How does this build fare?

I think it looks pretty good, but you can save $10 and get the faster, more reliable Samsung F3 Spinpoint 500GB HDD.

Any particular reason you're getting the M4A79XTD-EVO? There are cheaper motherboards out there that will save you the money for a 4850 or a better CPU.

quad cpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

and you dont need a super expensive dvd drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

The video card won't handle 19x10. It should be ok at 16x10, but won't handle 19x10 on modern games well at all. I'd try to get at least the 4850 for that. The 4870 is better, but I get the feeling that squeezing in the 4850 will be hard enough. To save money, I'd look at getting a cheaper mobo or ram.

Why don't you get the Quad Core Athlon 620 or 630. It's about the same price. It's actually a Phenom II X4 without the L3 cache.

Motherboard, RAM and DVD burner are a bit expensive. Here's some alternatives:

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 - $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 CL8 - $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

LITE-ON Black SATA DVD Writer - Bulk - LightScribe Support - $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

As for the GPU, what games do you play and at what resolution would you like to play at (you didn't really make it clear) ?

With those savings, I'm sure you can squeeze in the 4770/4850. And those are a much better card for 19x10 gaming.

I'm not sure how much the rig will actually get used for gaming. Likely less than I'd like it to be.

Better description of the facts since I'm no longer @ work:

Talked wife into cutting cable/sat ties and sold her on all that's free and legal out here with a nice shiny new pc. So far using my old company laptop to stream has sufficed and she's actually cool with it but is ready for bigger and better.

Sure as hell wouldn't hurt if i could game on it too.

Had planned to try to unlock the additional 2 cores but is it worth the gamble or just go ahead w/ the Athlon x4?

I also plan to eventually have all my music encoded to flac, ~500 cds. This is why I mentioned a sound card further down the road to send out to home theater. I know i'll be adding more hdd space sooner than later but this gets me out of the gate.

Maybe add a blueray drive eventually and/or a tuner card to dvr all that's free ota?

This brings me to the board. A buddy at work recommended the ASUS M4A79XTD EVO. I mentioned that I wasn't interested in integrated graphics and he asked what I planned to add down the road as upgrades/additions. He thought I'd be happiest using it but I'm not committed to it.

It's funny. All these great ideas have been mentioned and I was most concerned about the case and psu. Any thoughts there? Good enough? How much wattage is needed to step to a 4870 for instance with everything mentioned?

Thanks again!