New computer first time builder need advice

Hi all,

I was planning on building a new computer and while googling some stuff came across this forum so i decided to ask you guys what you think of my perspective build. I'm kind of on a budget (aren't we all?) of around $1300 including a monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. This is what i was thinking of:

LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50 - OEM

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

EDIMAX EW-7128G PCI Wireless Card - Retail

XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified

Microsoft CA9-00001 Black PS/2 Standard Basic Keyboard and Mouse - OEM

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler W/TX-2 - Retail

ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX -

I'm considering a AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor, but I'm not sure if its worth the extra money. I will be using this computer for school work, some video editing, photoshop, and gaming. Also, do you guys think the VelociRaptor drive is overkill?

Thanks

I agree with obsidian about the HDD. Also I would get this motherboard instead - cheaper, better in some ways.

MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130223

Take caviar black and buy pII x4 for that and if it's with budget, buy larger monitor, it's a waste of power for that 4890.

The Asus Crosshair boards come with the add in sound card, i like my M4A79T Deluxe board, it is the equivalent to the Crosshair III without the add in sound card but has more PCI-E slots. But in the end both boards are good it just depends which one has a good combo to go with it, i got my ASUS board and 955 processor with an 85 off combo so it was a no brainer.

I would suggest one of the better drives instead of 2 500GB drives in raid 0. The samsung spinpoint 1TB drive uses 2 500GB platters and costs less than 2 500GB drives and should provide you better performance without the risk of array failure.

It does support DDR3, for AMD boards many of them have a T at the end of the model name that corresponds to the AM3 boards which support DDR3, this doesnt apply to all manufacturers but ASUS and gigabyte and several others follow this pattern.

Onboard sound is actually better than some of the cheaper discrete cards these days, especially on the boards that support full HDA.

You do realize thats am impossible statement right? By discrete it means that it is a card and not integrated into the motherboard, a non-discrete sound chip is onboard sound, a non-discrete sound card would be a playing card that runs into the CPU fan and makes it sound like a motorcycle under your desk.

What i meant by that statement was that the onboard sound on my ASUS M4A79T Deluxe board is actually higher quality than the Audigy SE sound blaster card i was using in my old pentium 4.