First of all, we need to know your budget, but keeping in line with what you have...
Don't get an Intel-nVidia chipset. They, well, suck. They don't OC worth a damn, and they are buggy as hell.
Secondly, I'd recommend strongly against getting a C2Q. AMD Phenom IIs are better value for equal performance, and Intel Core i7s are much better performance, howerever, they are more expensive and have little to no improvement in gaming.
The memory you have selected is triple-channel DDR3. The motherboard you have selected is DDR2. A Phenom II system can be either DDR2 or DDR3 depending on the motherboard and processor, both dual-channel. A Core i7 system is triple-channel DDR3.
The graphics card you have selected is decent. If you do get a Phenom II system, I would recommend a HD4850X2 instead, they're going for penuts right now and would leave you room to add another on an AMD chipset.
------------------------------Main PC: Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.680gz - 2X eVGA 8800GT @ 700/1050/1620
ASUS M3N72-D - 2GB Corsair DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
Studio Computer - Athlon X2 5000+ @ 3.2GZ (cheapie board can't adujust voltages) - Radeon 2600XT
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 - Asus M2NVM-
Reply to smithereen
I'd stay away from those friggin nvidia 750 boards. real funny about what processors they like to work with. not worth the hassle. if you were going to pick the q6600 i wouldn't reply to your post. plus i had one and it sucked.
the video card is ok but if sli-ing isn't in your future got with a p45 board. gigabyte possibly. good luck.
And, I'm not really sure how to choose a good hard drive.
Please tell me if these are good enough to run the latest games on high or if you recomend something better than an item i have posted. Thanks
What's your budget...do you need an o/S (Windows), monitor, etc... and what country are you in; US, Canada, etc.... let us know that and we can help you a bit better.
As of now, i'm almost at the top of my budget which I would say, its about 800 to 1200. I live in the US, and this is pretty much my first time I'm gonna build my own PC. If you guys suggest diff. parts, which is great that you do, I preffer to shop from newegg. Thanks
Oh yeah, and for monitors, i really wanna get something bigger than 20" but less than 26". I pretty iffy about it though since I can't find a decent one for a good price. Speakers, i can get locally
Excellent choice for the case. The Antec 900 is one of the most popular, if not the most popular case with gamers
The Antec TruePower New 650 is another good choice. The TP New series has been earning high marks in technical reviews.
You may want to consider a different motherboard. Nvidia has been having some quality problems. Since you're building an Intel system take a look at motherboards with Intel chipsets.
I have not kept up with the latest monitors. Last year I purchased a Samsung Syncmaster 220wm, 22 inch wide screen monitor when it was on sale at my local Fry's Electronics store. I'm not a hardcore gamer so I don't know if the monitor is appropriate for gaming. However, I used to work as a digital imaging editor. I worked with ads that appeared in high end fashion magazines. With just a little bit of tweaking the color rendition is excellent.
Why_Me's build is very good, but if it's over your budget or if you're gaming at crazy resolutions, drop the i7 for a Phenom II, possibly with Crossfire.
------------------------------Main PC: Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.680gz - 2X eVGA 8800GT @ 700/1050/1620
ASUS M3N72-D - 2GB Corsair DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
Studio Computer - Athlon X2 5000+ @ 3.2GZ (cheapie board can't adujust voltages) - Radeon 2600XT
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 - Asus M2NVM-
Reply to smithereen
yeah, i really like your build Why_me, but i think my budget may be set to a little, high, so i guess i"ll just change the processor under smithereen suggestions to a Phenom 2, and is the Phenom 2 better than a Core 2 Quad q9550?
another side question, what the tuniq tx 2 for, and i can't really afford an i7 so this is what i have so far
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ASUS VW224U Black 22" 2ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
What i need now
-budget graphics card, but can still play most games today on high settings
-a cheap power supply, preferibly 600watts+
-a processor- i'm not sure how to choose a good amd one or an intel one
-and cooling system
Do you *have* that, or do you have it picked out? If you don't have DDR3 already, buy DDR2. That's a triple-channel kit, it's designed for a Core i7 board.
Message edited by smithereen on 05-20-2009 at 03:30:51 AM
------------------------------Main PC: Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.680gz - 2X eVGA 8800GT @ 700/1050/1620
ASUS M3N72-D - 2GB Corsair DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
Studio Computer - Athlon X2 5000+ @ 3.2GZ (cheapie board can't adujust voltages) - Radeon 2600XT
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 - Asus M2NVM-
Reply to smithereen
smitheren is 100% right, either get an X58 chipset mobo and a core i7 cpu or get a standar 2x2GB 1066MHz kit, or maybe two, these days ddr2 is incredibly cheap
That is conspicuously higher than $1000. I'll try and set something up in a few minutes when I have time.
Not much I could do seeing how he wants a monitor included in that build...no monitor and I would have met that budget. I'm thinking an AMD build would probably work within that budget.
Just keep in mind that if you're going high end with the CPU you won't be able to go high end with the GPU under a $1000 budget, maybe a single radeon 4870 or gtx260 if you buy a cheap mobo and no more than 70 dlls in hdd.
------------------------------Core i7 920
6GB Tri-channel 1333 MHz OCZ gold
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB
500 GB WD Caviar GP
Reply to winterblade
actually, why_me, i really like your build, your right, since i included a moniter with that, it is actually well in my budget, so I'm pretty sure that i'm gonna stcik with that build. Again, i really appreciate all your guys' help. thanks a lot!!
If you want to spend more, up it to a 955 and a 4850X2.
Nice build. The only thing I would change out on that is the psu to something like the corsair 750w. That ocz doesn't have enough pci-e connectors to run crossfire later on. If he wants to rule out crossfire, then change that psu to the ocz 550w fatal1ty.
Edit: Found it. It's not a huge screaming deal, but that's a nice motherboard. If you want to save some dough, get a Gigabyte. I'd also look into the less-outrageously-priced eVGAs, I've heard some good things about them.
Message edited by smithereen on 05-20-2009 at 05:07:59 PM
------------------------------Main PC: Phenom II X3 720 @ 3.680gz - 2X eVGA 8800GT @ 700/1050/1620
ASUS M3N72-D - 2GB Corsair DDR2-800 4-4-4-12
Studio Computer - Athlon X2 5000+ @ 3.2GZ (cheapie board can't adujust voltages) - Radeon 2600XT
2GB OCZ DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12 - Asus M2NVM-
Reply to smithereen