Building a Mid-Range Gaming Rig

[cyrax]

Ok, I've come up with these two setups for the rig I am going to build. One is about $300 cheaper than the other. What I need to know is:

1. If the motherboard is suitable for all these components going into it, ie. it won't be too low range to cope, etc.
2. If I can use some other IDE hard drives as well as that SATA hard drive in this new rig.
3. If the OCZ ram in the second rig is better than the Kingston ram in the first rig by alot/little.
4. If there a big difference between a 3200+ and a 3500+.
5. If it is worth getting a 6800GS instead of a 6600GT.
6. If that PSU would be sufficient.
7. Lastly, regarding the PSU. I've been told that it isn't a good brand, and if you get a shoddy PSU it could blow up and ruin your components. Could someone recommend a PSU brand, and the minimum wattage they think I could use on each rig.

Just rate which rig you think would be better for the price, and if you think it would be worth the extra $300 to get the second rig. My budget at the moment is $1,500, so I can't upgrad to dual core, or a 7800GT or anything like that.

Thanks in advance.

---------------------------

1st Rig

Case, $89
Icute 0301SL-BB Black, no PSU, Fans with transluce

Motherboard, $166.50
GIGABYTE GA-K8NF-9 nForce4-4X PCI-EX16 ATX SKT9

CPU, $282.38
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 64Bit SKT939 2000MHZ Hyper

Memory, $170.98
Kingston ValueRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit, 2x512MB, DDR-SDRAM, DIMM, DDR400

Video Card, $246.38
GIGABYTE GV-NX66T128D GeForce 6600GT PCI-EX16

Storage, $176.70
Seagate Barracuda ST3200822AS Hard Disk Drive, 200GB, 7200rpm, 8192KB Cache, SATA-1/150

Floppy Drive, $11.52
Sony MPF920B 3.5 Branded Floppy Drive Black

PSU, $66.41
Raidmax 500W ATX PSU

---------------------------

2nd Rig

Case, $89
Icute 0301SL-BB Black, no PSU, Fans with transluce

Motherboard, $166.50
GIGABYTE GA-K8NF-9 nForce4-4X PCI-EX16 ATX SKT939

CPU, $371.25
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 64Bit SKT939 2000MHZ Hyper

Memory, $200.31
OCZ Dual Channel Memory Kit, 2x512MB, DDR-SDRAM, DIMM, DDR400

Video Card, $438.48
XFX PV-T42G-UAF7 Video Card, GeForce 6800 GS, 256MB, DDR3, PCIe-16, TV out, DVI, HDTV, SLI ready

Storage, $176.70
Seagate Barracuda ST3200822AS Hard Disk Drive, 200GB, 7200rpm, 8192KB Cache, SATA-1/150

Floppy Drive, $11.52
Sony MPF920B 3.5 Branded Floppy Drive Black

PSU, $66.41
Raidmax 500W ATX PSU

 

[brinks]

Where do you plan on buying these parts...That's not U.S currency right?

 

[cyrax]

Nah, it's NZD, New Zealand Dollars. All our stuff over here is like 2-4 times more expensive.

 

[brinks]

Case, $89
Icute 0301SL-BB Black, no PSU, Fans with transluce

Motherboard, $166.50
GIGABYTE GA-K8NF-9 nForce4-4X PCI-EX16 ATX SKT9

CPU, $282.38
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 64Bit SKT939 2000MHZ Hyper

Memory, $170.98
Kingston ValueRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit, 2x512MB, DDR-SDRAM, DIMM, DDR400

Video Card, $438.48
XFX PV-T42G-UAF7 Video Card, GeForce 6800 GS, 256MB, DDR3, PCIe-16, TV out, DVI, HDTV, SLI ready

Floppy Drive, $11.52
Sony MPF920B 3.5 Branded Floppy Drive Black

I like this PSU but it might be abit expensive for your budget.
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931
$89.99 U.S


Maybe you can try this setup.

 

[cyrax]

The only one that I can find over here is a Antec Truepower 480W and that's about $200. I'd probably keep the Raidmax one in there until I got some more cash in a couple months to change it.

 

[Shumway]

And i thought canada's price's were bad.

 

[cyrax]

Haha, yeah. But then again, we are quite a way away from where all this stuff of made, so it sort of evens itself out.

 

[brinks]

You can go here to calculate psu wattage.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

 

[cyrax]

It say's it only needs 280w for the 6800GS build.

Ok, so I might change the PSU in the builds then. Which is the best brand out of Cooler Master and Enermax? I could get an Antec PSU, but I'd have to save up some more before I could. Would that be worth it? The Cooler Master and Enermax PSUs I'm lookin at cost about $100, a 400w SmartPower Antec PSU costs $40 more. Is it worth it?

 

[devilstar187]

newegg has an ocz 420w psu for $80 or $90