Building PC advice

[Will]

Hi i'm building a new PC for my brother and only have about $900 AU to spend, however i do not need a keyboard, mouse, monitopr etc, i just want a tower. I also do not need a graphics card as i already have one.
Its pretty much a gaming pc however its obviously limited by the budget, so I have chosen a system where it can be upgraded by adding more ram later etc.
Here are the specifications and i would greatly appreciate any advice on where i can get better prices (in Australia) or wether there are better parts without having to increase the budjet.

MB: ABIT KN8 Ultra $135
Ram: 512mb PC-3200 Corsair VALUE SELECT $80.7
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+, Venice Core $286.49
DVD: Samsung Combo Drive 16x DVD, 52x24x52 CD-RW $60
HD: Samsung 80G SATA II $84.6
Foxconn TLA-481 ATX Midi Tower Case, Black $64
Windows XP: $131
(Probably a build cost of $50, just to make sure i don't screw it up)

These prices are from www.jantechcomputers.com.au

Thankyou for any advive at all.

Will

 

[PZEROFGH]

Hmm i would recommend getting a cheaper motherboard, and a 3200+ or 3000+. As you could save more money and put it toward 1GB of ram which is minimum for gaming no matter what you say. Everything else seems decent, but where's the power supply?

 

[GoodNews101]

The hardest thing to answer in thses posts is how to equate American $ to Australian $. So I'll give my best opinion:

I agree with PZERORGH, you could probably get a cheaper motherboard but still a very good one. And as for the CPU I don't know if you've got somthing like NewEgg.com but they have the 64 3200+ Venice for $135. That is a drop of $30 within the last month.

Also, must agree on the minimum of 1 gig of RAM. It is important in today's gaming.

Have you considered a power supply? Whatever you do don't go cheap on the psu.

 

[ulater6000]

Hmm i would recommend getting a cheaper motherboard, and a 3200+ or 3000+. As you could save more money and put it toward 1GB of ram which is minimum for gaming no matter what you say.

Aggreed

 

[Will]

Setup Change

Thanks for the advice. I've changed it to the 3200+ which took $60 off allowing me to OCZ PC3200 2x512MB which is $142.9

The case comes with a 300W PSU which should be fine. I'd like to get a better case and PSU but it increases the price too much for not that much performance improvemnet.

Thanks Will

 

[GoodNews101]

Will, seriously, stay away from power supplies that come with a case. The rule of thumb - and it is a good one and a proven one - is that power supplies that come with a case are 99% garbage. In some cases, the only exception are the Antec and that is because they make power supplies and good ones at that.

300W for what you are going to build is too underpowered. If your psu is not up to par then your system won't run properly because the psu is the backbone of an entire system. If it fails the system fails.

Look into a Fortran 480W at least. Good choice on RAM.

 

[Will]

I'm trying to find a case and PSU. I found an Everpower 450W ATX Power Supply (V2.03) for $42.25, the only problem is that I don't know if it will work with the AMD system. Here is the link

http://www.jantechcomputers.com.au/product.asp?pID=17282&cID=58

it would be great if some one could tell me. I'd also need a case and the cheapest one without a PSU that i can find on Jantechcomputers is $78 for a thermaltake mabo case. Thats $120 which is higher than i planed for.

I also could possible buy th Antec(USA) Top Quality Solution Series SLK1650B which has a 350W smart power supply, for $111. This puts the whole system at just over $900 which is on the edge of the budget. It would be great if you could tell me wether I should get this case and PSU.

Thanks Will

 

[Nitestick]

check nintek.com.au, and staticice.com.au. staticice is a price search engine for pc parts . STEER CLEAR of psu's that are included in cases unless its something like Antec or Thermaltake.