Rookie needs gaming build critique

[dant32]

Building my first (technically second) computer. One of my relatives is a pretty high-up manager at intel, so for my first build he got me a ton of the parts I needed and basically constructed it himself. This will be my first time handling everything on my own, so I'm just trying to check if the parts match up correctly. This is going to be a gaming rig, but nothing too ridiculous. I'm on a budget of $800 - $900, and this (not counting the case or a new monitor) is already going to be around $875. Anyone who can help me chop off a few bucks without sacrificing too much performance would be a hero in my book.

PS- new to the site, and after looking around this seems like a great place for tech stuff... but here's what i've gathered so far:


Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6GB/S USB 3.0 ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514&Tpk=gigabyte%20ga-990fxa-ud3

Proc:
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103913

Memory:
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) 240 Pin DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

Video Card:
MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280 MB 320 Bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127582&Tpk=MSI%20N570GTX%20Twin%20Frozr%20III%20PE%2fOC%20GeForce%20GTX%20570%20%28

HD:
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200RPM, 32MB Cache, SATA 6.0GB/s internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697&Tpk=Seagate%20Barracuda%20ST31000524AS%201TB%207200RPM%2c%2032MB

OR

Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10000RPM 32MB cache, SATA 6.0gb/s internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136928

Power Supply:
APEVIA ATX 680WATT SLI ready
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148022

 

[AdrianPerry]

I wouldn't go that cheap on the PSU.

This would be much better: Corsair 600w $50 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

This HDD (Spin Point F3) is considered to be better than the SeaGate for the same price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=spinpoint%20f3

This 60GB Vertex SSD will grant you better performance as a boot drive/applications than the Veloci HDD albeit a smaller size, its worth considering.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227550

 

[dant32]

I do like the Spin Point F3, going to go with that over the vertex for the price. Thanks for these suggestions, I wasn't too sure of the PSU so I just figured a random/cheap one with over 600w would do

 

[xxnickkkk]

do you really need the 6 core for multitasking or want to go bulldozer in the future? otherwise you could probably get an i5-2500k and motherboard for a similar price

 

[dant32]

do you really need the 6 core for multitasking or want to go bulldozer in the future? otherwise you could probably get an i5-2500k and motherboard for a similar price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
This i5 is $30 more than the Phenom I picked out, do you think I could go for a motherboard for less then $100? How much of a difference would it really make in performance? I'm not too interested in bulldozer right now, but it was a perk that I had in mind for later on in the long term.

 

[xxnickkkk]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=288 benchmarks of the 2 against each other i5 wins in almost everything and overclocks like a beast if you ever need a little more
and on newegg look under the combo deals for the i5-2500k. a couple processor and motherboard deals under 320-330 i wouldnt know which motherboard is the best though

 

[zero888]

One word of note, spend a good amount of money on the psu, or you will encounter some problems in the future.

For cpu go for a quad since 6 cores are reserved for more extreme gamers.

Mobo is fine

For HDD I personally recommend Western Digital just because I've had great success with them (one lasted from 2004 and is still reading omg).

Power Supplies- Corsair, Antec, Thermaltake, and Silverstone are good brands. Just make sure you get at least a 500w supply that is at least 80plus certified.

Video Card is your preference.

Overall, those components you selected are good, albeit the psu and some other parts. Just make sure you research, read multiple comments of some consumers, and play around with different configurations. I've spent $400 on mine and I can even run crysis 2 and gta 4 with 30fps, I know its crazy.

 

[DeadRam]

Your realative works at Intel and you're building an AMD system? I thought Intel employees got huge discounts. I woud choose the Core i5 2500K or even an i7 2600K if your realitive can get a discount.

 

[tomskent]

its a bad time to build a new system now that bulldozer is coming out in a couple of weeks.
If you can wait you can probably get a cheaper, faster system.
Just hold a bit longer.