Topic title says it all - I've never built a computer from scratch, but (if it counts for anything) I've taken a few computers apart and put them back together.
I'm trying to stay under $650 including tax and shipping... I'll mostly be playing Source games and Call of Duty 4/5.

Here's my parts list: (Updated 9th November, 2009)

APEVIA X-DREAMER3-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail ($50)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811144253

Western Digital Caviar Green WD5000AADS 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive ($55)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136358

XFX PVT98GYDLU GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail ($110)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814150316

COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W ATX12V V2.31 Power Supply - Retail ($35)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817171046

Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1339 - Retail ($70)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820148262

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail ($79)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128392

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor Model HDZ550WFGIBOX - Retail ($102)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103680

EXTRAS:

ENCORE ENLWI-G(2) TPCI Standard Universal Add-in card Compliant with PCI 2.0 Wireless Adapter - Retail ($13)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16833180030

SAPPHIRE DVI to VGA adapter for Twin-View video cards Model DVI-2-VGA - OEM ($3)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814999201

Total cost: around $590 including mail-in rebates

Questions:
Will it all fit together and work together? (I'm planning to run Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit)
Will it come with all of the cables that I need to attach the parts?
I have an IDE 80GB Seagate hard drive. Will I be able to use that in the build to host my media?

Thanks from a complete noob.

First of all, welcome to OCC!

It looks fine to me in terms of compatibility/fitting together.

As for the cables, I'm afraid I'm not sure if an open box item in Newegg will come with them. Newegg say: "Open Box" products have been tested only to ensure basic functionality, and may not include all the accessories seen here.

Hopefully some other OCCers will have experience with open box motherboards and can answer your question.

You should be able to use your IDE HDD with your new PC (the motherboard you chose has an IDE port), although you may need to format it (delete everything on it) before you can use it in your new PC. (Other OCCers please correct me if I'm wrong)

Thanks
PremiumGFX

Thanks for the reply!
I've gutted an old HP PC. Will I be able to use the (behemoth) cable which connected the motherboard to the hard drives?
Or, can I buy a cable off of Newegg, cheap? I don't want to spend too much more money on this.

Is it an IDE Cable? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDE_Cable) Or is is a SATA cable? (Like this: http://www.dakltd.co.uk/catalog/images/sata.jpg)

You will be able to use your old cable, but bear in mind depending which cable it is (based on above) you'll need to get the other one if it doesn't come with the motherboard.

how about going for amd ..?
the build may cost as much but will be a lot faster and upgradeable


WELCOME TO OCC..........


here it is

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103680


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820211364

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813128392

and you can get better gpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814121350

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814121291

one thing , if there is spare money you can get phenom ii x3 710 it will be far better but 550 is faster than e7500 , it can keep up with e8400 and beat it , right now 775 is dead ..
if some one wants to get intel then he has two choices one
spend ton of money on i7 or half ton on i5
and the other choice is wait till i3 comes out , and i think it will not be cheaper ..
any way amd is the best in your budget ..and for upgrading ..etc
look at my sig

i would recomend asus striker extreme or asus rampage 2 as ur motherboard...
ive heard alot of bad things about the deluxe one.

-Spike

first , his budget can not get a board like striker , or rampage , the deluxe is one of the best p45 boards ...
and even if he could spend 5000$ lga 775 is dead , you can not upgrade it and you will be wasting money core 2 quads are overpriced ..
right now the upgradeable platforms are : AM3/AM2+ ..1156 ..1366
the best of the them is AM3/AM2 since you can upgrade easily and you wont spend ton of money

if you looked at 1156 the cheapest cpu costs 200$ and the cheapest board is like 115 $ also it needs ddr3
AM3/AM2+ can run on ddr3 and ddr2 the cheapest cpu is under 100 and i think it is athlon ii x2 the cheapest board is under 80$
we are looking at ( bang for the buck or price / performance )

It's an IDE cable, with markings such as "MASTER", "SLAVE", and "CPU BOARD".



I like the idea of the AMD processor (will look further into it tomorrow, it's late night over here in Australia). The motherboard is a sound recommendation, but I went with 3x1GB OCZ Gold DDR3 RAM. I'm amazed at how cheap it all is, much cheaper than the Intel hardware.

Thanks for the welcome



Orly? Inversely, I've heard a lot of bad things about the Striker Extreme. And I'm trying to stick to $600 here - the Rampage 2 is between $200-$300 depending where you buy it from (it's not on Newegg) and the Striker Extreme is $230! Also, if I want to use the AMD processor as N.E.A. suggested, I'll have to choose another motherboard.

I'm running on a P5Q PRO which I think is pretty much the same as DELUXE and I've never heard a bad thing about it and it runs great. I'd say that it's a great choice. About the CPU and GFX, I agree with N.E.A., AMD and ATI could be a better bang for buck at the moment.

thanks

but gts 250 is good but for 20 $ a more powerful gpu can be bought .. and it is dx 11 although it is priced like 4870 , 4870 kicks its butt
at high res at least , i know it can match it and gtx 260 as well but we demand performance over dx support ..
i would have recommended gtx 260 for the same price as 4870 5770 but i could not find any ..

Personally, I'd swap out the xclio power supply for a corsair: Corsair 450VX (review here)

I'd also recommend getting a 2x2GB kit, or at least a 2x1GB kit of DDR2 800

Don't plan on bringing the O/S over from a prebuilt...

Specs updated: I've hit the $600 mark including shipping and tax!

Just to clarify:

I'm not bringing over Windows from the Seagate drive... it has Windows XP installed on it xD

Any thoughts?

Save yourself some money, don't do the 3GB memory kit on an AMD system, either 2 gb in dual channel or 4gb in dual channel, 3gb kit will be single channel only and will take a big performance hit!

I realized the error of my ways... I've upped it to 4GB in dual channel.

go 4850 instead of the 4770, it's stronger and slightly cheaper

I'd try to scrape what little money you'd make on your old Seagate together on ebay or something. Running that drive as your primary OS/App drive will REALLY bring down the rest of this nice system.
I'd get this harddrive, it's a 500GB and my dad has one and it is faster than my VelociRaptor. There's no going wrong, you'll have more space than the 80GB/250GB combo and the speed increase too!!

Love the video card, it has the VGA output which I need for my 1280x1024 monitor and a $10 mail-in rebate to put the entire cost lower . The hard drive is good also, I'll put Windows 7 on there. Most likely I'll install about 10 Linux distros on there XD
About the open box, will I still be able to connect it with my mobo?

Oh yeah, well your motherboard should come with SATA cables galore so I'm sure you'll be covered.
Heck I'll even send you some (I have plenty)

Haha... I'm sure that won't be necessary. I'll only be putting in one PATA/IDE and one SATA drive.
I'm not buying this stuff until I'm in the US though (I live in Australia, coming over for xmas with family)

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

I could just picture you getting home and then dropping your bag and darting to the computer to order the parts instead of greeting the family
(though I still highly recommend you not run your OS/apps off of the IDE drive, you'll be sorry. If you want to keep it, maybe just use it to store important documents. But the 500GB will be able to handle anything and everything else.)

Ahaha...
The 500GB drive is suddenly unavailable. I tried to order a second one, but it's out of stock now. Any other suggestions?

Hey, if it's not happening until Christmas, wait it out...and call upon our services closer to when you build! The deals are going to change around a lot before then (who knows, new graphics cards might be out and the prices may be thoroughly different). However...if there's a really good deal on something like a power supply - hop on it. Those prices don't change too much

Actually, I just found a 460w Cooler Master PSU for $40... good reviews, too.
Will I be crucified if I revive this thread in two months?

Um, hmm. If it were me, I'd stick with the Corsair. But, that's a personal preference. When looking for power supply reviews, I have certain criteria. Mainly, the reviewer has to load it to various levels - say, in 50 or 100W increments. They have to use a multimeter or scope to measure the voltages. Must have ripple / power factor / efficiency numbers. Testing non-optimum AC input voltages is great (but, probably not required). Temperature and SPL / dB level numbers are a plus.

Here's a good review on the Corsair 450VX

You probably won't be crucified if you resurrect this thread You've got a good idea what to look for in the time being.

I actually just upgraded from a Coolermaster PSU, an old 400W that's still kicking after 8 years of use XD

Pretty reliable but not the greatest for overclocking or my huge amount of hard drives and fans haha, personally I would go with Antec, PC Power and Cooling or Corsair

Trying to use the copy of windows from your old 80gb = bad idea did a straight HDD clone from my buddies Compaq and had all sorts of "fun" with Windows flipping out about the drastic change in system components.

It also appears that GPU you linked to is deactivated, should be more 5k series cards available by the time you're ready to throw this baby together though.

However for a first time build it doesn't look bad

I'll still be here to lend helping hand. Look up some reviews on that PSU, I personally can't call it bad or good

This card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814150316
I'm inclined to get this instead of the Radeon card... partly because it comes free with COD4. I've been looking for this game anyway...
Alright, hot- or not?

WHOA

I thought it was generally a no-no to buy used computer parts; and anyway, it doesn't come with COD4 and I can't ship it to where I live.

Also, I updated the parts list... any comments?

better harddrive for no money more

The 4850 is a better video card but if you'd rather have COD 4 over a better card that's on you

the rest looks good though