Building my first PC - Could someone check my specs?

[VishalJM]

Hi there,

Just spent some time making a list of parts to build my own PC. I want it to be Vista-compatible. I generally use my PC for email, music, and watching movies. I don't play games much but I'd like my PC to work smoothly if I want to play a game every now and then (i.e. I'm not a hardcore gamer). Could someone please tell me if these specs will work together and any other recommendations (i.e. should I be upgrading or downgrading any parts)?

Thank you so much,
Vishal

Proposed specs:
Monitor Samsung SyncMaster 205BW $598.00
Motherboard Asustek P5B Deluxe Intel P965 WiFi-AP ATX $338.00
PSU Thermaltake 500 Watt to 640 Watt PSU, ATX $155.00
Case Lian-Li PC-G50A $194.75
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 $532.13
RAM G.SKILL 1GB DDR2-800 PC6400 $212.63
HD1 Hitachi 500GB 7200rpm SATA $351.73
HD2 Hitachi 200GB 7200rpm SATA $110.25
Optical drive LiteOn LH-18A1P 18x DVD $66.38
Video card Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E Silent pipe SLI $249.90
Sound card Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic $149.98
Keyboard & Mouse A4 Tech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse $43.84


The prices are in New Zealand dollars. i.e. NZD$1 is equal to USD$0.65.

[newbuilder14]

PSU: I probably would get something of higher quality, we recommend the Corsair HX520.

RAM: Corsair XMS2 CAS5 PC6400 memory is recommended here as well as being a go-to provider for compatible memory.

HDD(s): If you need two, that is fine, but you should look at Seagate 7200.10 SATA drives - they are fast and an overall good value at the moment.

Optical Drive: Make sure it is a retail box so you get software. SATA optical drives are recommended over IDE ones due to the loss of native IDE support for the P965 chipset (it is 3rd party controlled).

Video Card: eVGA is an alternative manufacturer.

Everything else looks just fine to me. You said you weren't gaming and you were doing general tasks, so as a recommendation for downgrading I'd suggest dropping to an E6300. You will not take a huge performance hit and you could save some money. I also suggest dropping the video card to a 7600GS (still a very capable card, especially if you are not gaming) and the motherboard to a plain P5B. Don't forget a copy of Windows XP. Also, although keyboards and mice are a personal thing, I would recommend going with a brand such as Microsoft or Logitech.

[glc]

NB, we may have to alter our standard recommendations for people who are not in the US due to local component availability. There *are* alternatives to our preferred components that work well. If there's a hard budget limit, I'd go 2gb on ram and compensate by dropping the sound card. You can always get a sound card later. I think it's time to push 2gb of ram for Vista boxes. Regardless what ram you choose, get a dual channel kit, not a single module.

Thermaltake PSU's are generally okay - just make sure it's ATX 2.0 with all the required cabling. Like NB, I am a bit leery of Hitachi hard drives but I do understand they are trying real hard to keep the quality up - if Seagate 7200.10's are available where you are, that would be a better choice. Before buying ram, I'd do some poking around the Asus forums to see if there are any issues with the exact stuff you choose, the P965 chipset can be a bit fussy. Gigabyte video cards are decent as far as I know.