Opinions on this combo deal

It's not a good idea. It's building on the almost dead DDR2 memory. The HDD is overpriced and not the best performer. The CPU is in the middle range, as in it's not the best performer, but it's not low enough to save some money.

How about you give us an entire budget? Also, check out the link in my signature and follow the guidelines for asking for advice...

Thanks for the response, sorry I'm at work and was just trying to get some quick advice on that particular deal. I have another am3 build planned out with DDR3 but its quite a bit more expensive. Just seeing if I could save myself some money.

It doesn't have to be a lot more expensive. $90 for an AM3 board is very do-able. The best DDR3 sticks of RAM are only $115, compared to the $113 for the DDR2 in the combo. You could easily get something better for close to the same price.

I'm assuming the budget is about $900-1,000. Here's a couple of better gaming build for under that.

Non-Crossfire:

CPU/Mobo: X3 425 and Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 $147 after rebate
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $115
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $90
Case/PSU: Antec 300 Illusion and Earthwatts 650W $125
Optical: Cheapest SATA DVD burner $22 shipped
GPU: HD 5870 $395

Total: $894.

Crossfire:

CPU/Mobo: Same CPU and Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 $197
Case/PSU: Same case and Earthwatts 750W $145 after rebate
Rest is the same

Total: $964.

Ya my budget is 1200-1300 including Windows 7 and monitor

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx...

is what I put together a few days ago

some stuff might be out of stock and i didn't go for any combo deals just because i was mostly trying to figure out components

Ok. After looking at that:

Switch the monitor for the Asus 21.5" 1080p model. It's $160 after rebate.

Switch the case/PSU for the second one I listed.

Switch the RAM.

Drop the case fans.

And try to grab the HD 5870. If it's not in the budget, drop the CPU down until it is.

awesome man, thanks for all of your help

Whoops. Minor mistake to my adivce above. Just go with the change in the second build.

The reason I suggest this is that I forgot that the board you have in the wishlist won't allow Crossfire. The second PCIe slot only operates at 4x, making it useless. The X3 CPU won't bottleneck the GPU in games, as modern games depend heavily on the GPU, not the CPU.

I also didn't notice that you'd still be under budget. Windows will add $105 and the monitor I mentioned will be $160. Stick in the CM Hyper 212 and thermal compund, and you'll be at $1,270 after rebates. You could also increase the CPU for a little extra.