This seems like a good build, I might suggest a few changes however. First, you dont need a CPU cooler. Since it's your family's computer, youre not going to be doing any overclocking I'm assuming!! Save that for when you can afford your own. Instead, spend the extra money from that plus the $150 that was left over anyway getting a Radeon 5850 for the video card as the performance increase from the 5770 to 5850 is huge.

If you live near an MSY, I suggest sourcing parts from there as they have very very cheap prices, just don't expect amazing customer service.

Starcraft you havn't said where in australia you are from, but if you are in the brisbane area i would highly recommend game dude. They will build your system for you for i think about $60 and they do a very good job. Best advice i can give is do some research. Clearly you know the parts that go into a computer so next you have a couple of decisions to make.

AMD or Intel. Research CPU's and decide how much money you want to spend on the cpu. After you decide which CPU you want you need to find a compatible motherboard. This can be confusing at first but generally computer stores will have cpu's listed under there socket type, and motherboards will be listed under this same socket type so just pay attention to this.

Here is a quick thrown together machine i did for $1800.

CPU - AMD Phenom 2 x4 955 be - $200

Motherboard - Asus m4a79t - $240

GPU - XFX 5770 1gb - $200

RAM - G.skill ripjaws 3x2gb (6gb) - $265 (for the lulz)

HDD - Seagate 1tb hdd - $90

PSU - Antec 750w eartwatts - $150

Case - Antec 300 ($65) + 3x additional fans ($20ea=$60) = $125

Good disk drive (good quality DVD dual layer burner will do, but again if someone feels there are now decent Blu-Ray options out there...)

DVD burner - $30

CPU cooler - $70-100

Asus 23.6" 1080p monitor - $240


Total = $1650 approx All prices through gamedude


Anything else you can think of.

I guess u can probably get a blu ray aswell they are about $200... or you could get another gfx card as the m/b i selected is crossfire compatible and so is the case and powersupply.

For $1800 aslong as you steer clear of a harvey norman you are going to get a beast.

OH! and one more thing.. don't listen to what anyone above me has said, don't buy a dell or a prebuilt - remember they have to make a profit too, so if they are competitive its because there items are low quality (which they are).  Just pick out all the parts and have a place like gamedude build it for you.  They have a service center attached to there sales center that help you if you have any problems and will do repairs, etc.

Hey mate, I made a similar thread a couple of months back and then end result is I am now typing on the comp that I built with that advice.

I'll leave the specfics of the components to the guys that know better but I had never built or been involved in building a comp before and I did by nothing more than reading a couple of websites, watching a youtube video or two and taking care with my components while builing.

I ordered all my stuff from Gocomp as I found them to be cheapest, they had all the parts (that weren't in stock) in within 2-3 days and they were constantly in touch via email to let me know how it was going and made a couple of suggestions on swapping out parts for cheaper/better alternatives. The also knocked down the price on a couple of my components when I pushed them.

The only problem I encountered with them is that the switched out the wireless device which I had chosen (which was out of stock) for another which ended up being incompatible with 64bit Windows 7 so make sure you check compatibility, even for the minor components.

p.s. my computer kicks a fair amount of ass and a similiarly spec'd Dell would have cost about 50% more, and all it cost me was a Saturday afternoon.

p.p.s what's your budget?

I cannot find that option on their site?

This is the system I would suggest:

CPU: AMD Phenom II Quad Core 3.0Ghz $177 LINK

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770T $96 LINK

OCZ 2GB DDR3 1333Mhz *2 $124 LINK

Sony DVDRW $31 LINK

Antec P183 $196 LINK

Antec Earthwatts 550W modular $116 LINK

Western Digital 500GB $70 LINK

HD 5850 $355 LINK

Samsung 24" LED Monitor $455 LINK

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit $112 LINK

Subtotal: $1732

Total W/Installing $1832

Plus shipping.

How was that for nailing a budget?

http://www.gocomp.com.au/index.php?cpath=productinfo&pid=II04998&catpath=0_1_227

Chuck this into your cart along with everything else and they will do it for you. I suggest the $100 one because by installing the drivers etc they will have to make sure the system is working so you won't have to trouble shoot.

Take a look at the system I priced up, IMO its a great balance between performance, respectability/quietness and features. It'll do everything for everyone that they want and stay within the budget.