600-800 gaming build

Cool i start things off on the lowest end of that budget hehe
$600.93 after rebates ^^

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGIBOX ($166)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X 100269VXL Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card ($199)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply ($110)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ($55)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Here is what I have so far. I am not sure about quality MOBOs or RAM so if someone could give some recommendations, that would be appreciated.

Also, will this PSU have enough wattage for everything I have listed here? And will I need anything besides stock cooling?

Gigabyte 770T-UD3P for established track record as low cost OC board (non CF)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
2 x 2 Gkill 1600 CL7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

[ALL PRICES FROM NEW EGG]

Ok, first off, for gaming, you're gonna want a powerful graphics card, as i'm sure you know.
if you're interested in DX11, you're gonna need an ATI 58xx series, although i think they're WAY too expensive at the minute
So, that leaves us with the choice between the ATI 4890, nVidia GTX 285, or the GTX 295
Straight away, you can eliminate the GTX 285 - its doesn't perform as well as a 4890, and its about $100 more
so we're left with the 4890 or the GTX 295, and unless you want to spend nearly all of your budget on the GTX 295, you'll want ATI's offering

4890 - prices ranging from ~$170 - ~$200

Unless you're into heavy overclocking, you could get a low end intel motherboard, which will function just as well as any high end board, there's just less overclocking potential, fewer features and fewer expansion slots, at half the cost

therefore, the Intel DP55WB is a solid choice at ~$100

now, as the mobo is a socket 1156, that does limit your options to either the i5 750, i7 860 or the i7 870

the i7 870 is far too expensive, for reasons i cannot see, so its not worth it
the i7 860 therefore is the best of the 3 performance-to-price wise
but the i5 750, which i bought recently has showed me that it is definately able to keep up with the big boys, giving the same performance in a gaming scenario where the GPU is the main limiting factor

so the two options are the i5 750, which i would recommend, for ~$200
or the i7 860 for nearly $100 more

so, if you go for the i5, we're at $500 now

next up, RAM
fairly easy to choose, for now, just go with 2 x 2 GB sticks for a total of 4 GB, which should be an ample amount if you use any OS apart from Vista
Also, you'll need DDR3 RAM due to the mobo

just one options of many here: 4GB DRR3 1333MHz ~$90 - ~$100

so now we're at about $600

so, to go for the top end of your budget, you've got about $200 to spend on a PSU, HDD and CPU heatsink, which should be plenty

I might come back to update this with PSU, HDD and CPU heatsink recommendations later, but for now this is it

Hope I helped

here is what i have so far....



as this is my first build i have a few questions so i dont make some huge mistakes:

1. are there are huge mistakes?

2. will everything fit in the case?

3. Do I have enough power? I'm using the stock power supply with the case, but will it be enough for the entire system?

4. Will there be adequate cooling in this system? Could I do without the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro?

5. any other comments you would have for me and my build?

any feedback is appreciated.

This nice case with awesome airflow for the $$ Egg selles it far dearer @ $75  
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...
Get the Corsair VX550 bundled with a SATA DVDRW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Good to go

That Gigabyte Board is excellent. I have two of them and both have been solid.

I bought that same ram for my future i5 build. Should be good, and an awesome value.