Hi, this is the second time that I'll build a system, the first one has been working perfect since last year , this new system will be for my brother and mother. It will be used for gamming and cpu intensive programs.

These are the components that I have selected, please tell me if you see any incompatibility or improvement that can be made. I'm already in the limit of the budget, so if you have a suggestion to improve some part please suggest also which part I can change to a lower priced one.


Hardisk
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148261
60 USD

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037
200 USD


Memory
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820211066
40 USD

Board
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128059
90 USD

Video
XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150252
180 USD

Power Supply
ePOWER ZU-500W ATX12V Ver. 2.0 500W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, CE, FCC, TUV
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817101011
50 USD

DVD Unit
PHILIPS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827248013
25 USD

Monitor
Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support 300 cd/m2 700:1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009094
219 USD

I'm keeping the case, floppy, mouse, keyboard and speakers from the old computer.

Thank you very much in advance for any help you can provide me!

Everything seems in order. However you may find that video card starting to lag behind in the not too distant future. It would probably be best to wait until the new releases by ati and nvidia this summer to make a purchase. Even if you are not interested in the new stuff, you will at least get a pretty good price drop. Also 2 gigs is almost standard now. Since it is so cheap you may as well just get another 2 gigs, and I haven't heard the best things about a-data so be wary.

If you want this rig to last you should probably get a better motherboard too.

A-data is fine. Motherboard's fine too. Even if you want the rig to last, no other board will be any better with Nehalem around the corner.

8800GT is fine. You don't want to get more expensive, so the new ATI cards won't be in your budget. However, I would advise against XFX. I got one recently and it's loud as hell... some of the models have fans that are stuck at 100% speed. Fine for temperatures... but can get annoying when you're not gaming. Check out MSI, eVGA, or BFG Tech instead.

Get a better PSU. This Corsair 450VX is $54.99 after $15 rebate and free shipping ($44.99 with GCO): http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-vx [...] 66485.html

thanks for your comments my brother is not a hardcore gammer so I'm already giving him a very good system (he has now a geforce 6200 :S) so it's not worth the wait, I'm sure this computer is already a monster for him . but I'm worried about the loudeness of the xfx I thought it was one of the better video card makers, I'll check the other ones that you posted.

Btw I plan to buy everything from newegg and that PSU isn't there do you do you have other recomendation?, I have used a ePOWER for my last build and it has been working very good, I have the epower 550W and it moves the 8800GTS, I guess that the 500W will move the 8800GT.. but I'm not sure can someone check it please, these are the psu specifications:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Show [...] wer+Supply

Not sure what's going on with Newegg right now, but at the moment they don't have as many items with free shipping as usual. They have the PSU too, but it's almost $15 more when you factor in shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139003

The ePower will most likely work, but it will be of much lower quality than the Corsair or other more reputable brands. There's a greater chance of it failing and possibly taking out other components with it. The Corsair is also 80 PLUS certified, so you'll get lower electricity bills and help save the environment.

XFX is a fine company, I just wouldn't recommend their 8800GT right now after my experience. It seems that in the past people were complaining about their 8800GT's overheating because the fan wasn't spinning up under load, so the company decided to snip the cable that allows you to control fan speeds. Now it's stuck going at 100% giving a loud, relatively high pitched noise even at idle. Don't get me wrong... it plays great and overclocked easily, but I do regret not going with another brand for less noise. It's not like a blowdryer or anything, but it's noticeably louder than my 4 case fans/HDDs/PSU/CPU combined. If you think your family won't mind the noise you can go for it, I'm just giving you a warning beforehand.

Ok I changed the XFX for the EVGA (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318)

I wonder why the EVGA is now 5 USD cheaper than the XFX, I'd have selected it in first place if it had that price yesterday..

And about the power supply I trust in that brand, it has served me well all this year without any problem, what I don't know is if that will be enough for the card. I just checked EVGA 8800GT requirements (http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=512-P3-N801-AR) and it says:

"Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 26 Amp Amps.)"

The epower has two 12V rails at 20A each one, I think that you can't sum A in both rails, but I think that 20A in two rails will be enough to cover the 26A @ 12V requirement of the card, am I right?

According to the back of the ePower, it has a total output of 34A over the 12V rails. The problem with cheap PSU's is that they overstate their abilities by stating the maximum output rather than the continuous one. So while it may reach up to its maximum rated 500W, it might not be able to do it consistently.

I honestly think it will work, but I wouldn't count on its reliability. I would spend a little more on a better PSU for peace of mind.