Ok, so I have about $500 to spend...

[Cerveza]

I can live with my Case, Power Supply, Drives (Hard Drives and CD/ROM).

What I'm really looking at is....

Motherboard
CPU (I'm a Athlon fan)
Cooling
RAM
Graphics Card

Right now I have this...

Motherboard - (Not sure, will put this in later)
CPU - AMD 3700+ San Diego
Cooling - Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
RAM - OCZ PC3200 - 2GB
Graphics Card - GeForce 6600GT

I'd like to push the lower side of $500 and not exceed it. I want a quiet system, so heat pipe would be an advantage. I'm going to start looking at Graphics Cards to get a feel for what I can get for a decent price, then look at putting the rest together....

Inputs are welcomed.

[Coragin]

AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0ghz Quad Core
Mainboard that can run DDR3 (AM2 Socket), Onboard ATI graphics, ATI sb 800 chipset.  Gigabyte makes a nice one.
8GB DDR3 800 mhz +
ATI Radeon HD 5 or 6xxx series gpu.

You should be able to get all that for under $500, then get yourself either a nice 22"+ Wide LCD or a blur ray player.

[NObama]

Lotto tickets.  Then, just buy Dell and get a CEO discount!

 

[UOMaddog]

Here's what I would buy: (In fact, I just hooked my brother-in-law up with this setup)

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Retail (w/ Fan): ($150)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4615717&CatId=4432

Corsair 4GB Dual-Channel DDR3: ($120)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3642209&CatId=4524

ASUS M4A79XTD Motherboard ($110)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5023028&CatId=4296

Now, for the graphics card, you have A LOT of leeway. You could finish off the last $120 of your budget quite easily, or save yourself a lot as well. I would recommend any of the following:
XFX Radeon HD5450 ($65):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5692362&CatId=3669
ASUS GeForce GT240 ($83):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5516904&CatId=3669

[Hoby]

what about this system for 400$
- AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz per CPU core
-2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
-750GB SATA Hard Drive
-24x DVD-RW Burner
-ATI Radeon HD 4650 512MB Direct X 10.1+ Graphics
-Windows 7 Ultimate Operating System
A guy locally builds em with a one year warranty

[UOMaddog]

That's actually pretty decent Hoby!

[Coragin]

Whatever your chipset (ATI nvidia) make sure it matches your graphics card, makes a huge difference.

[Scrripty]

Now, for the graphics card, you have A LOT of leeway. You could finish off the last $120 of your budget quite easily, or save yourself a lot as well. I would recommend any of the following:
XFX Radeon HD5450 ($65):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5692362&CatId=3669
ASUS GeForce GT240 ($83):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5516904&CatId=3669

A 5450 is a lower mid range card.  For 40 bucks more you can go with an upper mid range card, little less ram on the card but a better performer:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5642514&Sku=A271-5670

[Cerveza]

Good stuff guys, appreciate the comments. I'll start looking through the info today.

I wanted to keep my old drives so I'd have more to spend on the "core" system. I can upgrade drives individually later on.

I've always been a GeForce fan, so I'll probably stick with that for video.

Keep 'em coming!

[TrailMyx]

UOMaddogs recommendation gives you the most bang for the buck.  The quad core and DDR3 memory will really enhance your gaming experience.  You'll need Win7, though.  I'm preferring it to XP these days.

[Scrripty]

UOMaddogs recommendation gives you the most bang for the buck.  The quad core and DDR3 memory will really enhance your gaming experience.  You'll need Win7, though.  I'm preferring it to XP these days.

That's if you're not buying it all piece by piece.  Otherwise upgrade that card for 40 bucks.

[Cerveza]

So far I'm liking UOMD's setup with the GeForce card. I like keeping the same company for MB and Video, always seem to have less problems that way.

The MB doesn't have on board video, which is nice to have for t-shooting the system if needed, but I suppose I can live without it.

I'm doing some comparison stuff now with those suggested.... How is the stock cooling? There are some nice heatpipe + fan setups for the AM3 that are under $40.

[TrailMyx]

I've never had a problem with stock cooling since I don't overclock and I generally have a good case.  If you've got a crappy case or something with poor air flow, then you might want something extra.

[UOMaddog]

I personally have a gigantic Thermaltake MaxOrb to cool my Athlon XP 5000

I just set up my bro-in-law with a Phenom II X2 with a stock cooler.

His actually runs cooler than mine, both of us have similar cases with 2 x 80mm or 120mm fans. So don't doubt the quality of stock coolers. It's really not worth the extra money unless you find it running too hot. Give it a week or two and see how it does.

As for the graphics card, I personally prefer a card with DDR3 simply because a lot of DDR5 controllers can be glitchy. I'll skip over the whole Computer Engineering discussion behind it unless someone would like me to elaborate. I personally have a GeForce GT250 and GeForce 9600GSO. ATI tends to work well with AMD, but nVIDIA is just as decent.

[Coragin]

You can still do XP x64, I dual boot that for when I am encoding blu rays and doing stuff that is really process intensive (running 4 VM's), you cant beat the XP x64 speed capabilities.  But for high end gaming, Win7 seems to be the way to go now.