$500 Black Friday Budget Gaming Rig (Buying Tonight)

[loserdork]

Over the last couple weeks, I've accumulated a few different items. I now have a hard drive with Windows Vista (which I can upgrade to 7 Ultimate for $10 with a student discount). I also have a usable DVD-RW drive, and a CPU Cooler.

Approximate Purchase Date: 11/26/10 TONIGHT! (very excited)

Budget Range: $500 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming and Video Editing

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Hard Drive, Optical Drive, and CPU Cooler, and Windows

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.com, Micro Center (actual brick and mortar store or website)

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: AMD CPU

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Not now, but later

Monitor Resolution: Monitor 1 (1920 x 1200) & Monitor 2 (1280 x 1024)

Additional Comments: The CPU Cooler I have is a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, which is pretty big, so I'm assuming I'll do better with a full sized case, I'm also assuming that the OEM Thermal Compound should not be used.

These are the parts I'm looking to get right now:
[strike]XCLIO Windtunnel Fully Black Finish 1.0 mm SECC Chassis ATX Full Tower Computer Case[/strike] [strike]$89.99[/strike] I have a usable case now.

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G ATX Motherboard & AMD Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition Heka 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W COMBO $153.99

Thermaltake TR2 W0388RU 600W ATX 12V v2.2 Power Supply & G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory COMBO $89.98

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound $9.99

SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $199.99
OR
ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $199.99
I can't tell the difference between the two cards.

TOTAL $453.95 before Shipping and Rebates

 

[batuchka]

1. Asus 880G is 16/4 so hit an Asrock 870?
2. Negative on the TT TR2 line of PSUs
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermaltake-TR2-RX-750-W-Power-Supply-Review/902/9

Conclusions

Thermaltake TR2 RX 750 W is, according to our methodology, a flawed product that must be avoided at all costs. It can’t deliver its labeled wattage at high temperatures, but this is not the worst of it: ripple and noise level are way above the maximum allowed when you pull 80% or more from the unit’s labeled capacity (i.e., 600 W and above), overloading your components (especially electrolytic capacitors from the motherboard and video cards), which can cause your PC to present an erratic behavior (crashes and random resets) and, under extreme conditions, damage components.

So counter proposal @ $434AR

HD6K: single/CF review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/amds-radeon-6870-6850-renewing-competition-in-the-midrange-market/8

 

[loserdork]

Best answer selected by loserdork.

 

[batuchka]

Yep happy shopping/building and cheers ^^

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar