Gaming Comp(first time build)Advice needed!

how about the HD3850?

yeah, buy the 3850 istead off the 2600xt

would also change your psu

http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiere [...] ngs?t=anon

It seems like a pretty good build......but you could probably do better

1) You can save money on the RAM......get the Patriot stuff for $38 (w/ MIR last I saw)....the Tracer is unnecessary unless you care for blinking lights.
This http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220144

and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146565 (what I have)

2) I checked on Newegg and found better deals on a PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153036
This is $100 with MIR and has higher power (what the heck....u get more power for less

and this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341002
is also $100.....both are the same Tier 2

3) I'm not sure what you need for the motherboard (connection wise)
In that respect you can probably go cheaper with the Gigabyte P35-DS3L
It is all the same but has no firewire port on back, no RAID controller (2 HDDs), and only one PCI-E x16 (the P5K-E has two but one is only x4 which is pretty useless.)
It says it only has 4 USBs in back, but mine has 6 (new revision i guess)

This is all just a suggestion for price cutting

4) Also with all of this price cutting you should try to get an 8800GT or GTS (the new G92 version thats going to come).......for gaming they will be much better than the 3850 and you should stay in your budget

edit: Also if u can wait on the processor......you can get a new Penryn when they come like the Q9450

I have a G5, G11, Speakers, Vista OS, and 19" Monitor.

BTW I really Appreciate the feedback. THANX!!!!!! To everyone

Just want to point out that your losing potential in your graphics card when not using a board that also has PCIe 2.0. I know PCIe 2.0 is backwards compatible, but the fact is, it won't run to full potential. Personally, I don't like thermaltake anymore. Owned to much of there stuff that turned to paper weights. Anyway, it looks like it will be a nice build, just think about the PCIe 2.0 stuff. Have you looked into x38 mobo?

I don't think there are any P35 chipset mobo's with PCIe 2.0. Sorry. Trust me I've looked. The best you can do for video on a mobo is go with 680i chipset for full x16 in SLI. Or upgrade to x38 chipset. I wanted to build my current project on an x38 mobo, but my wife already got me a EVGA 8800 GTS for Christmas. So I'm going to go with Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 mobo. Best bang for the buck. At least that's what my DAYS/WEEKS of research tells me.

*WARNING: Confusion Ahead--> I'm positive that a mobo with PCIe 2.0 slots is backwards compatible with a PCIe x16 card. But I'm not positive that a PCIe 2.0 card is backwards compatible with PCIe x16 mobo slot. PCIe 2.0 adds double the pipelines, which means double the amount of data transfer between mobo & card. It seems to me that the difference between PCIe x16 & PCIe 2.0 is purely physical b/c 2.0 has double the pipelines. Which would also explain why it is backwards compatible IF the pipelines still line up physically, and they just added pipelines between existing ones for 2.0. But I haven't read yet that a 2.0 card is compatible with a x16 mobo slot.

Hope that jibber jabber was helpful.

support how? that MB should support all pci-e x 16 cards(NVDIA and ATI). however i doubt it will support SLI(NVIDIA) mode since it's already supporting Crossfire(ATI) Mode.

Thank you very much for the post. And to everyone I don't think i will be getting an 8800 gt just because I'm trying to spend the least possible. I believe I will stick with the HD 3850.

The final is looking like this --->

Build

-ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6813131196

-Intel e6750... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6819115029

-His Radeon HD 3850... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6814161211

-Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820148076

-Antec 900... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6811129021

-OCZ GameXStream... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6817341002

-Western Digital Caviar SE 250gb... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6822144417

-ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner... http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6827135156

All parts are subject to change depending on post New Year

NO. not worth getting a 2nd card. Not on these mobo. Only on new mobo x38 chipset or 680i chipset does the 2nd card perform to full capabilities. You're correct 2nd card will only run x4. Totally pointless. You can put the money you would have spent on a 2nd card into a high end card and it will out perform 2 lesser cards on a x16/x4 setup any day. Terrible idea, but then again so is spending money on 2 video cards when the next gen will out perform 2 cards w/ just 1 card.

Try the Gigabyte p35 DS3L has everything you need and nothing you don't.