$1000ish budget rig help

Well, basically I have 1K to spend on a desktop for school. So I need it to be able to do all the basic stuff. However, I am also a WoW junkie (few other games as well), so I need some pretty good performance as well. The main thing to me is that it can do this stuff fairly effortlessly. I was thinking I'd want:



2GB or more ram

like 360 GB HD

256 MB or more vid card

and i'm not sure about the CPU...figured i'd be fine with something in the low 2's.



Any ideas? I'd appreciate if you included a MB that would work with the parts you think would work for me. I don't know much about the specifics of planning a system (what parts work with others and what doesn't work together), but I am very handy and have built computers before.



I'd appreciate any ideas I could get, thanks.

This build is assuming that you don't need a monitor or OS... if you do you can cut back cost or stretch your budget.


Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: Nine Hundred - $129.99

GIGABYTE GA-G33M-DS2R LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $132.99

EVGA 256-P2-N761-AR GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $159.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6420 - Retail - $186.00

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-2GBHK - Retail - $104.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $74.99

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-203B/BEBN - OEM - $33.99

ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail - $49.99

ZALMAN ZM-CS1 Clip Support for installation of CNPS7000 series onto Socket 775 - Retail - $3.99

Corsair 520W PSU from buy.com - $99.99

Subtotal: $976.91
MIR: -$10.00 PSU
MIR: -$40.00 Case
MIR: -$15.00 Video Card
Total: $911.91

If you need the monitor and os you could do this:

This RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034 -$28.99
This MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128057 -$28.00
This Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811144151 -$40.00
No Zalman CPU cooler -$53.98

Total : 760.04

Vista Home http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116202 +$111.19
19" Widescreen http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254023 +$159.99

Total: $1031.22

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106055
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811233001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144417
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103940
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128059
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115030

975.00

Good rig for a grand.

Get the E6550. Cheaper and better performance

Get MB with P35 chipset! G33 is not good for Ocing. And if you getting external GPU, you don't need onboard graphic.

I would say get a HDD with 16MB cache

Definitely look at hard drives with 16mb caches... they aren't that much more (like WD SE16s) Overclocking abilities may be irrelevant because he might not want to overclock... I don't think you need to be spending that much on a case (and at that price I'd get a different one) but hey thats the fun of it all there's a million ways to go. We need to know if there needs to be a monitor and/or OS budgeted into this system because that affects it a lot.

ya, sorry...i should have mentioned that. I wasn't including the monitor or OS in that number. Also, those spec's i spat out we're just guesses...if you think something else might be better, feel free to say so. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!!!!

ok if no monitor or os i like that first build i posted cuz with that extra 90 bucks you could take it and upgrade on any one (or multiple) components for what you want. I don't think an 8800 is necessary tho

Here's another option, it is slightly over budget, but with the MIR it'll be under.

CPU:Q6600

MoBo:P35 DS3L

HDD:320GB

GPU:8800GTS 320MB

Case (you can change this if you like): Cooler Master Centurion 5

Optical:LITE-ON

PSU:Corsair 520W

RAM:Corsair 4CAS 800MHz

Mail In Rebates:

PSU - $10

RAM - $40

GPU - $20



Before MIR, it comes to about $1047