Rate this build! $700 budget with some caveats

[rebelgamer]

I'm thinking about buying a pc with these specs for $850. This would be a gaming rig and I would like to be able to play Bioshock, Oblivion and other FPS. I would also do some audio editing and photoshop work. If I do buy I would be selling one of the monitors as I want to keep my total cost as close to $700 as possible.

If I don't buy this setup, I would probably try building my own. Would I be able to get a significantly better system if I went that route, considering my budget?

So, to buy or not to buy? -

PSU: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 550W Power Supply - Retail

Case: Antec P 180 Case

Monitor (2 of these monitors included): Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support - Retail

Video Card: EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADA5200CSBOX - Retail

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Mouse, speakers, HD, burner, software:

Logitech THX Z-5300e 280 Watts RMS 5.1 Speaker - Retail

Sony NEC Optiarc 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model AD-7170S-0B - OEM

Maxtor 250 GB Hard Drive

Logitech S 510 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

Vista Home Premium

Microsoft Office

 

[bob4432]

i would do whatever it took to get a 8800gt, the 8600gt is a weak cared.

you can lower the psu requirement, you would be fine w/ a antec earthwatts 380/430 which you can usually find good deals on w/ rebates

also, do you need that big of case or want it?

honestly, i think a c2d setup would be better, the 6100 chipset is not known to be the best. i would go a p35 board and a cpu for ~$125 or so, i think the e4300 or similiar

 

[MarcVenice]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2140918&enterthread=y

Look in that thread, we basicaly build a 700$ rig with a pretty darn good videocard. In the build you mentioned, there is a rather expensive case and other things I would swapp out. You are buying quite a bit of peripherals though, including a monitor. Just pick some of those components in the above mentioned thread and see how far you can get.