Cheap gaming build critique?

[thetuna]

Like another poster I am looking to build a cheap ~$500 gaming computer and am looking for some feedback.

Everything will be bought in USA from newegg/amazon/etc.
Microcenter is about 75 miles away...

I have no brand preference.

Monitor, input devices, OS will be reused.

I have looked at other threads, however nothing I've seen looks fast enough, even for this low of a budget.

I don't plan on overclocking, but I'm not sure yet.

The monitor I have is 1440 by 900.

When is within a fortnight.

Here's what I came up with:

AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE $140

G.SKILL ECO 2 x 2GB DDR3-1333 $48

Galaxy GTX 460 GC 768MB $145, $50 MIR available

ASRock AM3 770 ATX $65

Antec BP550 W 80-PLUS Modular $45

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s $44

NZXT M59 ATX Mid Tower $50


So a total of $537, if I get the rebate $487.

What do you think?

 

[aphelion02]

Check out my post here:

i5 2400

Asrock H61M Mobo

PNY 8GB RAM

Asus HD 6850

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB

Thermatake Case

Corsair CX 430

Sony Optiarc DVD Drive

Total : $682.69 - $70 = $612.69

Its possible to lower costs even more to go under $600, but I think its not worth it for what you lose in quality.

 

[thetuna]

Thanks, but I was looking for opinions on what I had put together or for suggestions in the $500 range.

 

[mfenn]

Thanks, but I was looking for opinions on what I had put together or for suggestions in the $500 range.

The opinion is that Phenom IIs are not worth it right now. Sandy Bridge is simply much faster for a $50 increase in price. If you must be closer to $500, take Aphelion's build, remove the DVD drive (your build doesn't have one), swap the GPU to your GTX 460, and drop the RAM down to this $40 G.Skill DDR3 1333 kit.