Jattditutti

My initial budget was 800 dollars, but I'm going to spend an extra 200 to bring my budget to 1K.

It this alright, or could I improve it by changing things....

ownage pancakes

by the time spring semester is over you may be able to build a core i7 computer with $800. I'd wait around and see how the prices change between now and then.

yankneck

I would go with this CPU since it is just $2 more. I would go with something like this for a video card. This would bring you up to around $450 so you could decide to go SLI with a second video card or a better single card. You could get a better sound card then what the onboard has. This is all just a humble opinion from another beginner.

I AM TEH LAW GIVAH

exactly what ownage said.. except ddr3 prices and the price of an x58 motherboard would cost maybe half of his budget.. But we'll see how the prices drop etc.. etc.. but that isnt a bad choice of cpus or mobos

__________________

HARDER STYLEZ OF OCN CLUB

!!~AMD Phenom II X3 700 Series OC Club~!!

Tainok

Alright, first off, do you plan on going SLI/Crossfire (2x video cards) in the future? Very specialized, most useful for people who run large displays. Waste for most general users, unless you want an uber-ePeen. (Cost to performance increase is not very good compared to just upgrading to a new single card once a year or two)

Gigabyte P43 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128347 ($80)
Same as the P45 except without SLI/Crossfire support.

E8500 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036 ($188)
I prefer two higher cores over four lower for gaming. And it'll handle browsing just fine. My E6750 still slaughters any game out there.

4GB Corsair 1066 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145214 ($74, $44 after MIR)
Corsair is reliable.. not sure if you want to OC, if so, ask around for good OC'ng RAM. =P

Corsair 620HX - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139002 ($160, $130 after MIR)
GREAT PSU! This will do anything you need, safely. NEVER SKIMP ON THE PSU, it's the heart of your system pumping lifeblood through your expensive components.

XFX 9800GT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150323 ($130, $100 after MIR, and free Far Cry 2)
XFX = Lifetime Warranty, good solid card, will play anything out there.

Lian Li Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112099 ($97)
Solid case. Can go cheaper if you want.

WD 500GB HD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073 ($65)
Good enough unless you plan on downloading tons of movies or something.


Total is $806 shipped US. Can chop a few bucks off the case if you need to.

Jattditutti

I'll only use one video card, I have a Samsung 2253BW, and it dwarfs everything on my desk, one more would be too much for me.

I like the Lian Li case, but I was looking at this one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...33320&CatId=32

freebeer

That case you posted looks like a really cheapy. Might want to look for something else, and something not on Tiger Direct too

Tainok

SLI is actually harnessing the power of two GPUs to make them 'share the load' for one display. But the effectiveness per cost is generally not too good. So yeah, single card.

freebeer

Also, SLI is really not THAT effective until you start playing at higher resolutions, or on bigger monitors.

Tainok

Yep.

Yeah, you'll see an increase in performance, but the only reasons to SLI/Crossfire are:

1) HUGE displays. Bigger than 1920x1200.
2) Enthusiast - You want the biggest, fastest card available... but you want TWO. It's like people who are getting 2x 295 GTX's. (Which is basically a quad SLI, since each 295 GTX is basically 2 cards)
3) Rare cost per card deal. 8800GTs were a good example, I believe.. or maybe it was the GS. (I went right to Ultra, haha) When OC'd well, the SLI'd cards could arguably outperform a single card that would cost the same.