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$1000 dollar all-around + gaming PC

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Hey guys, let me start off by saying I've been reading up and teaching myself a lot about building a PC lately, and most of the better knowledge I've gained has come from this site! You guys are helpful and kind. With that in mind, I'm looking to build my first PC from scratch in the next month or so, and gave myself a $1000 limit.

As far as goals for it, I want it to be 'future resistant,' (i'll be happy with it 3+ years from now) but I'm not getting on the i7 train yet, I want it to be visually/physically impressive (you'll notice LED's galore :pt1cable:  ), I do plan to game but I'm fine with one GPU

I'm definitely an intel/nvidia (EVGA) fan...

...but I'm really not sure about the price ratios, or what to dish out more for, etc. Just looking for some advice, if you think I should get a cheaper x and upgrade my y instead, etc. Lay some knowledge on me! Thanks

$230 CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
$120 MOBO Asus P5Q Motherboard - Intel P45, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, S/PDIF, Gigabit LAN, Firewire, USB 2.0, SATA, RAID
$185 GPU EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
$170 Case Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
$100 PSU Kingwin Mach 1 Modular Power Supply - 600-Watt, ATX, SLI-Ready, Dual 12V Rails


60 dollar SATA hard drive (500GB), 50 dollars of RAM (4GB DDR2), 40 dollars for SATA CD/DVD burner (they aren't important enough to worry about right now, eh?)

Grand Total is floating around $950

...it feels like a beautiful creation waiting to happen to me, but the excitement of this new technology and my first custom build could cause me to overlook stuff and make some dumb mistakes.

Thanks for any input :sol: 

More about : 1000 dollar gaming

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Try this instead:

AMD X4 955 and Asus 790GX AM3 MB
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
About the same cost for those three as your system, but you get a motherboard that more future CPUs should be able to use, and fast DDR3 RAM that should be useful for a while. Plus, you get a board capable of crossfire. The AMD 955 is just as fast as the Q9550.

Here we have your case, with a MUCH higher quality PSU, for less:
Antec 1200 AND CP-850
This PSU is also capable of crossfire.

HIS 4890
Faster card and you can add a second if you like.

I have absolutely nothing against Intel or nVidia, but this is the way to go today. I expect that in September when i5 hits we'll be building with Intel more at this price point. And I expect we'll be able to SLI on P55 boards also, but that's not certain.
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i was actually gonna buy a new monitor with this box, since i only have a CRT gateway junker from like 2005. i work at Pearson and i think they have some discounts with Dell, but I'll see. hopefully a 19" or 22" ...I'm gonna aim to spend $150 or less on the monitor

****Edit
I jumped on newegg and the first monitor i see is a 22" for $140 haha sweet, so let's say a 22" :D 

Proximon said:
Try this instead:

AMD X4 955 and Asus 790GX AM3 MB
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
About the same cost for those three as your system, but you get a motherboard that more future CPUs should be able to use, and fast DDR3 RAM that should be useful for a while. Plus, you get a board capable of crossfire. The AMD 955 is just as fast as the Q9550.

Here we have your case, with a MUCH higher quality PSU, for less:
Antec 1200 AND CP-850
This PSU is also capable of crossfire.

HIS 4890
Faster card and you can add a second if you like.


how can you tell if a motherboard supports ddr3 RAM? do you just have to read up on the individual board?

***Edit
Gah, I keep answering my own questions right after I ask them. It's the new AM3 motherboards that support it.

If the name of the board JUST says AM3.... not AM3/AM2+ or anything like that, then it's DDR3. All pure AM3 boards are DDR3. It can be very confusing to the average builder, which is why I think AMD will phase out DDR2 support on all new CPUs in the future.
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