Please comment on this budget gaming rig

[Dida]

I am putting together a gaming rig on budget for my nephew. Here is what I plan to put together:

- Windows XP home
- Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition
- Gigabyte GA-MA785, AMD 785G
- Radeon 4870 512mb
- 2x1gb DDR3 (prefer 4gb, but XP 32bit cannot use it all)

My main concern is really with the 2gb of RAM, not sure if it will be a bottleneck in games, as the CPU and GPU are fairly strong for the money.
Please feel free to make suggestions and comments.

 

[Zelig]

I would recommend not going with XP, Win7 is a much better operating system.

 

[Mulholland]

Looks like a very capable system. I would be tempted to try windows 7 as Zelig recommends. I don't imagine there will be a huge price difference between it and XP.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Windows 7 Home premium is 99$ for upgrade right now I believe, so its practically the same price.

If you go with a AM2+ based motherboard, it will have DDR2 support, which is slightly cheaper.

 

[Dida]

We already have a copy of XP home which I will install on this PC. So XP is really free.
I have decided to go with 4 gb of RAM though, this is b/c he may want to upgrade to Win7 in the near future, at which point the full 4gb RAM would be utilized.

How power hungry is this system? (I have 1 HDD and 1 optical drive in addition to things listed above) Would a 400W PSU be enough?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

That would be cutting it close. If it were mine, id feel much better with a quality 500W unit.

 

[Zelig]

Wattage isn't a useful rating for PSUs, either list the model, or the A rating on the +12V rail.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Even then, a 400W PSU of any kind, even highest quality, will likely not be enough. The HD 4870 is a power hog, combined with a quad-core, it may be too much for it to handle. A Good quality ( Seasonic, Corsair, etc) 500W PSU will do the job though.

 

[Dida]

After some consideration, I decided not to use the old PSU and will purchase the Antec EarthWatts 500W. This should be good for this build power-wise. Anyone familiar with this PSU? Is it quiet?

I need suggestions for a low-profile, quiet CPU cooler and an equally quiet GPU cooler. The key here is not OC but to keep the PC as quiet as possible both during web-browsing and gaming. Let me know what you suggest.

 

[3 EMS]

I think I read that the Earthwatts PSUs were good. Check out JonnyGuru and see if you can find a review. His reviews show voltage stability and noise over various inputs, loads and temperatures.

 

[GVBN]

I need suggestions for a low-profile, quiet CPU cooler and an equally quiet GPU cooler. The key here is not OC but to keep the PC as quiet as possible both during web-browsing and gaming. Let me know what you suggest.

I'm using Scythe Shuriken and it's great. Can't hear it even at high fan speeds
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2247&page=3

As for GPU, I'm using Accelero S1 with Turbo Module. Quiet but rather big

 

[Fëanor]

After some consideration, I decided not to use the old PSU and will purchase the Antec EarthWatts 500W. This should be good for this build power-wise. Anyone familiar with this PSU? Is it quiet?

The Earthwatts 500W is a pretty good PSU, its cheap and quiet. The only downsides are that its really ugly and not modular so you'll have a lot of wires clogging your case.

I need suggestions for a low-profile, quiet CPU cooler and an equally quiet GPU cooler. The key here is not OC but to keep the PC as quiet as possible both during web-browsing and gaming. Let me know what you suggest.

I'm using Scythe Shuriken and it's great. Can't hear it even at high fan speeds
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2247&page=3

As for GPU, I'm using Accelero S1 with Turbo Module. Quiet but rather big

The Acellero S1 w/ Turbo Modules is a really good and quiet GPU cooler, my 4850 went down from 80+ idle and 90+ on load to 30 idle and 40 load, but its a pretty large cooler and a pain to install. Its better get something with a custom cooling solution already installed.

CPU coolers, the Megahalem is the best but its big and very expensive. The Scythe Mugen 2 is even bigger, almost as good and pretty cheap.

 

[Dida]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate all the help.

I also have an old socket 939 (Athlon64) CPU that I would like to connect to the TV and use it as a media player. The stock CPU fan is noisy and I would like to replace it with a quieter one; if possible, passive cooling + downclocking (if necessary) would be best. Can you suggest any cheap, quiet CPU fan that will work with socket 939?
The CPU fan must be cheap though, b/c the PC is so old, it is probably not worth it to invest too much in a fan at this point.

 

[candle86]

id go windows 7 or find a cheap copy of vista from someone selling there copy to go to 7. The next line of games are being built for DX11 and DX9 is about to vanish as the market is flooded with DX10 cards with DX11 cards now out also. Also XP has entered the Extended support period for corprate customers aka no more new free updates. Windows Live ect are supposed to stop supporting XP soon also. The reason is the home market is already vista and the corprate world is moving to 7. Your gonna be like the guy running Windows 98 in 2005

 

[Steve2000]

I have the Earthwatts 500 and I second Feanor's comment. There are a ton of wires everywhere. It has a lot of connections, and I am only using about 4-5 of the power cables, so I had to bundle up the rest and tie them up with zip-ties and then sort of stuff them into an area in the side of my case.

But it is very quiet and was super easy to install.