I'm going totally ghetto and am going to build a new box with my tax return this year. I'm trying to keep it under $1000 as to keep my fiance from totally kicking the piss out of me. I've already kind of made up my mind on what I want, but am always open for suggestion and easily persuaded. So long as it stays in my budget, I'm all for rearranging shit. Plus, most of you have been building a whole hell of a lot longer than I have, so I value your opinions. Here's what I've got, let me know what you think:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130239 Mobo

*** Vid card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214 Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231276 RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136358 * HDD


I've also got a new DVD burner on my list and will probably spend about $30 on it. So long as it has a decent rating, I really don't care about the brand.

*The reason the HDD is only 500GB is because I already have one of those and am just doubling it to give me 1TB of space.

If any of you have any of these items and have had shitty experiences, or think there's anything I need to know lemme hear it. Later!

WORB / Travis

Post edited by: WORB, at: 2010/01/01 20:40

Post edited by: WORB, at: 2010/01/06 20:36

Everything you have in this list looks fine and should work together, but I have a few suggestions.

Ok, first, the video card. I would go with an ATI Radeon 5850 ($320) if you can swing it, or a 5770 ($160). Direct X 11 card when games start supporting it and the fastest cards on the market. There is the 5970 ($600) and the $5870 ($400) but the other two are the best bang for the buck.

You might want to look at the newer generation of core i7 cpus that support dual channel like this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214
You can save some money on ram this way as well, just going with two sticks instead of three. The only downside to this is that the core i9 is supposed to be a 1366 socket, which could limit future upgrades.

I think it is overkill on the motherboard. You probably aren't going to take advantage of most of the features and you probably want be doing 3 way SLI, so you could save some bucks here, especially if you decide to go with the newer cpu, which is a different socket type.

I have a legit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade I bought for $50 that I have not used, which could save you another $90.

Look here http://pcper.com/hwlb.php?guide3=y#guide3 at the mid range system for a second opinion.

Make sure you have a good power supply, especially if you do decide to go dual video cards.

Post edited by: SinjinSmith, at: 2010/01/05 22:02

Scott-

Thank you so much man! I appreciate all your input, and am working on a combo build from you and the website you linked. There are a couple things I'm not going to purchase from it--such as the HDD and the sound card they have linked. I also went with a different RAM and doubled the quantity--8gigs never hurt anyone. I updated my original post with the new items, but I still have a couple questions for you.

First, is the copy of Win7 you have a 64-bit copy? I'm sure it's a yes, and if I'm right I would LOVE to buy that from you.

Second, I've not settled on the video card just yet. I like what people are saying about both the cards you linked but cannot decide if going with one 5850 or two 5770s would be the best plan. We're talking about virtually the same amount of money, but if I double the 5770's I can spread the load across 2GB worth of video card instead of putting it all on one. Also, with this, I have a 680W PSU. I've seen SLi rigs run on 600-700W PSUs, how well do you think a Crossfire rig would hold up on that?

Travis

The Windows 7 has both 32 and 64 bit, but with the 9 GB of RAM you definitely want the 64 bit.

I would personally go with the single 5850 over the two 5770s.