Opinion, Newbie build, intel

[bmroxm5]

Hey everyone, yep its another one of those "i'm a newbie, what do you think of my system" threads.
To cut to the chase, buying my first desktop and my cousin has offered to source parts from a wholesale for me to keep costs down and assemble it for me. He's not an extreme overclocking gamer, more a business pc/server maintenance kinda guy...
Located in Aus and budget is about $1k AUD but can stretch to $1.1k for the tower only.
I told my cousin what I wanted and he came back to me with this:

CPU: Intel C2Q Q8400, $235AUD, http://www.itestate.com.au/pages/pro...on&pcode=07090

Mobo/Case/PSU: ASUS Barebone P5G43, $218AUD, http://www.i-tech.com.au/products/38...ystem__No.aspx

RAM: Corsair DDR2 800mhz PC-6400 2x2gb, $80AUD (can't find a link)

Graphics: Leadtek GF GTX-260+ (216SP) 896mb DDR3 OC 448bit, $255, http://www.stonebridgecomputing.com....760b0dcc41d862

HDD: Samsung 1TB 32mb cache, $135AUD, pretty generic

Optical: Samsung DVD Sata 22x burner. $50AUD, again pretty generic

Overall what do you guys think? What changes should I make?

My questions are:
- The ASUS Barebone PSU only has 300w, is this enough? Also will the case run cool enough?
- Some people don't seem to think Leadtek is a good brand for the graphics. I'm pretty set on an Nvidia GTX-260,
- Would I be better off with an E8500 processor or the Q8400? If its worth it Im willing to spend a little extra and get a Q9400 processor.

Thanks in advance.

[Khalil]

Not sure what is available to you but the Samsung hard drives and optical drives are of poor quality. The Q8xxx processors are low performers. the E8500 will be a much better choice. If you feel that you need a Quad go with a Q9xxx
The 300W PSU won't be able to handle that video card, you need a 550W or higher power supply to be safe. Look at brands like Corsair, Sea Sonic, FSP and Antec. The G43 motherboard is ok but a P5Q will be much better if you can make it fit in your budget.

[bmroxm5]

cool thanks for the heads up on that.
Just to clarify cause I didn't mention it in my opening post, but yeh, i'll be using the system for gaming, perhaps like sims but I want to get into some FPS games.

Ok with the harddrive, I've heard western digital get a pretty good rap around here so I might look into one of those.

Optical wise, how bout a Sony something or other?

CPU I'll look to spend more money on a Q9xxx Intel like mentioned or run an E8500

As for psu/case/mobo I think i'll ditch the asus barebone and get a proper case, asus mobo (any suggestions?) and corsair power unit with 550w+

Also another question with the ram, is 4gb of DDR2 ram at 800mhz ok? is 1066mhz worth it? then again is DDR3 at 1600mhz worth it again?

thx

[Khalil]

For gaming you don't need a Quad, an E8500 owns for gaming. Sony optical drives are great I use them in more than 90% of the systems I build. Stick to DDR2 800. Asus P5Q Pro or P5Q Turbo are the best currently for the LGA775 socket