New System Build, first time, lots of questions

[George20]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I'd like to finish up sometime this month or next month.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Multimedia, Internet, Homework lol

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:
Monitor- 20.5 inch acer hd
keyboard and mouse
speakers'

Here is what I have purchased so far:
CM Storm Sniper Case Black Edition
XFX Radeon 5770 1GB DDR5 Video Card
500 GB Caviar Black Hard Drive
Asus DVD-RW Optical Drive


PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Any place that carries a warranty, preferably newegg, tiger, amazon, but im open to others if you know them, price matters lol. oh and frys cant forget them.
PARTS PREFERENCES: I was thinking about going with a AMD 955 BE Phenom IIx4 because i heard it has the price/performance and is awesome for gaming. I don't want to drop a small fortune into a cpu if u know what i mean? Tips?

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Possibly further down the road i would maybe add another 5770 if i had to?

MONITOR RESOLUTION: I'm not really sure on the resolution thing, i think i play most of my games on like 1024x768

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

I believe I am missing these parts and i have these questions about em.

Motherboard:
I have no idea what to do here, im wanting something thats going to last and be up to date, and i have no clue about chipsets and stuff, i dont know if i need the latest to perform on the top level and stuff like that. Also i don't know how much the board will play a role if im overclocking?

Processor:
I was thinking the black edition 955 phenom II x4, i heard it is great for overclocking if i choose to do so?

Power Supply
Are these power supplys pretty much universal, as long as i get a crossfire one, with about 750 watts i should be ok? I know i should probably do a corsair one for sure because its a pretty important component.

Ram:
DDR3, affordable gaming ram, have yet to decide because i think the motherboard is a decision to make first?

CPU Cooler:
Whats best for overclocking? Id like a nice cooler but not break the bank on it as well.

 

[batuchka]

If u have no apps outside gaming that remotely need the processing power of a 955BE i'd just hit the AthlonII X3 440 and are u saying u usually turn down to 1024 x 768 resolution for settings? If so even a lowly HD 4670 would be fine else game on your LCD's native resolution hehe

 

[George20]

Well i like to do alot of stuff like alt+tab in and out of games, so i was just wanting something pretty beastly atm. Plus I noticed a few games i was interested in, recommending a quad core such as Battlefield bc2.

Well I never knew resolution really mattered, so thats what im used to, but i would glady turn the resolution higher on a better pc like this.

 

[WR2]

If going with the X3 435/440 will get you into a better video card that would be a good outcome.

What is the top resolution of your monitor? What is your current system?

 

[batuchka]

What current board u on?

 

[George20]

umm some amd workstation i believe, its an acer aspire pc.

ACER E380

 

[George20]

Well I have already purchased and used the current video card on my old setup, so im pretty much just going to take it out when i get this system done.

my monitor is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16824009157

my current system is a amd athlon x2 4400+ 4gb ddr2 ram, windows 7, and the radeon 5770

 

[batuchka]

Ah ok brand name PC ^^ If u wanted to game on your native reslution (Full HD) i would have picked something like a HD 5850 but since u are used to turning down res and HD 5770 is a decent GPU:

The following allows u CF capability in future but not sure if it's within your budget? Toning down to the X3 is one option if it is not ^^

 

[George20]

Yeah I read that the 5770 is pretty good for the money, and i dunno but its says it supports up to 2560x1600 i think, so shouldn't i still be able to do that? I mean if i wanted to?

 

[batuchka]

Err supporting and giving you playable frames for games at 2560 x 1600 is like night and day LOL I say since u bought HD 5770 dun over analyse and tone down res/settings if u have to on a single GPU set up

 

[George20]

Would it be possible to build an i5 750 build for around the same budget? I was kinda debating on paying the extra few bucks for one, any ideas?

Also is the i5 750 any good without overclocking it, i noticed it has a 2.66 clock speed which seems kinda low, what makes it so good against the phenom iix4 955? i mean the phenom ii has a 3.2 clock speed and 4 cores.

 

[goalguy876]

The i5 can just overclock like hell.

 

[wortwortwort]

The i5 750 can commonly get speeds up to 3.46GHz at stock voltages. By changing the voltage, you can get well above 4GHz. Here's an article.

Without overclocking, it can usually beat the X4 965. In some applications, it will even beat the hexa-core X6 1055T (maybe half the time). Here's some proof.

The i5 750 beats the X6 1055T in 17/28 benchmarks.

Edit: It doesn't name some of the processors in the comparison chart. From left to right, they are the i5 750, X6 1055T, X4 965, X4 955 and X4 945.

 

[George20]

nevermind didnt go with the i5, went with the phenom ii 955 and asrock 870 mobo

 

[George20]

ok im a little low on cash.

so i was wondering would it be possible to get my

ram+ 750power supply for less than 180 shipped? or should i wait?
Im not sure if a 650 will be ok if i choose to expand from neweggs calculator.

like if i added an extra 5770, hard drive and 2nd optical drive.

 

[Silmarunya]

If you want a budget gaming machine, it could be worthwhile to:

a) Get a P55 motherboard with an Intel i3-530. It's only dual core, but is easily the best overclocking CPU on the market and since games rarely use more than 2-3 cores, it's just as good as most quad core CPU's for gaming. It will keep up with the 955 in all but the most CPU-intensive games. (roughly $120)

b) Get an Athlon II X3 440. It's the cheapest CPU that still delivers excellent gaming performance and you can unlock the dormant core with some luck. The budget CPU to get atm. (roughly $90)

As for the GPU, stick with the 5770 but get a motherboard that supports decent crossfire (8x/8x or 16x/8x or 16x/16x). If the 5770 can't handle it on its own anymore and you've saved some additional cash, you can just pop in another GPU.

RAM: the cheapest DDR3-1333MHz you can find

PSU: a good 600W PSU, Antec or Corsair are best. DON'T skimp on your PSU.

 

[George20]

ive pretty much decided on the asrock 870 EXtreme3 motherboard
the 955 black edition phenom ii

its just the ram i was going to get is 109, but im not sure if 650 watts is gonna cut it, if i expand, or overclock? neweggs calculator totally got me thinking.

 

[George20]

Ah ok brand name PC ^^ If u wanted to game on your native reslution (Full HD) i would have picked something like a HD 5850 but since u are used to turning down res and HD 5770 is a decent GPU:

The following allows u CF capability in future but not sure if it's within your budget? Toning down to the X3 is one option if it is not ^^
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q205/batuchka/Untitled-173.jpg

Hey I was wondering, I bought the exact setup you showed me here, and i see alot of ppl worrying about timinings because the ram was optimized for i7 systems.

Do I have to update bios out of the box or what am i going ot have to expect out of this? I have never really messed with bios on a pc before. Is this ram going to work fine or?

(Its on its way as we speak)