Specifications.

• Athlon X2 5400+ (2.8ghz) Black Edition.
• 4gb OCZ ram (2+2)
• 500gb HDD
• Vista 64bit
• 9600 gt (With HDMI)
• Quality Thermaltake case and 470w PSU
• Asus DVD burner
• Gigabyte GA-MA780g ATX motherboard (HDMI)

Total $680 Shipped - $80 MIR = $600

Edit :http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131112

Powercolor 4850 with remote control (fits the media theme also) comes in at $670 shipped.

So there you have it, $600 and its fast - does HDMI through your tv and you can eiter stick with a keyboard and mouse or buy a wired 360 controller for $30-40 or something.

So what do you think? Im not sure on memory voltages so please don't sue me and I whipped this up in double time. Still I think it has excellent quality components, its fast and its cheap!

Rate mine, or maybe you can come up with something better for a similar price huh? Its up to you, you wanna take this challenge?

Edit: Funny thing is that with the 4850 its got 3x the graphical power of any console system and its only twice the price of the premium 360.

the graphics card is good but its mid-range card, other than that its great gaming pc.

Edit: i give it 8/10

That is pretty cheap. I'd give it an 8/10 as well.

I recently bought a 2 month old rig for $1100

Antec Sonata III case with 550 Watt NeoPower
Asus P5Q-E motherboard
Intel E8400 Dual Core 3.0 Ghz processor, Zalman Q9500 CPU Cooler, 120 mm exhaust and intake fan
Dual ATI HD3870 DDR4 512mb videocard's in Crossfire
4GB Corsair Dominator Dual Channel DDR2 RAM 1066 Mhz with cooling fan,
250 GB Western Digital SATA II HardDrive
LG SuperMulti DVD Drive with Lightscribe
onboard HD Sound with Optical out
CardReader
19" LG Widescreen monitor.
Logitech MX5000 Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo

It's a really solid system, but is it worth $1100 after knowing what you just whipped up? Still happy with it, regardless.

Thanks, I could have gone with a more powerful GPU like the ATI 4850 which would have been 50-60% more powerful but I wanted to see if I could do under $600. (Likely $650 with the 4850 and that does sound through an HDMI dongle as well) So that would have been the wiser move now that I think back.

For a little bit more, he could go with an 8800gt.

PNY $110.99 - free shipping and a copy of Frontlines: Fuel of War

or

ASUS $119.99 - mail in rebate ($30) to put price similar to your 9600gt and free Alone in The Dark.. which could be good or bad lol

or

EVGA - $135.99 mail in rebate ($30), lifetime warranty, and step up program to get a better card 90 days after purchase)

if you want best performance for money atm i would go with a intel core 2 duo cpu E8400 up to E8600 combined with an ati radeon 4850 gfx card.

but the amd cpu will probably be a bit cheaper than the intel one if money is more important than power.
using an amd 5000+ black edition myself (had the mainboard allready so only switched cpu last time) and the unlocked multiplier is very nice if you want to overclock it (i personally got my my cpu from 2.6 up to 3ghz without a big change to voltage, but others were more lucky and got it to 3.2 without changing voltages at all), only disadvantage of overclocking these is thatyou loose cool and quiet energy saving mode cause if you turn taht on it will reset your cpu back to standard clockings.

gfx card wise i personally would get a gainward 4850 golden sample, been folowing the reviews of the 4850/4870s for a few weeks now and its the best choice cause it has a better cooling that results in cooler temperatiures than standard model even with the nice factory overclock and its still more silent than most other 4850s out there. and if you compare it to the 9600gt then its only 20-30€ more here in europe for a lot more power.

E8600 is good, but the CPU is $170 with a dead upgrade path whereas the CPU/Motherboard cost $130 and it can take the Deneb 45nm AMD cpus next year if you want. But in any case thats a great little CPU there and it would perform exceptionally well, even if it adds $140 to the price it'd still be worthwhile.

Nice build, it's reminding me that my CPU ought to have been a placeholder for a better Core 2 Duo or newer Quad core CPU lol.

Should've gone with an entry level over-clocked Intel dual-core CPU E2200 would be alright, £53 (I'm from the UK, dunno how much in the States). Overclocking the CPU isn't as *Scary* as it used to be, just need to spend a bit more on the board. It's stock speed is 2.2Ghz, but a decent £60+ board would take that to 3Ghz+. (£45)

Fan for CPU - Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. (£14)

2GB RAM is fine, 4GB isn't exactly necessary (£50)

500GB HDD is fine, Anything Samsung/Western Digital (Sorry guys, I loath Seagate.) (£50)

Graphics...hmm..ATI's new 4850 from what you've saved on the RAM/CPU. (£115)

Motherboard...good choice for a Media Centre system, not for a gaming system. You don't need on-board graphics. Intel currently make the best boards for their own CPU's. Something like the Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L (£45)

Case - Antec 3 Hundred if on really tight budget, if not Nine Hundred has a window, and is much nicer. (£35 or £65)

PSU - Antec EarthWatts EA 650. 650Watt PSU. Your telling me you wouldn't think about sticking a quad-core in ur system when their like cheap as chips next year ? (£55)

Sony or Pioneer DVD Burner (£20) Speaking of Blu-Ray player, these can be had for about £80 now.

+ Vista 64Bit (It makes a difference even on 2GB I found.)

If you're going for a Media Centre...go for an Antec Fusion Case. Best case for the job, trust me. MSI do a mATX board that clocks well..forget the name now, my media center cost about £500 before I upgraded for Blu. Oh, and I rate ur build, 6/10.

My opinion:

7/10

I would've gone for a E8400 since AMD is lagging in cpu's recently and a 4850 is just such a nice deal nowadays for ~$150 after rebates.

PSU seems somewhat small?

Much higher price than you're going for but worth it in my opinion, esp since its a gaming PC.