Need suggestions on an upgrade

[Voldelf]

Red just nailed that.  I do disagree on the Video Card a little bit, but only because I'm me.  Other than that he COMPLETELY nailed it.  I would make sure everything is futurable.  Make sure ur Mobo has some version of the i chipset on it, because that is where the market is going and fast.  But see Link? so bloody easy!  And yeah, don't pay attention to builds based on looks.  The amount of people who see your computer and care are ooooooo none?

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

i have this as a line up, first micro atx, second color and price are equal and third brand and specks are also equal. either can over ride the other. its fun. all choices are cool. some brands i dont want to even consider like ecs. i like dual exhaust gpus but will consider a cool looking thin sexy looking gpu like links' choice which includes free 3D glasses.

[eska]

Red.         

I suggest you take the advice as posted by Red, he knows exactly what he's doing.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

another big factor is if you are able to get the gpu and mother board in the same brand that is way cooler. xfx or evega both have cool cards and gpus. not to mention msi and asus also. when you find a cool choice hurry because an 80.00, dollar mother board Asus P5G43T-M Pro Motherboard MicroATX, Intel G43, Socket 775, SATA, PCI Express 2.0 x16, Intel SpeedStep, USB, 8GB DDR3, Hyperthreading support might become unavailable.

[Link]

Ok, updated list.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022 (Power unit)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130435 (Video card)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136358 (Hard Drive)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231144 (RAM)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372 (Mother board)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030 (CD drive)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056 (Processor)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066 (Tower)

Coming in at a rough estimate of $590
Im also considering getting 2x RAM.

[eska]

Looks pretty good to me

[Voldelf]

Look quite good, however I might recommend going with a better-known brand of RAM.  RAM has to be the most iffy part of hardware and stability is key.  But I think it looks great as a whole. :props:

[eska]

As far as I remember, G.SKILL is a relatively well known brand of RAM though. Corsair and Kingston obviously top it, but I've heard G.SKILL used a lot...

[Link]

Thanks for the help everyone.  Now I just have a couple more things to do: figure out what to do about the OS, convince my mom its better than a XPS 9000 on sale at $760.

[Radical_Pi]

For OS I'd recommend Win7, but if you happen to have an XP install disc I'd dual-boot it since such a recent release would most likely have comparability issues (I can't run the robot programming software for our robotics team on my Win7 )

[Voldelf]

@link: try and find a static remover (i'm blankin on the real name), anyways, its like a bracelet that grounds you essentially.  YOu just put the other end on something conducting and wham good to go.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

i found the mother board i like over  GIGABYTE and ECS. i hope you end up with a cool mother board link.

[eska]

Mike. He. Is. Not. Going. Micro. Simples.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

link, i cant wait for pictures of your system. does anyone else have pictures of there pc?

[Link]

Well, things didn't work out. My mom found that building the pc would be lot of work and she just didn't want me to have something go wrong considering how much it would cost. She ordered a XPS 9000.  Its got a radeon 4350 vid card which I don't think will be able to get close to what I had picked out.