The Glade 4.0

Entire PC from scratch? Case? Monitor? Keyboard? Mouse? Speakers?

http://www.lucomputers.com/site/view_configure_system.asp?cmd=email&system_code=38934035&30

I think that's close

Swap the vid card for this:
SAPPHIRE HD 4850X2 2GB DDR3 Video Card

More power for about the same price.

I have that video card, and its godly.

I would get a bigger power supply, honestly. 500W is really pushing it close with current gen video cards, even with low-power consumption ATI cards. All the other peripherals in the computer will really be putting it close to the danger zone.

Personally I would ditch the soundblaster. I've been a Creative soundblaster man for 16 years. I've owned every incarnation of it since the very first 8bit Soundblaster. SB 8 bit, Sb16, Sbawe32, sbawe64, sb live gamer, sb audigy 2, etc. etc. Onboard soundcards on motherboards are just as good these days as soundblasters for my daily use. Most do at least 5.1 surround (my current onboard can do 7.1). I stopped using my current soundblaster and made the switch to onboard sound several months back and haven't looked back. The card is still physically in my case, just disabled now. That alone should save you a bit of cash.

I would also recommend getting more than 2 GB of RAM. My recommendation would be a bare minimum of 4GB, if you wanted to have a gaming rig. In Age of Conan, the difference between 2GB and 4GB of RAM in populated cities is about the difference between 512MB of RAM and 2GB of RAM for populated cities in WOW.

I would get a bigger power supply, honestly. 500W is really pushing it close with current gen video cards, even with low-power consumption ATI cards. All the other peripherals in the computer will really be putting it close to the danger zone.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Found something entertaining. AMD is far more upgrade friendly than Intel. I can take out the Phenom 9850 Black, and replace it with a Phenom II X4 965 Black with no fuss.

Straight upgrade, no swapping of the mobo.

If I wanted to do that with an Intel... I'd have to buy a completely new mobo, and probably new memory as well.

They run hotter, consumer more power, and are far slower than any comparably priced (read: low end) processor from Intel.

Matching Core 2 Quad Q8200 at Lower Cost

The main competitor for the Athlon II X4 is Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q8000-series. In most benchmarks, the AMD processor gets close to the Q8200, but it can only beat it in a few of them (DivX, MainConcept, Adobe Premiere). However, AMD’s price point once again is lower than Intel’s, and the fact that an average mainstream AMD motherboard is still cheaper than an Intel equivalent leans the needle toward AMD. From a bang-per-buck perspective, the X4 620 is a smart move that brings quad-core performance into the low-end.

A New Upgrade Option

Finally, we want to point at the fact that the new processors, be it the Athlon II X3 or X4, are perfectly able to run on old Socket AM2 platforms. Should you consider keeping your mature Athlon 64 X2 system a while longer—let’s say until SATA/600 and USB 3.0 become mainstream in mid-2010—then buying an Athlon II X4 as a replacement for an older Athlon 64 X2 seems like a perfect option. Just be sure to check your motherboard manufacturer’s Web site for BIOS updates before purchasing.

I have to say, I am very impressed with the new Athlon II X4 series processor. This baby performed very well despite having a low L2 cache, no L3 cache and a low clock speed of 2.6GHz. While it was no match for the Intel i7 series, it did come close when put up against the Intel i5 series in the gaming benchmarks and some of the scientific ones as well. When put up against the Phenom II X4 it came even closer, especially in benchmarks where the system as a whole was benchmarked and not just the CPU by itself. When it comes to overclocking, while it will not break any speed records, it did very well considering the multiplier is locked at 13x. I was able to turn up the reference clock to a nice 241MHz at 1.5 volts and the temperature stayed a cool maximum of 38C degrees under water, which is very cool considering the voltage pumping into it. When not overclocked, the processor never broke 25C degrees with the ambient temperature at a constant 22C degrees. This processor was a pleasure to use and shows great promise for those wanting to run a good and decently powerful system without spending a lot of money. At launch, the Athlon II X4 620 is going to be selling for only $99, which is unheard of for a quad core processor, especially one that performs this well for the price. When paired with the 790X motherboard used for this review, you have a nice setup for a workstation or a gaming computer for under $230. You have to admit, that is a very good start for that nice gaming rig you have been wanting to build but were limited on the funds. If you are needing a good quad core processor for your next build I would without a doubt encourage you to look into the new Athlon II X4 series because it will be money well spent.

Pros:
Under $100 for a Quad Core processor
Performs very well with price per performance ratio
DDR2 and DDR3 memory compatible
HyperTransport 3.0

Cons:
Low L2 cache and no L3 cache

Regardless of what it may seem like, this is not a repeat of AMD during the late K8 or during the Phenom days. AMD is relegated to competing in the sub-$200 space, it is actually very competitive in that space. These days, I'm sure that's not a bad position to be in. While I'm sure AMD would love to be able to demand more money for its processors, being able to demand any at all isn't a bad position to be in.

AMD effectively knocked 40% off the value of Intel's low end quad-core CPUs. The Athlon II X4 620 manages to, at $99, perform close enough to the Core 2 Quad Q8200 that the latter simply doesn't make any sense. Add another hundred dollars and you'll get a Core i5 750 (or less will get you into a Phenom II X4 945/955), but if you're on a strict budget you can't beat the 620.