Intel Q9550 Build ~$900 budget

[thehazard]

Hey folks. I tried some builds earlier today, but this is what I have currently. Please critique it! Not sure whether to go for AMD for better value, or pay a premium for Intel.

I already have a 24'' monitor, and a Antec 900 case (hopefully everything will fit). I have a $900 budget max (preferably 800), gaming is somewhat important to me, as well as multitasking, but no heavy video encoding or animating (anything that requires the i7).

If you have any parts I could replace with better, or cheaper parts, please post away.

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner [$23]

Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB [$80]

G.SKILL PI Black 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 [45$]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit [Combo - $495]

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard [Combo - $240]

[Subtotal : $881 without MIR]

Comments:
I'd prefer to go with the OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W If I can get away with having just 600 watts...
Would the 4870 1gb be a better card for the money, or is the 260 a good card in this combo?

Let me know what you think! Thanks.

 

[xthekidx]

You can cut a little on the ram with these, although those ones you have are higher quality:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

That GTX 260 is a pretty good value in that combo, but you can't use a GTX 260 in SLI on that mobo, so keep that in mind. If you go with that card, then you can get a cheaper mobo that isn't xfire supported, like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372
and if you only use one card then you can get that 600w OCZ PSU, however for xfire 4870's, you need the 750tx. If you want to be able to xfire later (and with a 24" monitor you might need to to play games at high details) the go with this combo, also a good value:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.165197

Same price but better PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.160320

 

[batuchka]

Hmm since u did mention an AMD option here is a suggested configuration with a pure 16x + 16x multi GPU capable motherboard
$897.94
$9.01 shipping
$54 Mail In Rebate
$852.95 total expenses

HD 4850X2 vs GTX280/285:
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=6

But the real stand out has to be the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB. The Sapphire 4850 X2 costs less than a single NVIDIA GTX 280 or 285, and performs better than these as well. Buying a single GPU solution for more than $300 doesn't make sense with the efficiency of the 4850 X2, and the prices on higher performance multiGPU solutions make them a tough sell really. The GTX 285 SLI is the performance leader, but the cost is just huge.