How's this for a gaming machine?

how much RAM? budget?

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

are you looking for a liquid cooling or high end air cooling?

and save some money and get the 955

The sky is the limit? What kind of RAM.

I'd prefer a high end air cooler, unless you know of a liquid cooler that has n maintenance.

If you could post in this format, it would help people make recommendations suiting your needs.

First off, you're going to get plenty of people telling you that the 965 could easily be a 955, and that the Crosshair IV is overkill. By and large, they're right, but since I have the same components, I can't say that.   You could just as easily get a 790FX board or a Gigabyte 890FX board for a little less.

In general, you want an 80+ Ceritifed PSU, and probably 650-750W for your current setup, more if you intend to CrossFire later. Antec, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, and XFX all make quality PSUs across the board. Other brands vary.

For RAM, you'll want at least 1333 MHz or 1600 MHz RAM, and the lower the CAS Latency is, the better. 1333/1600 MHz CL7 is generally considered the sweet spot for price/performance. Don't pay more than $10-15 more for 1600 MHz.

For a HSF, check out Frostytech's top "5" heatsinks for ideas on what to get. I have the Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme, which offers one of the best blends of performance & noise level, and I'm very happy with it.

Lastly, do you really need Win 7 Ultimate? Most of the features in it aren't really useful to most home users.

well the corsair h70 is coming out and its sealed so theres apparently no maintenance, i was also looking at cpu coolers and i decided on the thermalright venomous x rt, but as you said you have like no budget the noctua NH-D14 is an option too, but its not much better

Can you recommend a bran of RAM? Preferably 1600 MHz.

g skill

How's this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

almost like mine... mm maby crosshair formula its overkiller and more if ur not gonna to overlock.. if ur not goin to overlock u can get 965 if u want but with an asus m4a89gtd pro/usb3 if ur gonna to use it get the crosshair but with the 955 cause its the same as the 965...

change wester digital for samsung spinpoint f3 they are better than the wd in all the aspects soo...

if ur in usa its better to get xfx GPU for the warranty but if ur not its the same

again for the cpu cooler.. just get it if u will overlock..

ram 4gb ddr3 1600mhz cl7 .... g.skill, corsair, mushkin, crucial are the best...

and for the psu i recomend the xfx 850w black edition (for future crossfire) or a corsair hx 850w

nice choise for the case   i want thatone too  ... be sure to get the BE one cause in the old one ssd cant be installed

It really depends on your budget, as do most of the recommendations.

You can get G.Skill 1600 MHz CL7 RAM for about $105. Or if you want to pay for a little tighter timings, there's Mushkin 1600 MHz CL6 RAM available for $130 (2 links). If you need to go lower, you can get CL9 RAM from just about anyone for $85-95.

Another thing to consider, depending on your budget, is possibly getting an SSD for your boot drive.