SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Browsing
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor or GPU
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.ca, NCIX.com
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Newfoundland, Canada
PARTS PREFERENCES: See comments below.
OVERCLOCKING: Maybe, if I have to for my price range.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: I don't plan on it, unless I can be convinced otherwise.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: Monitor Not Required
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I already have a HD 5850 ordered, so I need the rest of my system. I was thinking of using a core i5, but I don't know anything about bottlenecking. Also, I don't know; what PSU to get, difference between MoBos, or difference between DDR3 Dual-Channel RAM. I don't plan on Crossfiring, I'd rather a single gpu solution.
With all that in mind, I had this chosen;
-RAM, OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Hmm, for some reason the links didn't work correctly, but assuming that is the same RAM I was looking at, the problem is that it is very high latency RAM, which hurts performance quite a bit.
------------------------------Phenom II X4 940 BE 3.0GHz - 1.25V > GA-MA790GP-DS4H > XFX ATI 4850 1GB > 4GB OCZ Platinum 1066MHz 5-5-5-15-2T > PCP&C 610W
Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz > GA-MA770T-UD3P > Sapphire ATI 4650 512MB DDR3 > 4GB OCZ Platinum 1600MHz@1066MHz > XP/Win7 Enter 64
Reply to EXT64
True that CAS7 or CAS8 RAM around the same price would be better than that CAS9, though probably wont make a couple percent difference outside of benchmarking.
The RC 690 is midsize, not full tower so I doubt it. Usually its only a problem in full towers with a couple extra inches between the PSU and motherboard. If it is a problem, power extensions are pretty cheap and should be easy to get.