building a gaming pc, $2000 USD

[Gerry_W]

I'm planning my first foray into PC-building. I have hopped from website to website in my endless quest to find the right forum, and I think I've found the place to be....ok, enough fancy talk.

I'm looking to build a decent gaming rig for $2000 USD or preferably less; I could go a hundred more if I had to, but I'd rather not. Since I'm dealing with veterans of the sport here, I'd like to ask your advice on pencilling in the sketchy parts and where the best deals are.

I'm thinkin':

Motherboard: Asus A8N Premium; the Deluxe is a bit too hardcore for me.

AMD Athlon X2 4400+; this seems pretty nice for the performance and price.

One 160-GB HDD, or two 80-giggers (they should all be 7200 rpm). I don't need much hard-drive space.

RAM: 2 gigs, nothing fancy.

PSU: Something in the 450-550 Watt range. Antec, perhaps?

Case: Looks are not that important. It could be a 10-year old beige server case as long as it's: a) well-made, b) built with easily-accesible ports, and c) not too big (I don't need an awful lot of space).

GPU: I might wait for the Nvidia G80, if it's coming relatively soon.

I've heard some cool things about Conroe; is it worth it to wait for that? Perhaps I should think about adding in one of those new-fangled physics processors?

Case fans are also kind of a grey area for me.


So, could you guys help me out a little?

Gerry

EDIT: Oh; I forgot optical drives. Any CD/DVD burner + a CD-DVD reader will do. Also, any monitor suggestions? I'm looking for something 19"-ish. Thanks.

 

[xParagonx]

Nice budget I just have a $800 one

 

[Gerry_W]

Wow. Quick reply. Thanks.

Oh, I can also probably wait until the end of July or even August to build this baby, so...... if I have to, I'll play the waiting game.

 

[toxicity_27]

Check out this monitor. It's pretty B.A.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824002129

 

[Gerry_W]

Dang. That's niiiice. I'll bookmark that one. Thanks. I've also heard good things about the Samsung Syncmaster. What about it?

 

[wtk pro l]

Go with AM2 or wait for Conroe, this is probably the worst time to build since were on the verge of the next gen of everything.

 

[Gerry_W]

Will this stuff be coming this summer? I know Conroe will, but will AM2 and the G80 be? I really will not have time to do any of this after summer is over, so I may have to can this whole thing and wait a year.

 

[xParagonx]

i think AM2 is already out. newegg has their processors for sale so...

From what I hear though, conroe is supposed to be really good. AnthraX says it comes out july 23rd, so that might be worth waiting for.

 

[toxicity_27]

AM2 is currently out. If you're not going to be building until the end of the summer just sit back and relax and wait for some benchmarks to come in.

 

[Gerry_W]

Ok, processors are out of the question for a while.

However, I could still use some reccomendations on other things and where to get them. Sorry if I sound naggy, but I'm new to this business.

Speakers, optical drives, mobos, monitors, anything.

Thanks,
Gerry_W