Hi, I want a custom pc built that will be able to play all current generation games on at least medium settings.

It needs to be under 600 Canadian Dollars (Which is about 500 US dollars)

I found a local store that makes custom computers and I'd like to know if the following sapecifications I chose are decent enough for the price. Stability is VERY important to me as well, the PC can't blow up or fry on me and needs to last at least 2 years without and problems.

Specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ AM2,512KBx2,2.7GHz -$76 CAD

RAM: Kingston 2GB DDR2-6400 800MHz (KVR800D2N5/2G)  -$35 CAD

Mobo: ASRock N68PV-GS (VGA&DVI-D,2DDR2,PCI-E,RAID,GbLAN)  -$64 CAD

HDD: WD Caviar Blue 160GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA II (WD1600AAJS) -$50

Optical Drive: LG 22X GH22NS30 DVD+/-RW DL SATA Drive (Black)  -$35

VG Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 512MB GDDR3 256bit PCI-E 2.0  -$165 CAD

Case: Antec Three Hundred The Versatile Gamer Case (Black) -$75 CAD

PSU: Thermaltake Purepower 500W With 120mm Fan (W0100RU)  $75 CAD

TOTAL: $570 CAD (<400 USD)

Free assembly.

The prices of the components are equivalent to what they are on newegg.ca, except minus the shipping and tax which makes them cheaper. I don't even know how these people make a profit given that they are selling it at parts price but they have a legit website, store and an ebay account as powersellers with a high rating...

Is this a good deal? I'd prefer to trim it down to 550$ if possible, and I wouldn't mind buying a cheaper video card to do that, but I want the cheapest card out there still capable of playing most games such as Bioshock, CoD4 on medium to high settings. Is there any cheaper alternative to that Vg card that would do the job?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300

It's much (say 30%) faster and the same price.

--

For the video card, I need to know the resolution of your monitor to see whether it would play those games on those settings. Also, if you wait until the 28th of April the new Radeon HD4770 will be at the same price as the 4830 but 20% faster.

Dude with those specs that u listed you would be able to play all games at high
settings with no problem at all -even crysis but on lower resolutions like 720p maybe-,so ya its very god deal.. i just would advise u to get a bigger harddrive
the 160 wont cut it off.

Probably down the line a few months I'll update my monitor, but the one I'm using atm is 1024 x 768, not widescreen obviously. The resolution could go up to 1600 x 1200 but the intergrated vga card I'm using atm doesn't support that.

I would say wait for that HD4770. The HD4670 will get playable (~30fps) framerates on medium settings at that res on CoD4 and Bioshock, but the moment a new game comes out and you want to play it you'll be stuck.

When the 4770 comes out will the 4830 likely go down in price?  I believe the 4830 can play most current games at medium-high settings right? I'd like to shave off a little on the cost of the vg card, if the 4830 goes down in price when the 4770 comes out I could wait til then.

Would that be sensible?

Wait for the HD 4770 like Soleron said.

Yes. It'll probably go down $30 CAD or more.

What about my CPU suggestion?

Yeah, the CPU sounds good. But when I "add to cart", with the taxes and shipping the price goes up to 94 on newegg. And the site where I'm having my PC built adds another 11$ to it eventhough, as you showed me the base price is only 3$ more.

However I'm going to be having the PC built at the end of june/early July so if the price of the VG card goes down by then I might just grab that CPU and a larger hard drive.

Also, a newbie question, but do most currently released games support my 4:3 aspect ratio or am I going to see black bars at the top and bottom?