Budget gaming rig, < $1500 AUD

Hey all,

Just wondering if I could get some feedback on a build I'm coming up with. It's been very difficult the past couple days to make any decisions, so any feedback is extremely welcome.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of July 2009 at the latest

BUDGET RANGE: $1000-1500 AU

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: MSY
(Cheapest distributor in my area, no other Australian sites I've seen compete. Horrible website though. Their part list is rather limited compared to something like newegg but I've made do)

PARTS PREFERENCES: Best bang for buck

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1440x900

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Leaning towards AMD

Here we go:

Mobo: Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P - $216
CPU: x3 Phenom II 720 - $207
GPU: 1GB 4850 Gigabyte - $189
RAM: 4G Kit DDR2 1066 Kingston - $91
Case: Antec 300 - $107
PSU: Antec Signature 850W - $295
HDD: Western Digital SATA 1TB - $124
Keyboard: Logitech USB G15??? - $106
Mouse: Logitech G5??? - $84

Total: $1419 AUD

Rationale: I struggled for a long time on whether or not to get a core i7, but it seems the premium would be wasted at the moment without buying a new monitor and taking advantage of higher resolutions. I don't have any processor-intensive tasks other than gaming, and with the 775 socket being deprecated it makes sense to go for the longevity of the AMD chipset...doesn't it?

From what I can gather, this build will be able to run all current games at max at my resolution, and should do a decent job of upcoming games as well. There's always room to throw in a second 4850 if need be. I save about a thousand bucks compared to an i7 system, which could be used to upgrade in a years time if DX11 is required or the rig can't handle newer games. The power supply is overkill, but given the reviews I've seen of the Signature it should carry over to a 2010 rig comfortably.

I haven't really thought much about overclocking, though the 720 seems relatively efficient in that regard. I'm hoping that this system will be able to tackle upcoming games (notably Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and SW:ToR) on full: if so, I'll be happy.

I should point out I'm currently using a P4 dinosaur, so this is new territory! Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Thanks Proximon. The Signature was a leftover from the i7 build I was toying around with, and it does seem out of place in this build. Looks like the 850TX is selling for $240 at Umart so it's definitely an attractive option.

Your sig was incredibly useful too!