Need advice on upper mid-level build

My fiance and I are looking to upgrade our older rig to an upper mid-level Core2Duo rig.

The rig will be used for:
-- multimedia apps (i.e., movie conversions)
-- watching movies
-- media storage
-- cruising the web
-- some gaming (I'm no longer a hardcore gamer)

I may get a 24" widescreen monitor, so a decent video card may be needed to play games. I also want 2GB of memory, and a substantial amount of hard drive space for all our media. I do not need to get a power supply, case, DVD player, or audio card. A lot of the prices I list are based on deals going on right now.

Here is what I've come up with so far:

CPU:
Intel E4300 ($126) or
Intel E6420 ($189)

MEMORY:
Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 ($120) or
Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 ($150) or
Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2-6400C5 ($94) or ...

MOBO:
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 ($126)

VIDEO CARD:
MSI Nvidia 8600 GTS 256MB ($160) or
PNY Nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB ($300) or ...

DRIVES:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (x2) ($160)

COOLING:
Scythe NINJA PLUS Rev.B ($45)

Any suggestions or comments are welcome and appreciated!

Get the e6420 for the 4mb l2 cache, it's really nice to have. I have a 4mb and a 2mb c2d and the 4mb crushes the 2mb in benchmarks...and folding

The ddr2 6400 should be fine especially if you're going air cooling, but get the faster if you want. I have some of that corsair xms2 in one of my rigs and it's awesome stuff.

For the video card the the eVGA 8800gts 320mb. Great card, I have no complaints about mine.

Mobo seems fine, it's really a great little mobo for the price. I hated mine at first but I love it now and am glad I bought it

Hope this helps a little

sno.lcn said:

Hope this helps a little

Click to expand...

Yes, it does. Thanks! I think I will wait and upgrade to the 8800 GTS 640MB when a deal pops up.

Not sure where you got your prices, but I think newegg.com is a little cheaper for some of that stuff. The only thing you left out and what a lot of people neglect is the PSU. You definitely need a good one, please don't skimp on the PSU.

Thanks for the comments. I may get a new, higher capacity PSU when I get the video card. In other forums, a couple people recommended the Enhance ENP-5150GH 500W for a similar rig, which has an efficiency rating of 80+ and is moderately priced ($70), and the Corsair CMPSU-520HX 520W ($100), which also has an efficiency rating of 80+.