-iceblade^

go i5 or Phenom II, and also, get an SSD. no need for i7.

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fang_laluna

If cost is a constraint then I'd go with caviar black and i5

Quantum Reality

Shameless plug for Valicious: She's selling a couple of 750W PSUs if you want to try and catch a break on the pricing of those suckers.

Other than that I'd say you're in decent shape. Try to get a used i7 off OCN if you can. NCIX's pricing is outrageous when you consider that if you hop yourself down south you can snag an i7 for $100 less, brand-new.

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Cavi

No joke, why are you building him an i7 to begin with? You need to build a system based on his needs, and in NO WAY does he come close to needing an i7. Save him some money here, and put the extra money to something else.

I would personally save some money in some key areas:

If you want intel, go i5 750. If AMD, go Phenom II. Now you can save money on a memory kit. You only need 4gb, so a 2x2 kit is perfect.

One video card, doesn't have to be a big one, but it would be nice if he had DirectX11 capabilities. I say go 5750 This way he get's DirectX11 and won't have to worry about upgrading to achieve this at a later date.

The 500w PSU will be fine (Corsair, OCZ, Antec)

Now, the extra money part: Since he will be listening to music, get him a nice sound card and speakers/headphones! He will benefit much more from this than an i7. Especially when you consider how you are spending his money.

Just some thoughts, good luck!

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amtbr

Sounds like an i7 is a complete overkill, but if you go that route, why get him some expensive motherboard with features he will NEVER use.

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wreckless

exactly, so which motherboard should i get?

he is fixed on the i7, and he knows it's overkill, but wants the newest tech in cpu's.

so even the regular p6t is overkill?

which mobo should i go for then?? and corresponding ram?

amtbr

I picked up the P6T and it works great for my nominal overclocking needs, so I can recommend it. I almost bought the ASRock x58 board for $150 before finding a killer deal on my P6T. That may be the route to go, it gets tons of great reviews. Just go with whatever is cheapest on newegg, I hear the gigabyte UD3R is great as well. It sounds like he isnt going to be doing any extreme overclocking, so just get him the basics.

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Deano12345

i7 isn't the newest tech,i5 is

Seriously though

There isn't any budget/lower end i7 motherboards.It's simply that i7 is designed for high performance users,not someone who wants it for listening to music.i7 wont speed any of that up at all,unless he's encoding.

My new processor is no improvement in general windows tasks than my old processor (E2200).

Like its been mentioned before,go i5/PhII nice sound card,plenty of Ram and an SSD (Or 2 :P)

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Ladiesman101

id go

Foxconn Bloodrage MOBO
corsair HX540
GTS250

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