New Build..please help

[Monkey]

I am getting ready to upgrade my current system in the next month and I was hoping to get some knowledge from you guys. My budget us $500 US. I already have a hard drive and case so I won't be needing those. I am a gamer and I might be using this system as a media center also.

MOBO/Processor: I have been an AMD guy all my life but I am currently looking at an intel 8400 is this a good or bad idea? Would this bundle work ?

Video Card: 8800 (?)

Sound card: Do I honestly need this ?

RAM: 2 or 4 gig ? Ram is cheap these days..but how much will my computer actually utilize? I plan to run Windows XP.

DVD/ CD Drive: I have one already, but its like 3 years old so i believe it is time to upgrade.

ok. soo...thats what i am thinking.. please correct me in my wrong doings

[bkolk]

I wouldnt go for that bundle because its an intel board which i dont think is very good, and its microatx too.

I think the deal to get for video card is ati 4850 ~$200.

The way i see it is if you dont think you need a sound card, you dont. Mostly for audio freaks i think, theres some decent audio on mobo's.

Get 2gig of ram for windows xp. 4gig if you would get 64bit vista.

dvd drive, w/e. i have an asus dvdburner with lightscribe, works fine. Used lightscribe once, its cool but not anything to spend extra money on, discs w/ ligthscribe are more expensive too.

[Puddle Jumper]

For $558 before mail in rebates you could get these parts.

Newegg.com - DIAMOND 4850PE3512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Power Supplies

Newegg.com - OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors

The Biostar p43 is allot better than the motherboard in the combo you posted. Also by going with the E7200 your are able to get a better graphics card while still having a great cpu.

[wafflehammer]

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TForce TP43D2A7 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X 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 Burner - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

EDIT: I seem to be a bit to late lol...but yea, this build comes to $481.00ish

so give or take at some places and you could add stuff, and if you add in if you can get the MIR's to work..that would make it a lot better. Oh yea, with this motherboard/processor/and after-market heatsink- you could overclock your system a lot.

[vernong1992]

G35 is meh... If you ordered those two of Newegg you could get it for around the same price...

Go with Puddle Jumper's Build, add a good RCX-Z775 on it and overclock the living heck out of it

Newegg.com - ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Save 5$

The combo deal with the Asus P5Q Pro is noteworthy since you can get it for $119, which is pretty good as its a pretty solid board

[Monkey]

I am loving all the feed back. However, and this was my bad, I have to buy all my parts from tigerdirect because i have $500 giftcard there. soo..if you link a part it would be cool if u linked it to tigerdirect, but i can always search for em my self.

Soo the radeon 4850 is better than the 8800 ... cool. will this card allow me to link to my TV or will i need a tuner for that ?