MSI or Gigbyte; which brand for a HD6850??

Your MOBO is just fine. between the twe I would say MSI but if you can find one made by XFX. It has a life time warranty. This is just my opinion. And good luck to ya

Ok, thanks, so by XFS you mean an XFS 6850? And can you answer my question, please? So how do I control the default overclock, is it manual or is it automatic? like manual I can control it...Or like automatic it just goes by itself whenever I play a game it goes on?...Thanks!

XFX not S here is a link to one. Of if you can swing more money look at the 6870

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Bad reviews on the XFS about Loudness and I don't really want my GPU to be loud, also I'll probably stick with a 6850 and maybe crossfire 2 6850's and dual monitor with a 620 w antec PSU, is that possible? and can you please answer my question about overclocking;So how do I control the default overclock, is it manual or is it automatic? like manual I can control it...Or like automatic it just goes by itself whenever I play a game it goes on?...Thanks!

The XFX GPU come's with a life time warranty, If Evga would make the 6850 then I would say that. Any about your question. To controll the OC'ing you use MSI Afterburner. You can ajust fan speeds and core, shador, and memory clocks. Here is the link for MSI It is free you also can monitor your temps and your FPS

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

MOBO:ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU:Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52400
RAM:Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BA1339
PSU:Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3
GPU:GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA Series GV-R685OC-1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
HDD:Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Thoses're my specs. just wondering how much MHz would I get after OCing? Thanks. Like 10%

Also am I going to have to install the afterburner to be able to control the Over clocking?...I'd think they'd have it pre-installed or at least like a CD that comes with that explains it.

OC i5 2400 not a good idea  

well it's not over clocking technically it's "default overclocking" go look at the MSI 6850HD on newegg. I don't think you need an i5 2500k for it or why is it a bad idea to use a i5-2400 with the default over clocking?

screw MSI. newegg is running a 48hr sale right now. ( via e-mail )... you can get an ultra durable gigabyte for $120. look into it.

The 2500K is WAY better for overclocking. Most hit 4.7ghz easily with a decent after market cooler. The 2500K has an unlocked multiplier so it's super easy to OC. The 2400 is locked down so it barely moves when you try to OC, before it becomes unstable. You would be lucky to get 100mhz extra out of it from manual overclocking.

You may also want to look into a different PSU as well if you plan to crossfire GPU's down the road. I'd recommend a good quality 750w PSU from Corsair/Antec/Seasonic/Thermaltake Toughpower series, NOT the TR2 series. It's always good to have a little extra headroom in the PSU department. Especially if you plan to OC anything or add a second video card. Here is a good PSU calculator you can try out: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/ You can even put CPU overclocking into the calculator.

Wow only 100 MHz lol. I guess i'll stick with my gigabyte 6850HD and my i5-2400 for my first build, i'll upgrade my parts as well as my PSU to 750 W if that's what is necessary for a crossfire. Thanks.  

MSi 6850 is good but if your looking for alternatives, sapphire 6850 is also very good and should be a few dollars cheaper

get a 6870, worth the few bucks more

Few more lol the 6850 is like $139.99 > $119.99 rebates, 6870 $199.99 > $179.99 rebates... That's a $60 difference and I'm over my budget a bit so I need to save more then spend so I'll stick with my gigabyte 6850, I don't trust sapphire, sapphire was my first option in a GPU at first but I saw some very nasty comments...So I got recommended gigabyte I saw some very pleasing comments/reviews.  

On the MSI web site you can get a user guide that you can down load. For now you are just going to play around with it and just see how it works. Once you figure it out it is really simple in what you need to do.

If you haven't yet click on settings at the bottom and it will take to the menus for setting your fan way points so when your temps go up so does your fan. Just do what you were going to do in the first place.

Later on when you get money, then buy stuff as you go to put together a better rig. Your rig now is good enough with your choice of GPU to play most of the games and do other stuff. Your MOBO is a good one.

You have to do what you can afford and not what eveybody wants you too. If we had money then we would have supper computers made out of gold and diamonds.

haha thanks for replying, also funny you should mention have you seen that article about the most expensive computer maxed out specs I believe and guess how much it was? If I remember correctly (i'm off a bit) $570k-650k! it's made of pure gold with diamonds!! omg  !