Building a PC for a friend, need help

[Rhezuss]

Hi all, a friend of mine as asked me to help him build a PC for all sorts of uses. He needs a complete case, don't need a new screen, mouse of keyboard.

He need his new PC to be able to play recent games casually (he mentionned Borderlands amongst other). He'll also be using Reason and Alberton Live for music mixing and he'll do some video editing. Also, he tends to open an astronomous internet pages at once and while keeping them opened, he'll probably use his music and video softwares.

Budget wise, he need his PC to be the cheapest possible while keeping a good price/quality ratio.

I was thinking about something like this:

MOBO: ASUS something or anything you can recommend
CPU: Athlon II X3 or X4 (speed to be determined by price) of Intel, opened to suggestions
MEM: 4gb DDR2 or DDR3?
VID: I thought about getting him a HD 5770 1gb (or get him a GTX 460?)
SOUND: He already have a external USB sound card (something good) and he want a basic soundcard...maybe a SB XtremeMusic?
HDD: I'll probably go with a WD Black Caviar 500gb
CASE: ??? no idea, but something cheap

And the basic stuff like a DVD burner.

What would you recommend?
Thanks!

 

[darkewaffle]

What resolution? 1680x1050 or lower I know a 5770 is very capable, higher than that you may start looking at the 460. Borderlands is pretty tame as far as graphics go.

And I don't actually have any knowledge of this, how important is a dedicated soundcard to that kind of audio work?

Athlon II x4, 4gb ddr3, amd 870 chipset mobo, 5770 is about in line with what you were looking for and is nicely powerful. With a HDD, optical drive, a case, and PSU you're looking at about 550-600$ I'd say.

 

[TheStu]

For cheap mobos, you might want to look into AsRock, they are Asus' budget arm.
For CPUs, you can get an X3 and unlock it to an X4.
As for DDR2 vs DDR3, you don't get to choose, that is mobo dependent. So, once you have chosen the mobo/cpu, then you know what RAM to get. And yea, 4GB either way is the way to go.

Past that, the onboard sound is fine these days, especially if he already has an external sound card.

 

[mfenn]

Here's a build that's pretty much in line with everyone's (and my own) recommendations from Newegg.ca:
Athlon II X4 635 $103
ASUS M4A87TD $110
G.Skill DDR3 1333 4GB $88
Radeon 5770 $150 AR
Samsung F3 500GB $59
400CX $42 AR
Rosewill case $30
Total: $582

Add $100 for a copy of Windows 7 if you need it.