First Time Build

[ferrous]

This is my first time building a system. Not into any intense gaming. Besides the normal internet and teacher applications I use, I work with Adobe CS4, Photoshop mostly. Will also do some video editing, but nothing too involved. No cable tv in the house, but would like to connect pc to HDTV for streaming and DVDs.

Budget ~$600-650

Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated. Not sure if I have too much on the mobo and chip side of things, but the price range was not much more than the Athalon route. I've appreciated the previous posts and BYOPC guide. The comments are wonderful and instructive.

Here's the parts list.

Vista 64 Home Premium w/Windows 7 upgrade

Recycled peripherals and hopefully my old IBM spring keyboard. May get 22" 1080p down the road

Not sure about video card. If onboard works well enough, I may hold off. Again, no intensive gaming on my part.

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model HDZ550WFGIBOX

ASUS M4A78 PRO AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

Rosewill Conqueror RPS-01-WB500P Triple 120mm Fans Steel ATX Mid tower Computer Case with 500W Power Supply - Retail

Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD/CD Rewritable Drive

Thanks for your help!

Sean

[Khalil]

Besides the power supply everything you chose is excellent. Ditch the Rosewill case and get a case without a power supply. Since you are not going with a video card a 350W power supply will do the trick. Look at Sea Sonic FSP and Antec this is the one I recommend http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151038 if you plan on adding a video card in the future I recommend you go with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151040
The power supply is the most important component in a computer.

[ferrous]

Thanks Khalil for the case/power suggestion. Very helpful.

Do you think, for just a few extra dollars, changing the mobo and cpu to the following would be worth it in the long run?

ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Retail

Is the original memory I listed sufficient, or should I modify? (G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK)

Thanks for the advice. I'm grateful for finding this site and forum.

Sean

[No.Good]

Originally Posted by ferrous ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Retail Is the original memory I listed sufficient, or should I modify? (G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK) Thanks for the advice. I'm grateful for finding this site and forum. Sean

I would probably go for the 790gx chipset on the more expensive motherboard, not to say the first choice is bad either.

The CPU is up to you, if you can swing the dough, go for it.

The ram is fine.