~$1200 Gaming Build (Rate My PC)

This will be mainly used for gaming and surfing the web and stuff. Main games are Counter Strike Source, Team Fortress 2, Crysis, Half Life 2, Left 4 Dead, and maybe fallout 3. (Mainly FPS's)

Case: NZXT Tempest (I was looking at the Antec 900 but decided to go with this one)
Power Supply: Corsair HX620 (I was looking into 750w PSU's but decided on the Corsair)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45 UD3R (Wasn't complety sure on the MOBO but I heard good reviews on this one)
Processor: Intel E8400 Duo Core
Ram: G.Skill PI Black 2x2gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209)
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260
Hard Drive: Western Digital 500gb 7200rpm (i don't think i need to go bigger)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223F
OS: Windows Vista (When is Windows 7 coming out? Should i wait?)

1.) I will also be getting the Sennheiser PC 350 Headphones and i was wondering if my Motherboard's onboard sound card will do the trick or if i have to buy a new sound card. I have heard good reviews about the built in sound card.

2.) Also I wasn't sure if those RAM stick will work on my MOBO. I think they are compatible though. If they dont work can anyone recommend some stick? (I definitely want 4gb at least)

3.) Will there be enough room in my case? (Sorry if that is a hard question, i guess ppl who have that case can really only answer that)

4.) Do I need a CPU Fan or does it come with one?

5.) Do i need anything else or did i pretty much cover it all?

idk man i think for 1200 you could be a much stronger phenom II computer with a ATI 4870. But thats up to you. personally i would get the quad core over dual core. And im sorry if im repeating what you said Tech-boy also with the tech now in days get faster ram.

yea man i have the Phenom II overclocked to 3.6 and with the GTX285 my computer takes games by the neck and just spits on em haha basically im trying to say i own every game. Also for your harddrive a big thing that will affect the speed is the cache because i have 2 500gb WD's in my computer BUT they have 32mb cache soo let us know that urs has

I bought the Biostar TA790GX 128 Motherboard to go along with my x4 940. It is a solid motherboard for a good price, great overclocker plus has on board video if you gpu goes bad. The only negative of it is that it as only 4 usb 2.0 slots, no big deal for me as there are a bunch more on my case.

What would i have to buy to get this thing working with an LCD monitor that has HDMI/DVI and VGA ports? Does that all plug into the graphics card or the Motherboard?

thats what i thought. just wanted to make sure.

1- Yes everything will be compatible and it should be a great computer!

2- I do not mind non modular power supplies, it just means you are going to need to spend a little bit more time hiding the cables. But even with a modular power supply you will be using most of the cables anyways.

3- Everything looks perfect (I would make sure to go the x4 940 route), only thing I would change would be the hard drive to a western digital black 640gb. I little faster and more space. But if you don't think you need it the 500gb will work fine.

Should be a real nice computer for you!

I have identical goals and budget; I may end up piggybacking off your build. Thanks for putting thought into this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341011


I have this PSU. Works great

who needs 640gb's of space? also gtx275 is sick But id rather upgrade the CPU to the 955

It really seems like 1TB is too small for me these days....

You should consider a 1GB 4870 too...since you have an AMD build it might be good to keep all AMD CPU, MOBO and GPU. They are about the same price, but i think the 4870 is better in performance

why have you got a high end CF board but a nvidia GPU?

switch the 260 for a 4890 and the motherboard to a biostar TA790GX A2+, if it still won't fit in the budget switch the 850TX for a 650TX.

Ok ty guys for all the help. Here is what i got so far:

I am going to switch out the motherboard and get the Gigabyte MA790GP-UD4H for $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128384

I am getting the 64bit version of Vista home premium

I am also switching out the 500gb hard drive for the 640gb WD hard drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] wd6401aals

I am also switching out the 850tx to the 750tx (I don't need the extra power even if i did crossfire)

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231246
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227289

I heard the G.SKill will run faster because of the 5-5-5-15 timings but everyone overall says OCZ is better.

Graphics Card: Since I am not going to crossfire or anything which would be better a HD 4870 or GTX 260?

Picking a GTX 260 because "i like nvidia" is crazy. Being a fanboy just limits your possibilities for no good reason. The 4870 1GB and the GTX 260 offer nearly identical performance, so flip a coin. I would actually lean more toward the 4870 because the MA790GP-UD4H is still a crossfire motherboard. Even though thou don't think you will want/need crossfire right now, it would still be smart to leave it as a possibility. The 750TX would also run crossfire 4870's which means your rig would be ready to drop another 4870 into without having to upgrade any other components. I think the 4870 is a much smarter choice in your case.

Get Windows 7 RC from microsoft man!! It will expire next year in March, 1st. But the full copy has been confirmed to come out end of this year...

i have 2x 4890 crosfire and rampage 2 extreme motherboard
3x2 gb triple chanel 1333 ram
1tb hdd 7200 rpm segate
1000 wat power
core i7 920 quad
i use vista 32 and 64 but i have lag in all game in extra quality in 1689x1050 resolution


i think the problem is hdd!