New Computer $1000 budget

[Ice]

I know a lot of these threads have been coming up, but I'm pretty ignorant on what parts to buy when building my own computer. If someone could be a list, totaling at the max $1000, I'd appreciate. I'm pretty flexible, and I just want to get a rough idea on what I can buy. Also, I prefer ATI and Intel products. Thanks.

[Xiahou]

Wow, $1000... nice.

You should probably start out by telling us what you have already. Do you have a good monitor? An OS? ect.

[doc_bean]

2GB of Ram = 200
intel core 2 duo E6600 = 300
Ati Radeon X1900XT = 300

which leaves you with about 200 for a motherboard and a margin fo error for my estimated prices :2thumbsup:

[fruitfly]

If you're buying components in the US, http://www.newegg.com is a good place to look for components.

I was thinking pretty much along the same lines as doc_bean:

You can get the following for $984.96 (excluding shipping)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115003)
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813128012)
2GB Geil RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820144021)
SAPPHIRE 100168L Radeon X1900XT video card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814102051)

However, depending on what PSU you've currently got, you may need to upgrade that too as the new ATI cards are pretty power hungry.

[Ice]

I'd pretty much need everything new. My old psu is 350 watt and is aging. My old case is a dell case which I wouldn't want to use. Could I use XP pro which is installed on my old computer in a new one, if I build it?

[doc_bean]

I'd pretty much need everything new. My old psu is 350 watt and is aging. My old case is a dell case which I wouldn't want to use. Could I use XP pro which is installed on my old computer in a new one, if I build it?

If you have the cd then yes.

[Xiahou]

I'd pretty much need everything new. My old psu is 350 watt and is aging. My old case is a dell case which I wouldn't want to use.
In that case, you might want to see if there's any barebone systems that strike your interest. You could get all the basics you'll need in one package and then add whatever video card, ect that you want.

Or if you're not too comfortable building your own PC from parts, you could also consider buying one premade from a reputable gaming PC maker. Here's one I threw together in about 2 minutes from ibuypower.com:
Case ( NZXT Trinity ATX Mid-Tower Case w/400W Power Supply Black )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( ** iBUYPOWER Recommended ** NZXT PF-500 500 Watt Power Supply )
Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400 (2x 2.13GHz/2MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) )
Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink + 2 Extra Color Lighting Case Fans )
Motherboard ( ** iBUYPOWER Recommended ** ECS 965T-A P965 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, USB 2.0 PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 1024MB [512MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB PCI-Express x16 )
Physics Processing Unit ( None )
Hard Drive ( 160 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache] )
2nd Hard Drive ( None )
Raid Configuration ( None )
External Raid Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] 16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Fax Modem ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( Mitsumi 1.44 MB Internal Floppy Drive Black )
Monitor ( None )
2nd Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( None )
Mouse ( None )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in USB 2.0 Ports )
Meter Display ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )
Operation System ( None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only )
Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( None )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
TV Tuner ( None )
Video Camera ( None )
Headset ( None )
Power Protection ( None )
Printer ( None )
Printer Cable ( None )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )Total: $1138

[Spino]

It is an awful time to upgrade to a DD2 ram based system right now. Thanks to the latest DDR2 compatible AMD and Intel cpus there has been a massive demand for DDR2 RAM which has forced prices to skyrocket over the last few months. You simply cannot get a good deal on decent PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM right now. Even the prices for slower speed budget stuff are way too inflated right now.

Here is a price search I did for DDR2 PC2-6400 ram (2gigs; 2 x 1gig sticks) on anandtech.com. Click on each of the entries and check out the little price tracking graph. Shocking, isn't it?

http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=DDR2%20pc-6400%202x1024mb&price=yes

Actually, upon further investigation it seems the memory market in general is pretty inflated right now...

[Eternal Champion]

Go to the home page on that web site Spino posted and check out the Buyers Guides. Several months ago I researched and built a computer and it ended up being virtually the same that they had in their guide. I could've saved many hours. With a very little shopping I beat every price they listed. I think at the time the parts listed were around $1,000.00 with out a monitor or XP and I paid less then $600.00 with shipping.