Need help on first gaming build

[ferddlcruz]

Hi all. I'm building my first pc for gaming and school stuff. And this is what I came up with, and idk if it's going to work. Would really appreciate some advice.

Time : Around next month
budget: $500 for system / $700 - 800 including peripherals (keyboard, monitor, mouse, speakers) and OS

CPU AMD Phenom II X2 555 $88
Motherboard ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G $90
RAM G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 $30
HDD Seagate ST31000524AS Barracuda Hard Drive - 1TB $60
Optical Drive Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X Internal DVD Burner $21
Case ????
PSU Thermaltake TR2 W0388RU 600W ATX 12V v2.2 Power Supply $65
Video Card radeon 6850 $170
Monitor: ?????
keyboard: ????
mouse: ????
speakers: ????

Location: US

I wanted to play games on med settings and do school work on this pc too. This is also my media pc for music and movies.

For the CPU, I read that the 3rd and 4th core can be unlocked and for the price, I am thinking of upgrading to 6 cores once the bulldozer is out (assuming price drops).

For PSU, I have no idea for how much power I'd need in this system. I saw some builds with about 450W max power, is that gonna be enough, say, if I upgrade to a 6-core?

Case is of personal choice

-ferd-

 

[geofelt]

Looks reasonable, but do not count on unlocking cores.
Also, a gaming cpu should have strong per core performance, not a lot of cores.
Most games use two cores, perhaps three. A 6 core cpu is not much good for gaming.

As an alternative, look at Tom's $500 gaming build:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diy-gaming-pc,2970.html

 

[ferddlcruz]

Thanks. If I try to unlock the cores and fail, will that damage the cpu?

 

[Overclocked Toaster]

You can get phenom ii quads for a little more than $100. I think it will be well worth it. Geofelt's advice is kinda dated, alot of new games benefit greatly from quad cores and you don't want to be stuck with a dual core. trying to unlock cores is not worth it when the price difference is so small anyway.