Build for nephew

[GodofCats]

OK, here's the situation. I am making a budget build for my nephew in a couple months. The poor guy is a hardcore gamer and does not have access to a decent PC as of now. He's also a student in high school and will be making his way to college soon. (makes me feel kind of old lol) I spoke to him on the phone a couple days ago and told him I was planning on making a build for him and told him the specs and my budget. He seems really excited and said that he will chip in whatever he can to make a better build. Here is what I hvae so far to get him, but I am wondering if he is able to chip in a significant amount, which is likely because he did state he had a good chunk of money set aside, what I should upgrade on the build... anyways, I will have around $250-$275 to spend and I am thinking my nephew will be able to chip in around $80, so this is a budget build. Anyways, here's what I have picked out so far, but the prices will likely change in a couple months so who knows.

case:

Logisys Area 51 case w/ 480 watt PSU $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811148029

Asus M4A748 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 mobo $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131381

Chaintech GDDR2 512MB GeForce 9500 GT video card $50.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814145162

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 2.7GHz socket AM2 dual-core 65w CPU $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103210

4GB Allcomponents RAM DDR2 800 dualchannel $37.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820159021

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM SATA 3.0GB/s HDD $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148231

Total before shipping: $298.94

Anyways, if you have any suggestions, or thoughts, please let me know. Thanks.

[not important]

I have my doubts about the quality of the PSU that comes with the Logisys case.
The RAM you selected might be OK but I would suggest Corsair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184
Seagate HDD's have been having some problems so WD is being suggested now.

[glc]

The power supply in that case is terrible. It will not power a build with a PCI-E video card, it only has 16 amps on a single +12v rail. Here is the cheapest case out there with a quality suitable PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129032

The other option is a case without PSU and this PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104953

That particular Seagate drive is okay.

This video card is well worth the extra $20 over that 9500:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121274

[GodofCats]

Thanks guys! These forums are awesome, I like how everyone is here to help out. I will see what I can come up with... I'll let you know what my nephew says about chipping in more money... after that I may come back to see what else could be worked out. I was thinking of doing a MiniATX compy, but dunno...

Anyways, thanks again.

[tomtoon]

do you have an O.S for him?

[glc]

MiniATX is not worth it if you are going to be using a video card.

[GodofCats]

Originally Posted by tomtoon do you have an O.S for him?

Yeah, I'mma go with XP pro 64 bit. I have 2 valid copies so...

[GodofCats]

Originally Posted by glc MiniATX is not worth it if you are going to be using a video card.

Thanks for the info glc, I'll steer clear of that then. But if you don't mind me asking, why is it not worth it?

[glc]

Make SURE there are XP64 drivers available for all the components...........................

Minis generally have small power supplies and poor cooling. They work fine with onboard video, but try to put a gaming card in and it will fall to its knees.