I've never built a PC and I have very limited hardware experience. Lots of from-the-hip going on here. I've been scouring TomsHardware, AnaTech, TechReport, NewEgg, Falcon's Guide, and /r/buildapc for the past week.
My budget is around US$1000. I plan on using the pc mainly for graphic design and gaming.
I'm not sure about many things, specifically, what might be overkill based on the range of the other components. Go easy!
Here's a NewEgg list of what I've come up with so far.
CASE - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I already know three people using this exact case. Having trouble finding alternatives.
HDD - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
SSD - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX40G 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC
90% on using some form of SSD, cost and risks aside.
PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V
Not sure if 650 is overkill, but I'm anticipating SLI down the road. Will it still be adequate?
Motherboard - ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Toughest choice, most variables, least I know about. I want one to support SLI down the road. Not many reviews on this board, but not sure about alternative.
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
Another shot in the dark, customer reviews and price range seemed to match
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
4G seems enough, not sure how much difference 1600 really makes over 1333.
GPU - XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP
Looks like an excellent mid-range card. I feel comfortable with one decent card instead of two lesser SLI-ones. I expect to pick up another one down the road.
My budget is around US$1000. I plan on using the pc mainly for graphic design and gaming.
I'm not sure about many things, specifically, what might be overkill based on the range of the other components. Go easy!
Here's a NewEgg list of what I've come up with so far.
CASE - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I already know three people using this exact case. Having trouble finding alternatives.
HDD - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
SSD - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX40G 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC
90% on using some form of SSD, cost and risks aside.
PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V
Not sure if 650 is overkill, but I'm anticipating SLI down the road. Will it still be adequate?
Motherboard - ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
Toughest choice, most variables, least I know about. I want one to support SLI down the road. Not many reviews on this board, but not sure about alternative.
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
Another shot in the dark, customer reviews and price range seemed to match
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
4G seems enough, not sure how much difference 1600 really makes over 1333.
GPU - XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP
Looks like an excellent mid-range card. I feel comfortable with one decent card instead of two lesser SLI-ones. I expect to pick up another one down the road.