard drive (40 GB Seagate, 6 months old), and I also require a good chipset cooler, if anyone has any suggestions. All products will be bought Retail.

 

[idiotec]

I would maybe suggest downgrading the cpu a bit and putting it towards a better vid card, 6600gt maybe.

 

[phosho510]

yep idiotec is right, you should get the 3200, or 3000 and use the money for a 6600gt

 

[dale5605]

Get the 3000+ Winchester core, it's only like $154 retail. That leaves you a good amount of money for the vid card. If you want nvidia their best cards are the 6600gt and 6800. If you want to go ati the best cards in your range would be the x800 series. I would recommend the new x800 xl that came out recently, it is about the same price as a pro but has 16 pixel pipelines instead of 12.
This is the processor I mean:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-501&depa=1
The vid card:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-299&depa=1
chipset cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-108-022&depa=1

^that will play doom 3 on good settings, there were some people saying the pro doesn't work well for doom 3, but the XL does, maybe the 16 pipelines makes a difference. And if you want to cheaply overclock your processor even past the 3400+ speeds then I would recommend this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-118-115&depa=1

 

[dale5605]

whoopsy I think you're agp, forget that vid card then

 

[FadingTheory]

Yah, AGP card and socket 754. Thanks for the advice everyone.

Well... what about this...

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle Core Socket 754 (2.0 GHz, 512 KB) Retail- $146.00

Processor Fan: Scythe Samurai 80mm CPU Cooler, Model "SCSM-1000" -RETAIL ($25.00)

RAM: Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512 MB DDR ($58.00)

Chipset Fan: Thermaltake Chip & VGA Coolers for North & South Bridge, Model "A1899" -RETAIL ($11.00)

Thermal Gel: Arctic Silver Premium High-Density Thermal Compound, Model "Ceramique", 2.5-gram( ~0.8 cc. ) tube - Retail ($5.00)

Video Card: SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - Retail Lite Box ($129.00)

Total w/Shipping: $392.00

I'll overclock the video card and processor to improve some performance.

Is this any better? I had to add $50 dollars to my budget, but I think this is overall much more balanced.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

I think artic silver ceramique is non removeable, get AS 5+

 

[FadingTheory]

Do you mean Artec Silver 5 (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=35-100-007&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE)?

Also, I'm wondering if my video card will be good enough. No one suggested a good AGP video card*, and I'm not so sure myself. Mostly, I have to ask these three questions on video cards:

What matters most, RAM size or processor/RAM speed?
Is getting a 2.0 Open GL video card really important?
Is ATI better than NVidia in midranged cards (from what I've read, they are)?

Thanks again.

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Edit
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The 6600 GT suggested is $70.00 dollars more expensive than the ATI 9600XT I have selected, and by far more expensive than the first card I was going to get. Pretty much, I'm wondering if I really need to dish out the extra money for good performance. If you all think Its really worth it, I'll take your word for it and put off buying the system for a while untill I have more funds.

Thank you again.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Yes I mean artic silver 5

Your computer will have problems playing doom3, the fact that's it's an ATI card for 1, and the fact that it's an older ATI card for 2.

You should however be able to flash that card to a 9600PRO and get better peformance outta it.

 

[FadingTheory]

I guess that means I need to dish out an extra 70 than.

Thanks. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

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Edit
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Okay, heres my list now.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail (146.00) [Will not overclock until later time]

Chaintech nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, AGP 8X, Model "SA6600G" -RETAIL (199.00)

Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail (58.00)

Thermaltake Chip & VGA Coolers for North & South Bridge, Model "A1899" -RETAIL (11.00)

Arctic Silver Premium Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound, Model "Arctic Silver 5", 3.5-gram( 1 cc. ) tube (8.00)

Total: 440.00 including shipping

Not overclokcing the processor wont drag the rest of my system down, will it?