Glad you want AMD!
Let's look at a good setup for the money:
Video card: eVGA GeForce 6600GT - $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo Platinum (nVidia nForce 3 250GB) - $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130457
CPU: Athlon64 2800+ - $127 <--- Why buy Sempron when a real Athlon 64 is
this cheap?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103485
Memory: Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (2x512) - $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145526
DVD/CD burner: LiteOn 1693S - $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106988
Case: Antec Sonata - $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129127
HDD: Western Digital SATA 160GB 7200RPM - $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144152
Not including shipping, your at $694. Now, this is a very nice system. These
are top quality parts from very reputable manufacturers. It's on an older
socket 754 platform, but still viable, it has a genuine Athlon64 processor,
a nice, fast video card, lots of memory for your photo editing, good sized
hard drive and a nice, fast dual layer DVD burner, all on a once premium
motherboard from a 1st tier supplier. It also has a very nice, fashionable,
and quiet, Antec Sonata case with a good 380 watt TruePower genuine Antec
power supply. This is more than your $400 -$500 budget but it's also a lot
more computer than you could ever buy at that price range. I could have
found a lesser motherboard for a couple of $ less, and actually got a
Sempron for another couple of $ less, etc, etc., but they're little less
money, but a lot less in performance than you could expect from these parts.
You could get a cheap system on sale somewhere from eMachines or Compaq, as
you can get something comparable with a monitor and lots of installed
software for less. However, you'll likely get a very low-end graphics card,
a Sempron processor, a smaller, slower hard drive (non-SATA), unlikely
you'll get a dual layer DVD burner, and they're bound to have skimped on the
power supplies and quality of the case.
In the end, if you're willing to part with a few more $$$, build something
like above.
This above is a sterling overall suggestion.
It is quite possible to shave the budget though.
I was going to post the following a couple od days ago, but didn't
find the opportunity. Anywhere goes. More suggestions.
Video card: I'm sorry, but the proposition to retain the video card
through next CPU/mainboard upgrade is very difficult to accommodate.
Also not worth the money you will need to spend. The reason is that
the interface is changing from AGP to PCI-e. The cheap choice we are
suggesting today is AGP. You are not likely to find a future mainboard
with AGP. Also in IMO, the video card should rather be upgraded more
often than CPU/mb, so just stick with the program. Worry about the
future when you're there.
I'm suggesting a stock GeForce 6600, rather than the GT. Like the
Chaintech 128MB $116 or 256MB $129.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145112
It's significantly slower than the GT, and possibly less value. But
it's a quite good card that is capable of running even the new games.
It's cheaper and I also believe it requires less power. $-34.
For precisely the reason that you can't retain the video card, you
might want to consider even cheaper cards. But I feel that the
capability will be quite bumped down, when you go below the GF6600.
The main attraction of socket 754 is that you can get a cheap reliable
mainboard. Buying a $100 deluxe mainboard sort of defeats that. I
still think NF3-250 is a better option than KT800 for chipset. But
there are a number of NF3-250 boards available from MSI, Asus, Abit
and others for $75 or less. But how about taking a bit of a chance on
this Biostar $57? If it works, it works, even if it's cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138247
You might want to go for a better regarded brand at $75, but I put
down the Biostar for $-43 reduction. Total $-77.
I don't like fancy cases for budget computers. The Antec Sonata is
great and quite reasonable. Even so: Raidmax without PSU $20.75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811156011
And a Fortron 120mm fan 300W PSU $31.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104937
Total $51.75, is minus $37.25. Total $-114.25 reduction.
The Fortron is the best there is. PSU is one of the things I wouldn't
go for cheap. It is also quiet. If you intend to have fancy highend
hot video cards and/or many harddrives, you should maybe get the 350W
at $44.5. But the 300W should be enough. Fortron "Watts" are really
big Watts.
Now we have cut down $694 to $579.75.
Seagate and Samsung drives are also great. Personally, I have even
more faith in them than Western Digital. But getting one with 8MB
cache is IMO worth it. You can save a few dollars more with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152014
for $78. Of course you can save more by going down in capacity, but a
smaller hd will also be slower. This is also an ATA rather than SATA.
I don't think it makes a large difference as long as it's not SATAII,
and ATA may be easier to install. The thinner cables of SATA is a very
nice touch though.
You can also look around for a good deal on a drive as Matt suggested.
You may have to accept 2GB cache then though.
Unfortunately one thing was forgotten. You need to get WindowsXP. XP
Home OEM is another $84.
So final budget is about $653.
Further possible savings: Make do with 512MB PC3200 ram for a start.
Smaller hd, 80GB. That should take off another $90.
Make do without a CD burner for a start. CD/DVD-ROM only, is $14 from
LG, Samsung, LiteOn or Sony. $-36.
So you can squeeze down to about $527 (not including shipping), and
still get Athlon64, Fortron, WindowsXP, and GF6600.
Linux (I would not consider it. It's great but a normal home user is
so dependent on being able to run Windows software. Windows is easier
too.)
