Help on upgrading AMD system

[Randalls]

I realize this is a mac forum and that this is a reach but hopefully I can get some advice here. My son is putting together a system and was wondering if you could comment on these products being compatible. He is updating his old AMD kit he put together in highschool. This is a Newegg offer that involves combos and a $40 rebate. Any help would be appreciated. He has until the 26th to complete.

motherboard:
MSI K9N4 SLI-F AM2 NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813130071

processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103776

ram:
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820145177

videocard:
HIS Hightech H165PRQ512N-R Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814161039

case/powersupply/fans:
APEVIA X-ALIEN MX-ALIEN-BK/500 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case ATX 500W Dual Fan W/ Automatic Fan Speed Control. Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811144206

With combo deals and rebates it come in at under $400 for a college system that should run just about anything he needs. The main worry is compatibility between processor and video card. I am going to pick up a drive at Staples friday morning if I get there early enough. Probably add another fan. Any advice appreciated.

[Silencio]

Looks pretty nice, especially for the money.

I've been pondering similar upgrades to my old AMD box myself, and by "upgrades" I mean basically tearing everything out of the case and replacing the whole lot except for the hard drive and optical drives. I've spec'ed similar stuff (MSI AM2 mobo, Athlon X2 Socket AM2 processor, &c. &c.), though perhaps a bit higher up the food chain.

I assume the Radeon GPU will work okay with an nForce mobo, though I was going to get an Nvidia video card myself.

Some of the reviews on that particular mobo say that the PCI-e cards only go up to 8x, which is a bit odd because that seems to contradict Newegg's published specs.

What I think I'll really end up doing is getting a Mac Pro and just run Parallels / Boot Camp instead. I don't need Windows all that much, let alone need to boot natively into it. Most of the time, I just launch VirtualPC on my G5 rather than reach down and power up the PC and flip the KVM switch.