PC upgrade, need some help please

I’m helping my friend to update his rig, he’ll by everything locally and he have a very tight budget (about $600 for the mentioned parts)

This is what I found for him:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6650 2.33 GHz ($179)
Board: I found those three:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L ($130)
ABIT IP35-E ($122)
ASUS P5K ($145)
and planning to go for the Abit
Power Supply: some 500W COOLMAX PSU ($32)
this is all he can get with his budget and the price for it is good as you can see, my friend doesn’t understand until now why he should replace his old $8 PSU
Memory: I found 2X1GB OCZ DDR2 800 for $54 (I forgot to see the model name) and that’s an insane price considering that the local price for 2X1GB DDR2@800 was always around $100 here
Video Card: I found this strange thing: SPARKLE GEFORCE 8600GT 1024MB (1GB) DDR2 for $167, but seems that it’s a piece of crap, what do you think?
and found Asus 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 for $200
and some 8800GT 512 MB for $267
HD: WD 320GB for about $80
If he took the Asus Video Card the total would be around $667 but I guess I’ll help him to go for the 8800GT

I still wouldn't trust that $32 coolmax.

Where are you?

Don't bother with more RAM on the 8600GT, the GPU isn't fast enough to utilize 512MB, so stick with 256.

he have no other choice, any other PSU will cost more than $120, i'm in the Middle East, ya I was surprised when the guy at the store told me 1GB memory and when I kept arguing with him he went inside and came with a piece of paper that says…the fastest video card out there or something like this my friend of course kept screaming: Oane GiGAA BAAYte OMG I’ll have a One GiGABAAYte CAAARD
he’s planning to play COD4, Crysis, BT2142 and I think the 8600 will give him a hard time with gamz like these, that’s why I said to him I’m ready to pay any additional price and he can return it to me any time he wants

indeed it may... depending on the resolution he plays at.

What are the other PSU choices besides the $120 ones? In fact, can you provides us a list, if possible of all the PSUs that your local retailer has? There might be a good PSU that you are simply not aware about.

As for video cards, does the store carry the HD 3850? HD 3870? Either are good alternatives to that 8600GT depending on the resolution. So what is the resolution of his monitor?

when I asked the guy about other choices he told me he have Thermalright, I told him is it toughpower series? he told me no and I think he said it’s RT or something like this and it would cost about $60
they have some other good choices like Thermalright toughpower, Silverstone, Gigabyte, Zalman, but their price starts from $180 and that’s really too much for my friends budget

I know the PSU is an important part, I’m personally planning to order Corsair HX620 online (with the Q9450), but shouldn’t the Coolmax do the job for him? I think they give a 1 year warranty on it

he have a 17” CRT, so he’ll be gamming@ 1280x 1024, the 8600GT scored 43FPS@Battlefield2142@1280x 1024 (MAX/noAA) which is ok but he’ll be standing on the edge, I mean he’ll have to start lowering the resolution in any heavier game (or the next generation of the current gamz) and that’s why I’m pushing him to go for the 8800GT, specially that he’ll never upgrade any single part before like 5 years from now

I’ll look today for the HD 3870 and see what’s the price for it, if he didn’t go for the 8800GT, I’ll buy for him either the 8600GT or the HD 3870 whatever is cheaper

some funny facts about the local retailers in my city:
the cheapest 8800GT in the cheapest shop used to cost about $450 about 40 days ago
the Asus Maximus Formula price right now is around $420
the E8400 price right now is $320
MSI is the motherboards KING
Kingston is the memory KING
AMD is only for smart rich experts
The video card performance depends on the memory size, so a 512MB card (even of it was Nvidia 6 series) is stronger than a 256MB card (even if it was Nvidia 9 series), I’m trying to explain this for my friend now (I used to be like him in the past)

avoid that coolmax. its bad.

May I suggest that your buddy orders fdrom newegg if possible. The pricing is superior;

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

Ram: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $53-$25 mir
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

PSU: SeaSonic SS-500ES ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 500W $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151040

HD: Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s $74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

Video Card: EVGA 512-P3-N862-AR GeForce 9600GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 $179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130328

Total: $657.95 + shpping -$25 mir.

Notes:
- psu DO NOT SKIMP ON PSU! You are building a higher end system here and it needs proper power. If it fries a low end psu like that coolmax one it could take everything else with it.

- go with the Gigabyte board. I have it and it straight up owns. It will even run the newer 45nm boards without a bios update.

- I also have the E6750 and its solid as hell. Very quick.

- the new 9600gt is getting great reviews from all sites hence why every company is putting one out. See the review here
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ2NiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

GL!

I'm surprised no one's asked this yet, but...

Where are you/your friend from?
Where are you ordering your parts from?
Why can't you persuade your friend to do the same (ordeing parts, instead of getting them locally)?

we bought it just 1 hour ago
same CPU
same Board (I'm starting to regret not getting the Gigabyte but anyway the abit should be fine)
same PSU but 600W not 500W, I know it's bad but my friend can't pay any more at all
same memory
we went for the Evga 8800GT and paid $400 for it (the one I mentioned for $267 turned to be another strange Sparkle one ) and this is what killed the budget
same HD
+normal case for $26+DVD super multi + floppy drive +mouse + keyboard
and I lend him $140

thanks a lot hossdaddy for the help, as you know newegg and all the other sites will not ship to the middle east, the only way (which is my current plan) is to open an account with Aramex cuz they have a service called "shop&ship" where they open for you a mailing address in the US so you put it as a shipping address in newegg, then they will automatically bring you anything you ship to that address (I opened it 2 days ago and received the confirmation today)
I offered my friend to order the parts for him but he can't wait and he wants it now

Tiraides, I think I answered all that, I'm in the middle east, I'm buying everything from the local stores, I told my friend million times that I can order the parts for him online but he don’t want to wait

Well good luck on your friend's build then!