Building a $1000 gaming computer, need advice...

swap the Q9550 for an AMD 955 and the motherboard to an am2+ one with a 790GX chipset.

That will save you about $20 and you won't lose any performance.

oh and spend that $20 on upgrading the case to an Antec 300 or coolermaster 690.

Not bad.

I'd change the graphics to this $205 Sapphire HD 4890. It's $35 less, a little quieter from what I've seen in reviews, and trades blows with the GTX 275 and GTX 285 in benchmarks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102830

It's also a more future-proof choice because it supports Crossfire, just like the motherboard you've picked. If that is interesting to you, upgrade the PSU to Corsair 750TX too.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/g [...] ,7463.html <--- Gigabyte: Enable SLI On X58 Boards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042 $58.95 Free Shipping*
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341022 $74.99 ($49.99 after $25.00 Mail-In Rebates)
OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-EX58U3R $179.99 | $164.99 after rebate
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R Core i7/ Intel X58/ DDR3/ CrossFireX/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=I7-920 $265.99 Free Ground Shipping
Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz 8MB LGA1366 CPU, OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233029 $39.99 Free Shipping*
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835154003 $4.99
Tuniq TX-2 Cooling Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130475 $239.99 Free Shipping*
EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.193835 Combo Discount: -$5.00 Combo Price: $164.98 $20.00 Mail-In Rebate
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1600LV6GK - Retail
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151171 $24.99 Free Shipping*
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner - OEM

Total: $1,054.76 | $994.76 w/mail in rebates

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us [...] ID=mscomsc <---Save yourself some money and dl the 64 bit version of Windows 7

That is bad advice.

1. It would be worse in games than either my version with the HD 4890 or smithereen's version with the HD 4850 X2. A fancy MB and a fast CPU won't help if the graphics card is slower. There are exceptions but rare.

2. It's not future-proof because that OCZ PSU has only 37.5A so there's no multi-GPU option for the future. Were you misled by the 2 rails of 25A each? They can't just be added to 50A, it doesn't work that way.

3. It might blow up. EVGA recommends at least 40A for a system with that GTX 275.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130475

ROFL, why would everyone here spend $600+ on i7 920/X8/DDR3 when they can spend $250 for X3 720/GA-MA790X-UD4P/DDR2 and not be able to distinguish them in games? Even the X3 720 would not be used anywhere near 100% in most games. FSX is the only exception I can think of right now.

You shouldn't focus so much on e-penis issues like the most heavily advertised CPU. Remember the budget. Then you won't have to cut corners in the worst possible places, the GPU and PSU.

One more thing: if everyone here and elsewhere does get an i7, then Intel will be the only CPU manufacturer left around. Your next CPU will cost $1399.99. You better be careful what you wish for.

This is coming from the person who copied and pasted an i7 build into every open build request in the forums. You shouldn't bait him, he shouldn't go off on such tangents, but whatever.

Let me put it this way: the OP himself came up with two $900 builds that make more sense than yours. You are not qualified to advise him. He should advise you.

LOL at "Mr. AMD". I'll take that as a compliment. A long time ago, before you came to this forum, I got similar comments because I kept recommending Q6600 and 8800 GTS 320. They happened to be the best value around at that time. Now it's AMD's turn, and unlike you I'm flexible. Let somebody make a decent $100 MB for the i7 and let nVidia drop the GTX 275 to $200 and I'll start recommending those a lot.

What an unnecessarily heated argument...

I understand where both sides are coming from...but what's the point? If it's a purely gaming computer, then go ahead and save the $30 and go with the AMD build and the 4890 if 5 frames per second (sometimes worse...) is worth it to you.

If you want a faster multitasker and hands down the most powerful processor on the planet, then go with Why_Me's build. I vote for the i7...but I use my computer for other things than purely gaming (which I do heavily).

Where's the love guys...we're trying to help people out not be fanboys.

Branching out into investment advice now? Cool!!!

Well here's what I came up with. I want to suggest a 4770 CF build over what I put into this wishlist, but there's a little something biting at my fingers telling me not to suggest a multi-gpu system.

I honestly feel that in games that scale to multiple gpus, that they are a godsend to the budget builder. I however cannot stand some of the complications that are inherit to a multigpu setup. I'm not going to go over them all, but I'm sure a lot of you can agree that they have their own set of issues.

What I've put together for a little over $900 is

AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE with a Xigmatek DK
Gigabyte 770 - $70 for a solid board that cuts costs by not using the onboard graphics.
EVGA GTX 285 1GB - best single graphics card, lifetime warranty.
Corsair 650TX- Enough power for everything in the system.
WD6401AALS-Do I need to justify this one?
4GB G.Skill 1066- Don't know about this one for certain, 800 might be fine and cut the cost a bit
NZXT Beta- Cheap, decent airflow, fits GTX 285
LG DVD Burner
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/ [...] r=11679786

A capable quad core, and the fastest single gpu for <$1k. What are your guys thoughts?