The Dead Space Society

That's looks like a decent setup. I have had good experiences with Soyo motherboards.
The case also has a decent power supply - I would not go with anything under 300-330 these days. My only concern would the that the case is a bit on the small side, so you might be pressed for room for additional drives, and air flow could be a problem.
Tiger often has good deals on motherboard+CPU bundles. You might want to consider going with that and then getting a better case (like this one ANTEC MINI-TOWER ATX CASE w/o POWER SUPPLY w/ FRONT USB $49 ) and get a good power supply (I recommend anything in the Antec TruePower series, 330w and up, $48 ->).

With the recommendations for case and power supply, that's a little over $100 with shipping. Looking at Athlon/Duron motherboard bundles, I am seeing a range of around $100 to $130 for Athlon XP 2200 (or better) and a good motherboard (Shuttle, Chaintech, or Soyo). That's $230 or so for case, power, motherboard, and processor.
You could probably find sub $100 combos with Duron or Celeron CPUs, but I didn't take the time to research too deeply.

I see Corsair Value Select 256MD DDR (400 MHz) for around $45 at NewEgg (One stick so you have room to upgrade if you want). Now up to about $275.
If you are going to game with it, get better memory. I recommend Corsair XMS. One stick of 512MB (400 MHz) is about $120 at NewEgg (raises price to $350).

For harddrives, I [u]highly[/u] recommend drives with fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motors. Most of Maxtor's line has this, and some of the Seagates as well. A 40GB Maxtor is around $52 at NewEgg. Now up to about $330.
Larger drive - 80GB Samsung with FDB at about $65 (raises price to $350 or $415 depending on memory config).

For video, you have lots to chose from.
If you are going to game with it, I recommend the MSI RX9800 Pro. It has the GPU of the 9800 XT, but fewer pixel pipelines (or something like that), so it is between the 9800 Pro and 9800 XT in performance. It is running at $195 on NewEgg. (I just ordered one this weekend.)
If you are not going to game, any card between $50 and $100 will do fine (even for some older games).

So, for a gaming system, we have a total price of about $610 (with the larger drive), not including software.
For a lower end system we have a price of around $430 ($100 vid card and 40GB drive), not including software.
If you want new keyboard, mouse, and speakers, that would raise the price, but you could always use something from an old computer.

Hope that was helpful.

**Edit**
I forgot to add a CD Burner to that list.
SONY Beige 52x32x52 IDE Internal CD-RW Drive ~$30.
So...for a mid level gaming system you are looking at ~$650, and for a general use PC, ~$470.

No...don't get a Dell.
The first time you want to move up to a video card that requires a sperate power connector (ATI 9800 Pro or better), you will discover that your power supply is too weak to handle it, and it is a propietary size, so only Dell can provide a replacement.
Either build you own, or buy one built from standard components...unless you never plan on upgrading anything, then get a Dell.

Thanks Roach.

DUDE. I got two Dells. One is going back to depot to get worked on (laptop) for overheating issues and shuting down. I can feel the heat while I type on it.

The other PC unit works great. I've had it for years (about 4 now) and played most games on it that I wanted.

I'm kinda hard pressed to build one with out a monitor for 500 when I can get one from Dell with monitor for 500....I've had lots of folks tell me to build though, so i may make that leap of faith and do it....

Of course the new puter will be mine, and the kids will get the old one....Actually I want two more in the next few months. Got my Bonus....

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

I thought you told me a little over a week ago that you got that taken care of?

I know why it is overheating. It's from you hiding underneath the blankets, hiding from your wife so she won't catch you looking at porn. "Heat"...yeah, right! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

So, what your saying is you are going to do everything possible to the laptop AND THEN send it back.

Okay children, behave!

Rev, you figured out what you want to do for a new computer yet?

Just an FYI, usually I spend several hours researching most of the components that I put in my system (that stupid BusLink CD burner was the only - and last - exception).
I reference sites like Hard|Ocp, Tom's Hardware, and AnandTech. If you go to AnandTech's site, there is a tab labeled "Guides". They have guides for entry-level, mid-range, and high-end systems, as well as guides for some components. They usually make a recommendation (sometimes two) and an alternative. For motherboards and processors they usually list an AMD as the primary recommendation and an Intel as the alternate. This gives you a lot of different options, but all their recommendations are components they have tested. They are a good place to start (or even finish if you don't want to do too much research on you own). Their estimated price for a mid-range is around $1,000, while their entry-level is listed at $546 (including monitor). For your stated price range, the suggested AnandTech entry-level system seems to the best bet, but if you don't need a monitor, you can upgrade some of the other components a bit (and go with something with performance between the entry and mid range).

Well, speaking as someone Who owns 5 HP`s (3 towers, 2 laptops), I can honestly say Germans love David Hasselhoff.

Maybe I`m just one of the lucky ones, but haven`t had any major probs with any of them...they all seem to run FreeBSD just fine. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

Sams is selling a WD 160 Gig, 7200 RPM, ATA 100 (maybe it's 133) for $99...

You have a Sam's down in Santa Barbara.

I have a Cotsco card thanks though. I don't think they have any HD's do they?