Help me build a system - noob alert!

Hi guys,

New to the board, glad to be hear!

Ok, my system is failing....I'm in need of a new rig, so I want to build one myself. I'm not that technical, and it's been years (2003) since I last looked at anything, so things have changed.

Basically, I have about $1,000 - $1,200 to spend, and I want to buy a decent rig. I have all the peripherals I need (22in LCD, keyword/mouse, speakers), so it's just the blood 'n guts I need....plus some armor.

Now, the first thing I'm having troubles with is deciding whether to get a duo or quad core. I plan on doing some gaming (Diablo 3, bwahaha...and some fps's) and want something I can expand later (a mobo with sli/crossfire?). But I do a lot of web design/dev and multitask like a mofo (probably not half as well as some of you).

I like the idea of sticking with intel as I've read they are ahead in the race for now, but am open I suppose.

Next is a mobo.

Well, I have no clue. I don't need fancy gadgets. I don't plan on needing wifi or external sata (which sounds cool)...just onboard lan and the other basics and I'm happy. I love the idea of having sli or something similar, and something that i can stuff with ram.

Last main thing is the vid card. I am not a WoW player but will play Diablo 3 when it comes out. Otherwise I'll play some shooters, and would love to play crysis. It sounds like the 9800 or 4850 are good?

I guess some ram should be in there too, so if there's anything spefic I should look for I would appreciate it.

I'm in Vancouver, so our usual ordering site is: Ncix.com although some of there towers look pricey.

I'll also need: power supply, dvd burner, hard drive ($70 ?)....anything else?

Thanks SOO much for taking the time to read. What I'm looking for is which component I should buy. There's always that 'but wait til the i7 comes down in price *i don't really know why it's much better*' but I just want to buy something soon.
Evan

Just a few ideas to get you started. Use Newegg.ca for Canadian dollar conversions. Adjust by preference as needed. The memory I listed is for someone who will NOT overclock (at least very much) but is very reliable.
The video card is not the cheapest 4870, your mileage may vary.
If you want to play games, the mouse is the nuts...

NZXT TEMPEST CS-NT-TEM-B ATX Mid Tower $110-20+ship 1/5/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811146047
Case asthetics vary, just make sure there's room for the videocard.

PC Power & Cooling S75CF Red 750W $120-40+0 (thru 1/16) 1/5/09
Blue add $10, Black add $25 (just for color!)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341011

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 P45 ATX $120-15+ship 1/5/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128359

Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR2 KVR800D2N5K2/4G $38+ship 1/05/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820134582

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 $165+0 1/5/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037

SAPPHIRE 100243TXSR Radeon 4870 512MB Toxic Edition $230+ship 1/5/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102796

WD Black WD6401AALS 640GB 32MB $80+0 1/5/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319

SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD Burner OEM SH-S223F $26+0 1/5/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151171

Logitech G5 USB Laser 2000-dpi Mouse $46+ship 1/05/09
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6826104076

LOL - Yea the builds are pretty similar.

I say just get a fast dual core around 3ghz, 4gig DDR2 ram, and at least a 4850 or Nvidia's 260. I also say wait a few days, Nvidia is gonna be releasing their newest cards would should be dropping prices even more.
Otherwise www.newegg.com is the SHyT

Antec 900 case: upside - great cooling. Downside - poor cable management without a lot of work, non-removeable motherboard tray, lots of screws. And it doesn't include a system speaker.

I have one; I like it - the cooling capacity makes it worthwhile to me. But it is something that you need to be aware of.

btw, the system i just built for you has 8gigs of ram and an ssd for the os and the terabyte drive for storage. i suppose you could live without those, but your rig would dominate on boot time and storage capacity/ I/O on both drives, not to mention 8 gigs of ram is prime for vista if you wanted it, but maybe overkill if you don't do tons of multitasking. (ps on a 32 gig ssd, i wouldn't install vista unless you tweak it NOT to take up 25 gigs of space, should be more like 3-4 if you know what you're doing)

Thanks so much for your help guys!

Ok, so I put together a system that looks good to me based off of everyone's suggestions....Can someone take a quick look and make sure everything will work? Heh. I just want to make sure, maybe I added something that won't work. Plus any tweaks would be appreciated!




LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS120-04


RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB530P Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 530W Modular LED Power Supply


Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

HIS Hightech H485FN512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card


CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply


G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL6D-4GBNQ


GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600