1st Build Ever!! Please Help!

[Croatian Slacker]

Hi Guys,

This would be my first post ever, but been pretty frequently checking these forums out for a while. This will be my first build ever!!! I have done a lot of research and finally came to a decision that i will just got with an AMD... because I would mainly use this PC for gaming and on the bright side it will save me a few 100 of dollars. I want to get your guys opinion on this build and let me know if there is anything you would change... Thanks for all your help!!!!!!


MONITOR: ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen Full HD 1080P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236059


CASE: COOLER MASTER HAF 922 (I already ordered this case, they had free shipping special for this week).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197&cm_re=coolmaster_haf_922-_-11-119-197-_-Product

MOTHERBOARD: MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223

or
ASUS Crosshair III Formula
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131392&cm_re=asus_crosshair_iii_formula-_-13-131-392-_-Product


CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (What is the difference between this CPU and 965? I will be overclocking it, so is it worth the extra money?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674


CPU COOLER: Cool Master V8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055


MEMORY: OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1600 (I will be getting two of these, to make it 8gb total.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227496


HARD DRIVE: Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136283


VIDEO CARD: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102856


PSU: What watt power supply do you think I will need?


CD/DVD BURNER: LG Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136144


OS: Windows 7 Professional
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116717

 

[mavanhel]

What is your budget? What kinds of games do you play? Check out the thread in my signature and you'll see exactly what information we need.

Mobo: Go with the ASUS unless you think that you'll ever make use out of 4 PCI-E x16 slots. Just remember that XFire doesn't scale well and two graphics cards are only slightly worse than three in benchmarks. Bottom line, go ASUS.

CPU: The 955 is definitely the better option if you're going to OC.

HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ is half the price and still an amazing cooler.

RAM: Wow, excellent deal. Go with that, but you don't need 8GB, 4 will definitely be good for your usage.

HDD: Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1TB. It's ~$10 more expensive but much faster than that WD.

PSU: If you're going to XFire, at least a quality 750W one. This SeaSonic 850W for $110 is an amazing deal. Go for it.

Optical drive: If you can find a cheaper one, go for that, as long as it's still a SATA drive. Spending more on an OD just throws your money away. Note: that OD is IDE, you definitely want SATA. It will run faster and make cable management much easier.

OS: This Win7 Pro is half the price and the exact same thing.

 

[Croatian Slacker]

Hey,

Thanks for all the help! My budget is around $1,500 with the monitor. Mainly the games I will be playing are MW2 I also play counter-strike source time to time. kind of got sick of it since i been playing CS since like 2001.. I buy and play all kinds of games (as far as signle play I like alot of adventure ones, example.. AVATAR, lost planet, and lots of other ones..) I took on your advice on the ASUS board and the 1TB samsung f3 spinpoint. I was going to xfire in the future when the price goes a little down for me to get the 2nd card.

 

[mavanhel]

One thing I should point out. That is a good monitor, and it's at a very good price. Even if you don't get your entire system figured out MAKE SURE you get that monitor today as the savings is over after today. It's also likely that you could fit some better parts in there with your budget. Right now I have to go and do a few things, but I'll come back in a bit and see what others have said and see if I can't get you some better deals.

 

[mavanhel]

So, I wanted to throw together an i5 build just to show you. Overall the i5 is better than the Phenom in games, so it would be your best decision. Problem is I also wanted to keep the 5870 in your build, and because of that it's stretched a little out of budget by ~$80.

CPU: i5-750 $199.99

MOBO: ASUS P7P55D-E PRO $189.99

RAM: G.SKILL ECO 4GB 1600 CL7 $119.99 (great RAM for OC because of the low voltage)

OD: LG DVD burner $23.99

Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 $89.98 Free shipping with promo code EMCYZNT45, ends Feb. 1

GPU: XFX 5870 $399.99

HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212+ $29.99

PSU: SeaSonic 850W $109.99

OS: Windows 7 Professional OEM $139.99

Monitor: ASUS 23" $189.99 before $20 MIR

HDD: Samsung F3 Spinpoint 1TB $89.99

Total: $1583.88 before $20 MIR, shipping, tax

I really wanted to keep a lot of these parts, but if you really needed to be below $1500 then we could definitely find some ways to lower the cost of this, or you could go with the AMD build. I just wanted to open up this option as well.

 

[kiren]

MONITOR: ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen Full HD 1080P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236059

MOTHERBOARD: MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223
or
ASUS Crosshair III Formula
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131392&cm_re=asus_crosshair_iii_formula-_-13-131-392-_-Product

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition (What is the difference between this CPU and 965? I will be overclocking it, so is it worth the extra money?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674

MEMORY: OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1600 (I will be getting two of these, to make it 8gb total.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227496

I've seen those monitors running, they look very good and are decently priced, solid choice.
Both of those motherboards are decent, but do you plan to use crossfire? thats the only real reason to go with the more expensive 790FX chipset is the extra PCI-E lanes. I personally stick to single card configs which can save you some on the board. If you plan to use it then go for it though.
Stick with the 955, the only difference is a few MHz, which isn't worth the price, especially since you said you plan to OC it anyway, which will easily surpass the small speed difference.
I have to agree with Maven on the ram, you probably have no need for 8GB, you could get away with 1 pair, and go with the OEM windows of course.

 

[Croatian Slacker]

$80 over is not really a big deal to me... as long as it dosent go here 20 here 30 there 50 and then at the end im like 200-300 bucks over.. You dont have to include the haf case because i already ordered it few days ago and then no one was at home on friday and they are re-delivering it tomorow :-D. I just want to get the best possible Gaming PC for that price.

 

[mavanhel]

Well, if you want the best possible in that price then that's about as good as you can go. Just another thing, if you live near a Microcenter and pick an i5 nice and cheap, not sure on the exact price though.