Guidance and Advice Needed. Thank you!

[shengjie84]

Hi guys,

I am planning to get the following, your inputs and suggestions are needed.

Before I list the parts, here are my usage of this system:
1) Playing movies, output to my 32inch monitor
2) Surfing internet, listening to music, photo editing and word processing
3) Playing some games such as F1 2010, HAWX 2
4) I am NOT planning to OC

My budget is around USD$1000

Motherboard + Processor
Asus P7P55D-E LX P55 USB3.0/SATA3 + Intel i5 760

Hard Disk
Western Digital 500GB 32MB (Caviar Black)

Memory
PC3 12800/1600 Kingston HyperX CL7 (4Gb Kit)

Graphic Card
Asus ENGTX 460 Directcu TOP 1GB

PSU
CoolerMaster GX550W Single Rail

Internal DVD
Sony 880S 24x DvD+-RW (SATA)

Casing
CMaster Centurion 5 II


A few questions:

1) Asus P7P55D-E LX P55 USB3.0/SATA3 vs Gigabyte P55A-UD3 USB3.0/ SATA 3, which is better?

2) If I need Firewire, should I get Asus P7P55D-E P55 USB3.0/SATA 3 instead?

3) OCZ 12800/1600 DDR3 CL7 vs PC3 12800/1600 Kingston HyperX CL7? And what is the difference between CL7 and CL9?

4) There are 3 GTX 460 brand I have in mind, Asus ENGTX 460 Directcu TOP 1GB, MSI N460GTX Hawk 1GB DDR5, and Palit GTX460 Sonic Platinum 1GB GDDR5. I understand from Tom's Hardware that Palit got good price to performance ratio, but the warranty is shorter than others. Do you think using the ASUS GTX460 would be a better choice?

5) CoolerMaster GX550W Single Rail vs OCZ Z-Series 550W? Is 550W enough for my system, or should I go for a higher voltage such as CM Silent PRO Gold 600W?

6) Do I need to get a discreet sound card such Asustek Xonar Essence STX PCI-E since I use my PC to listen to music as well.

Thanks you very much for taking time to read my post.

Regards,
Mr James

 

[jason gran]

1) Asus, but both are good
3) CL=case latency. lower the better
4) MSI>Asus>Palit
5) should be enough. may want to go higher for futureproofing
6) dedicated sound cards are not necessary. most motherboards have built in sound cards already which sound great

 

[shengjie84]

Thank you very much.

But was just wondering why Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum was less favorable? Warranty issue?

If I decided to change my graphic card to HD5850, will that be a wiser choice?

 

[obsidian86]

Depending on when you buying ati should gate some new hardware out in a week or 2.the gx series is crap get the ocz or antec tpn or eco units

 

[obsidian86]

Depending on when you buying ati should gate some new hardware out in a week or 2.the gx series is crap get the ocz or antec tpn or eco units