"Best bang for the buck" -- $400/$600 to spend -- looking for advice

[CR125Honda]

Just completed my first "non" store bought computer. The mobo on my last computer died so I started pretty much from scratch. Used the original case, power supply, and hard drive and purchased the rest. Found the project to pretty rewarding and kinda fun.

Now I'm ready to build another. I currently have the hard drive (WD80 gb), video card (BFG tech Nvidia Assylum Ti4200 / 128mb) and a Sony CD-RW drive. I'd like to spend no more than $600 on the rest of it. If anyone would like to contribute on how & where these dollars would be best spent (Hmm, maybe I should refrase that) -- best spent on a case, power supply, mobo, cpu, cpu cooling fan & memory, I would appreciate the advice.

I'm undecided on a purchase so far but I have my eye on a few items at Newegg.com

SY-P4X400 DRAGON ULTRA (Platinum Edition) $143
Intel Pentium 4 2.4BGHz 512K 533MHz CPU Northwood P478 $194
Antec AMG 1080 case/ true power 430 PS $128
Memory ??

Ken
CR125Honda@aol.com

[rourkchris]

I think your "best bang for the buck" would be to go with an AMD XP processor. Try a Chieftec aluminum case with an AMD approved power supply-450watt foxconn-with a side window for wiewing your new system for $108.00 shipped(out of stock @ newegg at the moment). I'd reccomend an Epox 8RDA+ motherboard that includes onboard 6 channel sound, LAN, USB 2.0, and firewire. Accepts newer 333 fsb CPUs and features dual channel DDR memory for increased performance for $109.00 shipped @ newegg. As for memory try a pair of Kingston 512mb PC2700 for a 1 gig total for $85.50 shipped each or$171.00 together from googlegear. Now the CPU I would pick an XP2700+ for $280.50 shipped from googlegear. That's a total of $560.00 and would fit nicely with your video card and hard drive. Throw in another $40.00 and get a Toshiba 16x DVD drive from newegg and you've pretty much got it all.

[uethello]

Mobo: A7N8X $145
CPU: 2400 xp $147
The Antec case is fantastic, especially if you look at the power supply shootout over at Tom's

2x256mb PC2700 Crucial RAM. This will run at cl 2 in sync with the CPU, providing the best performance. $100

[jdurbin]

Epox RDA+ mobo includes nVidia2 chipset, onboard LAN and Firewire, 5.1 audio, etc., etc. and overclocks like a rocket: $108 or so from newegg and tcwo.com.

AMP XP2400+ CPU for $40 less than the P4 and you can overclock it like crazy on that Epox board.

There are a bunch of threads on cheap DDR deals so I won't touch that.

Here's the case I am getting for $98 including shipping:

http://www.modthebox.com/review152_1.html

It comes in black and silver also.

Directron has the Fortron 300 watt PSU for $27 plus about $6 shipping and it performed GREAT in Tom's Hardware review. You can get bigger ones if you think 300 watts is inadequate.

As for HSF, I am having great results with the Coolermaster V-HAC81 but I am not using a processor that fast so you should look for a more high powered choice.

I suppose my recommendation is close to rourkchris's one.