Hey guys, just wanted to get feedback on my budget build. Did I do alright? What should I have done different? And any other feedback is welcome.

Had a very, very limited budget, so here's what I ended up with....

1) Biostar TP45 HP motherboard (P45/ICH10R chipsets) $129
2) Q6600 Quad @ 3.2GHz $209
3) 4GB (2GB x 2) OCZ Platinum DDR2-1000 $105
4) 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 $70 (total of 6GB RAM installed)
5) Nvidia GeForce 8500GT 512MB $60
6) 500w Topower PSU $50
7) Apevia X-Tower case $75
8) 250GB Samsung SATA II HDD &
320GB WD external drive (pulled out of old computer)
9) Lightscribe DVD burner (also pulled from old pc)
10) Scythe 120mm case fan (133 cfm) $10


Total Amount Spent: $708



Computer is used mainly for web design (using Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, Fireworks and Contribute), movies/music, web, etc...not much into gaming.
Thanks for input!

don't get 2 different speeds of ram or they will all run at the lower speed ram ram

where are you buying the parts from you can get a q6600 from newegg for 190

you can also get an 8600 or ati 3850 graphics card for $75

i would also get an asus p5k pro p45 motherboard for $100

Do you seriously expect to reach 3.2ghz with the stock cooler? No. Get a better cooler, like the Xigmatek HDT S1283.
And what the above poster said, don't get two different speeds of RAM. All you need anyways is 4gb, so go for 2x2gb DDR2 800. You don't need DDR2 1000 or 6gb, especially with a limited budget.
Otherwise, this looks fine. Especially since you aren't really into gaming. Maybe consider an AMD graphics card instead, movies and such look better because they have AVIVO.

yeah i didn't be leave that ati graphics card made movies and colors look better then nvidia then i got one in my media center. now im a be leaver

Actually, built this almost a month ago, and have been running the cpu @ 3.2GHz on the stock cooler. Not recommended, I know...the temps are a bit high obviously and far from optimal (mid 40's at idle, low to mid 50's under moderate load [I consider moderate load to be all four cores running between 15-25% each] and high 60's under 100%; but technically still within Intel's "safe zone". I did lap the HSF and CPU, and having several decent fans also help out quite a bit.
The DDR2-667 memory is overclocked to 800MHz (running the cpu @ 400 x 8) with 4-4-4-12 timings...I actually bought it a couple months ago for my old pc, but I was experimenting one night and found that Vista Ultimate 64 runs noticeably faster with 6GB @ 800MHz than with 4GB @ 1000MHz, so I decided to leave them in there.

Are the ATI cards really that good (for their price)? I only had about $60 to spend on a video card, and decided on the nvidia because that's the brand everyone seems to hype the most...
My motherboard supports Crossfire, if I decide to upgrade the video card, would I be better off with a couple $60 ATI's in Crossfire or one $120-ish card?

Actually, everything I bought came from newegg...I bought this about a month ago; and noticed that the prices have been dropping steadily since then. Can't believe the Q6600 dropped $20 in just a few weeks! And the Wolfdale that I was considering is now only like $160; was $190 at the time.

Its not that bad. You would've saved a few $ if you'd bought it now. But that's a good base system. Not an expert on mobos, but anything with a quad core is great. And you'd be better off with 6 GB DDR2 @ 800 from the same manufacturer. And seriously, you should've done better with your graphics. maybe 8600GT 1 GB...pretty cheap.