Gaming Rig @$1000

With your budget, you wouldn't necessarily need to reuse those parts (and I wouldn't)... So here's a fresh build for you to check out (since you omitted the crossfire question I'll assume your not going to do it:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103674

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128392

Patriot Viper 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220285

XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150394

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] f3%20500gb

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341016

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151187

This actually turns out to be about $725 before MIRs.

Opps I must have just deleted that part when I was putting in my responses. yes I think I'd like to run Crossfire. Going to add that back in up top. Sorry.

well since you have the money, go with a better mobo, it will be more upgradable if you have more then 1 pci express, so you can add a better card later, psu ill go for a corsair, the 750 non-modular it's in ur budget, and also a better case like the cooler master scout is an steal for $99. for the memory the G-Skill offers a better value, also for the hard drive the samsung is good but for a little bit more you can get the 640 caviar black, it isnt so much different but western digital gives 5years warranty

this is my list:

Mobo & Cpu Combo : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.237638

memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231193

Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161276

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119196

and thats only $900 if you want to throw in the PII 955 you might as well.

Don't buy a new PSU, the one you have is more than sufficient. It seems most people here think that your computer won't function unless you have a Corsair psu.

With all the parts you already have you should be able to get an I7 build, which would be faster than any AMD offering.

Umm... maybe nobody clicked the link the see which PSU he already had?? As to the RAM why would he use DDR2 in a AM3 motherboard?

All you really need to get is a CPU, MOBO, Ram, Video Card, and optical drive.

If you are committed to trying to OC your cpu then the i7 920 would give you the best performance in your budget. Intel will be releasing new CPUs very soon so it might be best to wait and see how the prices are in a week or two.

Do you need an OS?

I will need a new OS, yes. I've been running Win XP 32 bit and want to upgrade to a 64 bit OS. Not really crazy about going to Vista so was hoping to either jump into Win 7 or fall back on an XP 64 bit.

I was/am curious why people thought the PS needed to be replaced. I figured it was one of the few pieces worth keeping. That and the case. The parts I have listed above are from my current PC, which I thought might be worth cannibalizing. I do not intend to keep this one after the new one is built. My wife wants a laptop so handing it down to her, which I normally did after a new build, is out.

Is there a reason the PS is not so great? The case? I originally bought this case because the front door over the power button locked and with 2 small kids in the house it kept them from accidentally disconnecting daddy while he killed people They are grown a bit now so that's not really a concern anymore, but I do like the abundant amount of fans it has. I've never had to worry about the system getting hot or even warm for that matter.

As far as OCing goes, I've never done it before with any of my rigs but if I can squeeze out some more performance from it I'm all for it. I just need to figure out how it's done .

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. Keep the ideas flowing. I'd really like to build the best gaming rig I can for my budget with the idea I can upgrade it in the future as better things come out on the market.

I don't see any reason for falling back to windows xp 64 bit, since a lot of the initial issues with vista have been dealt with, and I feel like a lot of the hesitations with vista have just been due to this.

The psu is fine, I read the johnnyguru review online and they just mentioned that they wanted a tiny bit better power regulation, but with your current setup, I dont think your going to be pushing it very hard, so there is no need to worry.

Jbakerlent has a good build up, which i would suggest. I'm not sure if an i7 build squeezed into this budget would be any good.

It would be dreaming if he didn't already have the PSU, case, HD, and monitor. Bust out your calculator and then maybe you will realize just how feasible it is.

This may be true, but if he is prepared to take the existing monitor, ram and psu from it, I dont think his intention is to keep his existing one while completing a new one, though this isnt a bad idea. If his intention is to however minimize the costs by trying to reuse some of the parts he has already, keeping the psu would make the most sense.

Oh no! God forbid he uses budget! Why don't you crawl out from under your bridge and read that I had even been saying before that an AMD build would be cheaper and might even be better. Go slip back into bed with the other AMD fanboys.

Have you still not read the post where I said the AMD build was a good if not better option? Just because someone mentioned an i7 doesn't mean that they are an Intel fanboy.

I guess I should have just started off like you by taking what someone said out of context, layering on the sarcasm, and topping it off with a heaping pile ignorance.

The i7 is the superior CPU, its within the OP's budget and worth consideration. Its up to him if he wants go with AMD and save money while sacrificing little performance. You are the one who made it personal by trying to say I was "dreaming" when all i did was lay out the OP's options without showing the pig-headed bias that you can't seem to guise.

Blah blah blah, stop your exchanges on this thread and just PM each other if you two are gonna go at it. This isn't helping anyone but your own egos.

@OP: your PS and case should be kept, to save money. I really like the Antec cases, so I would also recommend looking into the 300/900/902, but is optional.

I also like AMD 955 over i7, since my computer's purpose will be for gaming and general applications like videos or music. I don't want to belittle AMD by putting it in the "gaming only" category, but it does lose to the i7 in everything else aside from gaming, if only slightly, but there is a $90 dollar difference. Also, buying an i7 limits you to having a motherboard that only supports the i7 (x58 motherboards) and those can range from $175-$400. So in terms of getting performance for a lower price, AMD will get you in the CPU/mobo area.

For RAM, I would look into the cheaper DDR3 RAM, IF you decide to get an AM3 motherboard. Preferably, the 1600mhz type with 7 or 8 CAS timings (like 7-7-7-20), the lower it is the better. You can settle with 1333 mhz, for there's very little difference between the two, but the 1600mhz might be in the same price range as the 1333mhz, so check out both.

HDD, is cheap nowadays, so $80-$95+ can get you 7200RPM, 16/32MB cache, 1 TB hard drives.

Now the GPU is difficult. @1680x1050/1200, you don't have to even go high-end. A 4870 will be the best deal, but a 4890 is just slightly more and allows for a good OC. I know my 4890 Toxic isn't being stressed when I max out any game @ 1680x1050 especially when it's OCed to 1065mhz core/1100+mhz mem. You can wait for the new DX11 cards to come out, so it drives the prices of the 4890's down. Iim the type to say it's always better to wait a few months to get the kinks worked out of new cards/drivers. I never really looked into Nvidia cards except for when they were compared to ATI cards, so I cannot recommend Nvidia cards for you, but the GTX 275 would be a great choice for the price range of about $200+.

Anyway, good luck on your build and I hope you're happy with what you buy and not what other's think you should buy.

The intel i7 is the most powerful processor , but if you are building to a budget you can get a faster gaming machine with amd because cpu/mb/ram all cost less and that frees up money to spend on a more powerful gfx card .

OC can increase performance , but sometimes its not that cost effective since you often spend $50 on a cpu cooler , that you could have just spent on a faster cpu . OC is definitely easier now . The previous generation of intel P4 cpu's were right at the limit and hard to cool . C2D and i7 are easy to OC . Phenom OC's ok but not as high as intel .

RAID 0 will speed boot and loading times but not increase FPS in games . Generally it will save you a few seconds here and there but it also doubles your risk of catastrophic failure and losing all unbacked up data . RAID 0 is not really worth it for a gaming desk top IMO . Just buy a fast samsung F3 500 gig hdd .