1st Time Builder-Need Advice on MotherBoard/PSU

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next 2 weeks or so.

BUDGET RANGE: $1000-$1,500 As low as I can get without sacrificing too much performance etc.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, media, surfing the internet.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Mouse, keyboard, speakers.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com

PARTS PREFERENCES: Not really. Intel just because I don't really know much about AMD.
OVERCLOCKING: Probably not. CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 24inch monitor, 1920x1080



It would be helpful if you could elaborate as to which parts have newer versions/better performance. Im open to any suggestions and am not necessarily intel specific.

As you are planning for gaming, and you want to keep low on the budget, you should look into AMD CPUs...The main reason is just that they are better value now and intel is holding on till September to launch new CPUs so like I said before it has stopped the launching of newer CPUs for the older socket(LGA775)

Here is a list of config that you can look into...
Check out the review of X4 955 here...
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2278.html

CPU + Graphics card
Phenom II X4 955 + HD 4890

RAM -
GSkillz DDR3 1333MHz

HDD -
WD Black 640GB

DVD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151173

Powersupply -
Antec EA650

CASE - Your preference...

Monitor - Your preference...but here is a very good 24"
ASUS MK241H Black 24" 2ms HDMI Widescreen
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824236033

Mobo - If you certainly dont require crossfire support, then this mobo would suit you best...
GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P
If you want crossfire support, then get this mobo and change to a good quality 700W+ PSU as it is required for HD 4890 crossfire...
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX


Total - $797 Except the CASE and the Monitor and including the ASUS mobo

And am sure you can get an intel i7 setup with that budget, but it will certainly not offer very good gaming performance than this setup and for gaming, no one would suggest an i7 for its extra cost...

Glad it helped...

And as for the monitor, that Samsung is a very good one but I guess the open box item has been deactivated for now...

The HD 4890 is like you said a newer revised version of the 4870 but it offers about 8 to 10%+ more graphics power...
Here is an article about that 4890...
And the main reason I suggested the 4890 over the 4870 is because of the resolution and as you don't plan for crossfire, getting a single most powerful card that you can afford would make sense...
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2262.html

intel and AMD are both CPU manufacturers and they are based on the same X86 architecture so both the CPUs support all the apps designed for that architecture...
Both intel and AMD have various CPUs at different price range and currently intel is planning for releasing newer CPUs but no sooner than September.
So now for the mainstream budget market, only AMD has been launching newer CPUs, which perform comparable or even better than their intel counterparts right now...But it might change during September though...
Here is a rough sketch of the mainstream offerings from intel and AMD at various price ranges...

Around $120
AMD - Phenom II X2 550 / Phenom II X3 710 intel - E7400
In this price range the AMD offers better performance than the intel offerings and they are better upgradeable as they are newer socket CPUs...

Around $130 - $170
AMD - X3 720 - $139 and intel E8400 - $168
Here both the CPUs offer very much the same performance in games and as the AMD has 3 cores compared to 2 in intel, they offer better performance in multi-threaded apps...And as you can see the price difference, going with AMD is the best...

Around $180
AMD - P II X4 940 intel - Q8400
Both have comparable performance but again AMD has better upgradeable path...

Above $200
AMD - PII X4 945, PII X4 955 intel - Q9400, Q9550, intel i7 920
Here the performance of the Q9550 and X4 955 is very much comparable and 955 is better in some...
But the i7 would totally outperform those CPUs(But in games, the difference is very minimal) but the overall platform(CPU + Mobo + RAM) cost would significantly be higher than the other setups...
So if you are planning for a Gaming PC, then the i7 is not recommended...but if you majorly use CPU intensive apps like video editing, rendering,...apps, then i7 is worth the extra money...

As for the Full tower, people prefer those mainly because in those full towers, any crossfire/ SLI setups don't block other components such as the HDD cage,...But as you are not planning for crossfire, that Mid tower case (CM 690) is more than suffice...Actually it has enough space even for crossfire setups without blocking the HDD cages...

So like you said read as many reviews as you can as it will give you better idea of what I have suggested...

That was another aspect I was not sure of. I know that not everything supports 64-bit although I suspect I'm behind the times and most games/programs/etc do now work with 64-bit. What are the benefits? All I really know is it allows you to utilize more RAM.