Looking into building a new PC

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erehwon

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I'm wanting to build a new computer and I'm slowing getting the parts together. I'm doing this on the cheap and will do some more upgrading when I get more money.

I have so far:

Radeon X700 Pro ($5 brand new from a garage sale)
athlon 64 X2 6000 (got from a trade with items that cost me about $6)
Crucial DDR2 800 RAM 2 GB (new $20 off of HardOCP trade forum)
Windows 7 Pro (got from that deal for college students)

I'm looking at the GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P motherboard. I liked that this motherboard supports AM2 and AM3 processors. It only supports DDR2 ram, but I don't really see my self needing a ton. I'll probably just check HardOCP's trade forum again and see if I can get some more cheap ram as everyone moves to DDR3. I don't see myself needing more 6 GB.

I have one sata drive that I can reuse, but the others are IDE. I do have a IDE to SATA adapter, so I can use that on one of the other drives. I'll have to use the one IDE slot for the DVD drives.

One of the few things I'm not sure on is the power supply. I have an Antec 550W Neo HE. I'm wondering if I'll have to get a bigger one?

I'm also wondering what CPU cooler and thermal paste I should look into? I saw the few listed in the PC part thread. I'm just wondering what is the best performance for the price? I was thinking about just using the fan that comes with my CPU, but I'm not sure if I like that idea. I could save some money and get a better cooler when I have more money, but I usually like having a better cooler. My brother does have a zalman 939 cooler that he never used. I wonder if that can work with a am2 processor?

I do admit this isn't the greatest of builds, but I am on a shoe string budget. The important thing is getting a good motherboard that I can upgrade. I don't overclock. My computer is mainly used for gaming, recording TV, and a little bit of folding. I'm at the limit of my Radeon 9800 AGP card can handle game wise.
 
The Antec 550W power supply is more than enough for your build.

The 939 cooler wont work on AM2 CPUs because of difference in the bracket size. You may be able to do some modification to the cooler to make it fit, but chances are you can probably find a cheap cooler on the trade forums that will save you some time and work. If you want a new cooler, then the Cooler Master 212+ seems to be a very good cooler in its price range.

The X700 Pro isn't much of a gaming video card, especially for most of the recent games. But for $5 I can't really say anything, perhaps you can save up more and get a Radeon 4670 which are around $50 that will run many games respectfully.

As for the motherboard, if you're strapped on cash, you don't need to spend $110 on the motherboard, ASUS M4A78 Plus for $65 after rebate will do the job just fine. And since it also supports AM3 processor, you can upgrade to the quad cores down the road.
 
I am a little strapped for cash, but I did get $50 from my parents for my birthday to use toward a computer. So it's really up to me what motherboard I want. I've heard some good things about that motherboard. In my plan, the motherboard was the one thing I was always planning on spending a lot on. The motherboard is the one thing I really don't want to be super cheap on.
 
You won't be disappointed with that Gigabyte board for sure. My motherboard cost more than each and every component in my system as well.
 
Now I know you're on a budget...but here's what I just purchased...I had an HP a1630n with an athlon 64 x2 4600+ and asus a8m2n-la, 250gb hard drive, 2 gigs ram (upgraded to 3), 300w psu....I originally went with an ATI Radeon x1650 PRO and a 550w Cooler Master Extreme Power PSU.

Now, I purchased an Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Brisbane and a GIGABYTE 9600 GT OC'ed from the factory. Also a new case fan.

Found out the motherboard was bad so I just bought the following as we speak:
ASUS M3A78-EM, 4gb (2x2) A-Data DDR2 800 ram, apex micro atx tower case, Cooler Master HSF w/ 80mm fan (has the ability to add a second fan on the back side).

All and all I am "building a new" computer for $400 and only re-using the optical drive and the hard drive. I will be adding a version of system builder Win 7 later on. I also have 1.5 TB of hard drive space in a pair of external HD's. My HTPC/Gaming rig is going to be coming to life very soon. I will never buy a pre-built again (this one was great for the 3-3.5 years it worked flawlessly, but it was a waste of money).

I paid around $400 for everything that I've upgraded (a little less actually)...I get $30 in mail-in rebates, I get $35-40 cash back from Bing and Paypal combined and I get a computer that hopefully will last me a few more years at the very least.

I was looking at a GIGABYTE mobo that is on sale on newegg for $40 that seems pretty decent as well. Don't remember the model, but the reviews looked pretty good. You mention however that you don't mind spending a little more on the mobo for a better one.
 
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