New gaming i5 build.

Since you have indicated you might want to crossfire two graphics cards in the future you should upgrade to a ASUS P7P55D PRO or Gigabyte P55-UD4P motherboard. However, you also say "I'd prefer to get all the parts from the shop itself so items that are not listed on the list are out of the question." If you are not going to crossfire, the motherboard you selected is fine.

For the remainder of this post, I am going to assume you are not going to crossfire. If that is the case, then you should get the 4890 because it has better performance than the 5770 for a small price difference. I would recommend you go with the 1TB drive. The power supply is adequate for the system, but if you crossfire you should upgrade to a least a 650 W unit. Any brand name DVD drive should be adequate.

Building your own PC can be very rewarding. If you can read the motherboard users manual, and are good at following directions and figuring things out, then I would say build it yourself.

I would get this DVD drive:

Samsung S223 22x DvD+-RW (SATA)................32

I know building by the shop is inexpensive over there. I would recommend you try and learn how to build a computer yourself and ask the shop if you have any problems. You can also ask us here. It's not that hard or dangerous.

I would suggest you build it yourself. It's not hard at all, especially with the large amount of guides out there, and the fact you've already found this forum.

If you build it yourself...

I'm disagreeing with dpaul on the 4890 vs. 5770. The 4890 would be better performance, but is less future proof. The 5770 is a new card, and supports DirectX 11. It is lower powered, but performs very well when Crossfiring. That said, it will depend a lot on the type of games you play and the monitor resolution. Check out some benchmarks on this site.

I would also suggest not getting the WD. Instead, get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 (either 500 GB or 1 TB). These are some of the fastest drives out right now and are usually cheaper than WDs.

^+1. Here are some HDD performance charts:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-har...

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/3.5-hard-drive-chart...

I have edited the list with some changes such as the power supply. Is it acceptable now?

Regarding getting the WD, I only list it down there because I can't find a supplier for the Samsung Spinpoint F3 drive. If I manage to find one when heading down to the mall I'll get that instead of the caviar black.

One more question. Is it feasible if I swapped the UD4P for a UD3, switch to a 450W CoolerMaster PSU and with the savings upgrade my GPU to a 5850?

Another option for a replacement to the Samsung is the Seagate 7200.12. It also has 500 GB platters. The reason I recommend the Samsung is that Seagate's last drive (the 7200.11) had a lot of problems. The F3 is a safer bet right now.

I would not switch to a Cooler Master PSU. The brand I typically recommend are Corsair, OCZ and Antec. You could save a little by switching to an OCZ or Antec. As far as lower wattage, it depends on if you're going to Crossfire later. Adding the second card will require the larger unit.

Clarify me on this:
The board u suggested Gigabyte P55-UD4P is 2 x PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (@x16 or @x8, x8)
The board he picked Gigabyte P55A-UD4P is 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) Note: When dual graphics cards are used in 1st and 2nd PCIex16 slots, SATA3 / USB 3.0 (Marvell 9128 /NEC USB 3.0 Controllers) will work at normal mode.


Doesn't it mean with his board & crossfire he gets 16x, 8x while the one u recommend is x8, x8. If so, wouldn't his board give better crossfire performance?

No. When you crossfire, the board scales both slots down to the same speed. Thus, when two cards are running, they're both at 8x/8x.

The two boards are identical (for most purposes). The second one (P55A) has been updated, as there were problems with exteremly overclocked CPUs.

Alright, I'll stick to the Corsair PSU then.

Does anyone have any opinions on if I swapped the mobo for the UD3 and with the savings upgrade to a 5850?

Bump!