Yeah

I know some things about computers but not a ton.
I have this config that i think looks good , just want some of the experts to look at it.

Im not the richest man in the world ... looking to spend $1500 or less (hopefully less ).


Specifications:
Case: Digital Storm 650Si (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
Power Supply: 550W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 6400+ 3.2GHz (Dual Core) (2 MB Cache) (Black Edition)
Motherboard: Asus M2N SLI (nForce 5 series SLI Chipset)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 800MHz XMS2 (Dual Channel) (Performance)
Floppy / Card: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks
Raid Option: Setup hard drive 1 and 2 in a Raid 0 Stripe (Read and Write Performance Boost)
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB (PCI-Express)
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE
Physics Card: - No Thanks
Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 1 (Certified Digital Storm Heat-sink)
Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Red Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Round Cables: - No Thanks
User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs

Well, first off, why AMD? Intel is much more powerful at this point in time. Specifically when it comes to multi-core processors. The sound card is also kind of a waste. Any motherboard you get from us will have the same quality of onboard sound. The only real advantage to getting a sound card these days (at least from us) is getting a powerful APU (audio processor). Which will take all the stress of high quality audio off of the CPU. The Audigy does not feature an APU, so there's no advantage. I would also recommend a more powerful video card, though I can't say what specifically. Let me know what you're designing this for, and I can recommend something. As for the wireless card and an ethernet connection. Yes, they both work together. I hear from Kelly that it's actually called shotgunning. There are no advantage outside of being able to connect from various methods though. Only other problem I can see with this setup is the RAID. You only have the one hard drive, so you can't RAID. I wouldn't exactly recommend it anyway. RAID is really more for enthusiasts, as it just gives you one more thing to troubleshoot. There are some performance advantages, but they aren't easy to notice. 

alrite here it is. as for the video card ... i cant afford anything better (i can hardly afford this)


Specifications:
Case: Digital Storm 650Si (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
Power Supply: 550W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 650i Core 2 Quad (nForce 650i Ultra)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 800MHz XMS2 (Dual Channel) (Performance)
Floppy / Card: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 250GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Network Card: D-Link Wireless-G 108Mbps (Supports 802.11g/b)
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB Superclocked Edition
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Motherboard Multi-Channel High Definition Audio
Physics Card: - No Thanks
Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 1 (Certified Digital Storm Heat-sink)
Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Red Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Round Cables: - No Thanks
User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs


Edited by SOLIJA - 25 Mar 2008 at 7:15pm

personally, i dont understand having the muy nice keyboard and mouse when youre on a budget. it seems silly, imho. thats over a hundred bucks alone you can drop on a better mobo. i know looks are great and all, but on a budget you kinda want the best computer components and can worry about uber awesome peripherals later, right?

Originally posted by SunfighterLC That 100 bucks you saved could be better put getting the Q6600 overclocked and a stage 2 air cooling.

Better suggestion than mine.

Right now im gaming on a 7year old dell (dell dimension 2400) with a 6year old video card (ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 128MB)... lol
the mouse and keyboard im using is a microsoft wireless which is about 3-4 years old. (and sucks really bad)

ANYTHING is better than what I have ... i REALLY need a new monitor (using the monitor that came with my computer) and theres nothing hear locally thats cheap lol (only like walmart or bestbuy which arnt that cheap haha)

Id rather buy the mouse and keyboard with the computer than separately .. idk just a personal preferance ... i want everything new haha.

i can raise my budget just have to wait about another month , i wanted to buy the computer when i got my next paycheck cause my mom wants all the money in her hands when i use her credit card ... unless i can convince her to have like half of it and pay her the rest later.

my gaming clan are all telling me to build my computer myself but i like the 3yr warranty and lifetime tech support. but ill think about that ... idk (ill check into all the prices of each part and see how much i can save)

Prices went up =( ..
man ... was about 100% on about ordering but since the prices went up .. might of just went out of what i wanted to pay