So im looking to rebuild heres some info

My Budget for Hardware = 600
My Budget for Misc = 250 [This would be a new case and Power Supply Unit maybe some other little things]
Use of System = A Casual Gamer care about running a decent Frame Rate and High Quality of graphic on screen but can deal with a dip everynow and then
Games Played = Timeshift,UT3,HL2,BF2,BF2142,WOW,WC3

And also my vid card is still under the stepup program so i might be able to use that for a new pci-e card to bad evga website is down atm

And a few of my questions are

What would you Recommend?

is there a way for me to move my current harddrive data to another one since i probally will have to Scarp the old hd

Hi welcome to PCHF so the budget is $850.00 USD total for complete PC with no screen? you could build an ok PC for that let me know if thats the total and we will look at some hardware.

Well I have a 19 inch samsung ordered already but yes 850 is total

I will let matt there handle the details, but i will reccomend a few things. First of all, after doing a bit of reasearch for myself, I am going to order a Visiontek Radeon HD3850, it destroys the 8600GTS. And its a good deal, so i reccomend that, and also an Intel Core 2 Processor. Oh, and go Windows XP.

Thanks for the info

Yeah i was planning on the 3850 or Maybe even the 3870 really impressed with the reviews ive seen on the new series of cards

Windows XP is what i currently use i was at walmart other day and used a vista machine and hated vista's gui

Far as CPU'S i lean toward AMD bc ive always bought good amd cards and crappy intel cards bc of the price differances but im willing to give intel another chance and spend a little money on them

here is a link to a professional review of them in case your interested. Oh, the new Intel Core 2s are the best processors out there. I agree the Pentium4 couldn't compete with the Athlon64. The Core2 is awesome.
AnandTech: ATI Radeon HD 3870 & 3850: A Return to Competition

I'm an intel man read this. I'd go for Intel core 2 andf a decent mainboard


AMD vs. Intel: 2007 State of the Processors[/font]

Articles are popping up all over the place regarding AMD’s new Phenom chip, and the fact that Intel won’t be bothered much due to its apparently lackluster performance. They’ve also been experiencing heavy losses for four straight quarters, not helped by the acquisition of ATI. With these things and more in mind, some people are actually predicting the ultimate and final demise of AMD. Given that Intel is cranking out a new platform every 2 years, some can hardly blame them for thinking that! But here is why I think they’ve got one heck of a fighting chance…and what Intel will have to do to make sure they don’t come back
Intel Takes the Lead
We’ll start off with a period of time not long ago when AMD was cheering over its shiny new X2 line of CPUs. If you’ll recall, they challenged Intel to a “Dual-Core Showdown”, directly targeting Intel’s beaten-to-death NetBurst architecture being used by the Pentium D. Benchmarks and real-life evaluations showed that NetBurst was ready for the trash compactor, for those who hadn’t figured it out already. Shortly after X2 had proven itself, Core 2 by Intel entered the game and began thrashing AMD’s prized possession to the nth degree. Since that point, there has been no full recovery. Products have been released by AMD, but the story each time has been “too little, too late.”
on the other hand, is still riding the wave of Core 2, slimming down to 45nm process, and generally enjoying the fact that they dominate the market. The good news for them is that they can continue to pressure AMD with price drops simply because they can afford to do so. They have left their competition in a position where they must sell more expensive processors that don’t perform as well. Take a wild guess at where people are putting their money
Can AMD Recover?[
So with a seemingly grim situation for the underdog, where is the light at the end of the tunnel? A little luck, combined with some very solid planning, gives AMD an extra card to play. Take the following into consideration: They just got an outside investor’s $622M, Phenom/AM3 chips work with socket AM2 (making AM2 owners like me very happy to see a viable upgrade option), the HD 38xx series of video cards are looking to be incredibly successful given the circumstances, and their losses in the last year have been cut dramatically