I just built my first pc last weekend (re-using old case, monitor, etc. for now)
Used for web, medium gaming, word processing, movies/music,...possibly audio recording when I get to it.
Here is what I got, all from Newegg:
ASRock A780GMH/128M AM2+/AM3 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $69.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz AM2+ 95W Dual-Core Black Edition CPU $59.99+$7.59 s/h
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB)240-pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500)Dual Channel mem. $47.99
Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V Power Supply $74.99
Sapphire Radeon ATI HD4830 512Mb Graphics Card $84.99
Total shipped $345.54
I'm very happy with it so far, only game I've played yet is Oblivion IV. Graphics turned up to max on most things and medium on a few others. Very COOL!
About a month ago I had my heart set on a 4800 series ATI card but forgot that my outdated mobo was PCI only!
So I settled for a PCI Radeon HD2400 and 1Gb RAM upgrade. Played Oblivion IV for 3 days(lightly choppy but vastly superior to my nvidia FX5200 which couldn't even play the game) Then the computer was just dead when I woke up one day. I was quite distraught but decided to go and try a first build.
Now I end up with the card I originally wanted, so it worked out.
Thought I would mention the couple of hitches I encountered for those contemplating a 1st build to consider:
-Removing screws for old mobo and the last one is not a screw, it's like a thing that must be crimped from 4 sides in order to remove. As if a special tool would be needed. And it was a very tough location to reach! Tools needed: needle nose pliers.
-Case fan hookup on new mobo in different location. Old case fan wire wouldn't reach it. Had to splice in some wire to get it to reach (temporary fix). Tools needed: elec. tape, wire strippers (or teeth).
-4 days after having it up and internet ready, it just wouldn't access the net anymore! I spent an hour with DSL customer service (not to mention several hours of my own fumble-fucking around with network connections), they said it was connected and my computer was at fault. The next day after another hour on the phone we discovered that my DSL modem has an internal password and it had somehow reset itself. Oh RLY?
Sorry for the lengthy post, I don't post very often.