Im building a system for my friend, he wants a good gaming computer for a reasonable price, which will still be good after a year.

Now i have experience building many systems, but not for 2 years now, so im not completely sure whats the most price efficient parts atm.

He wont be running SLI or CF

These are the parts i have chosen (he already has other parts needed)

- Intel Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz

- Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5

- Corsair PSU 550W Black, ATX/EPS, 120mm Fan, 4xSATA, SLI, WxHxL

- Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, P35, Socket-775, ATX


But i have a few questions:

- Will that CPU be properly cooled by the boxed cooler? He will not oc, but its not a case with that much air flow (dont remember the name)

- Is the speed of the ram ok, or does he need faster? He runs windows xp btw

- Is it a good PSU or is there something better in the same price range??

- Im not so sure about that motherboard. It is just over 100$ where i live (in denmark) which i would say is too cheap for a good motherboard, what do you say??

Finally, will these parts work well together? He has a radeon 1950XT pro i think its called, which he will upgrade later on to a 4870 or something like that.

1. stock intel cooler is NEVER ok coolermaster and xigmatek coolers are pretty cheap, get one.

2. ram is ok

3. 550 is ok newegg is selling the 650watt at a good price. I would spend a bit more on the 750 for definate future proofing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139005

4. the motherboard is good. alot of decent motherboards can be had for 100-150$

Ok so it seems the cpu+ram+motherboard is ok.

I wont be ordering from newegg tho, but do you recommend 650w over 550? Given 650 might be a bit more expensive.

I want to keep the stock cooler unless its really bad, ive had alot of good experiences with them, believe it or not, and not so much with aftermarket coolers. So is it nessecary for safe operation to replace?

Btw what is the difference between the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the DS3P ?

FOLLOWUP:

I dont know if anyone cares but i just want to say that i bought these parts:

- Intel Core™ 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz w box cooler

- Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5

- Corsair PSU 650W TX

- Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L

- Leadtek GTX 260

- Coolermaster Case

- Kept the old dvd drive and hdd

And it works very well! We played bioshock and cranked the graphics all the way up, and not a single time did we see any kind of lag!

for the sake of lower operating temps, i would ditch the stock cpu cooler. it amazes me a company that could make such a fine cpu would pack throw-away heat sinks with them.