Gateway® FX6803-25

The main reasons for building your own isn't just price (and it is cheaper, I'll prove it below), it also deals with quality. Prebuilts come with very low quality parts, especially the boards, PSU, case, RAM and HDD. Pretty much anything they don't have to advertise is going to be cheap. Also, people like to customize their builds. Why get stuck with an expensive CPU when all you need is more RAM or more HDD space? Basically, it's about getting exactly what you want for the price you want to pay.

An i7 with an HD 5850 isn't going to cost you close to $1,600. Here's what an i7/5850 build should cost:

CPU/Mobo: i7-930 and Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R $484
RAM: 2x Corsair XMS3 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $340 after rebate
GPU/PSU: HD 5850 and XFX 650W $335 after rebate
HDD: 2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $140
Case/Optical: Coolermaster 690 and cheap SATA DVD burner $73
OS: Windows 7 Home 64-bit OEM $100

Total: $1,472. I've even doubled the RAM and HDD to beat the listed specs on quantity, neither of which is really needed for gaming.

Besides, an i7 isn't required for gaming, so that's not a plus. The 5850 is also extremely weak for the budget. Here's what you should be getting with $1,600 including an OS, assuming gaming is your primary/only focus:

CPU/Mobo: i5-750 and Asus P7P55D-E Pro $360
RAM/PSU: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 and Corsair 850W $200 after rebate
GPU: HD 5970 $680
HDD: Samung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $70
Case/OS: HAF 922 and Windows 7 Home 64-bit OEM $180
Optical: Cheap SATA DVD burner $18

Total: $1,508

Um, no.
Gateway and most OEMs cheaps out on their Mobos, PSUs,HDD etc, Im sure you can build a better PC for $1600.

Heres some thing to consider:
Core i5-750 $195
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
MSI P55A-G55 $125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Samsung F3 1TB $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Silverstone PS05 $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
2* Sapphire HD5850 $570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
ASUS Blu-ray Drive: $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Win 7 Home premium 64 $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
4GB G-Skill Ripjaws DDR2 1600 $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Total: $1330

You get 2 HD5850s, USB3, SATA6, Blu-ray, and not wasting money on too much RAM. Its also higher quality components, and you can maximize the deal more using newegg's combos.

i5 with mobo - $334, $295 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb - $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

G Skill ram with Cooler Master case - $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

EVGA GTX 460 - $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

A-Data 32gb SSD - $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

DVD Drive+Corsair 850W PSU - $171/$151 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium AND another GTX 460 - $319.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

bout $1436 for 2 GTX 460's, an SSD, 6 gig of and so on. This should be good enough for a while
(more powerful than a GTX 480 - read thiiis - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli...
also almost as powerful as the 5970 -
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/07/26/geforce_gtx_4... )

with the extra monies u can either buy a bigger SSD + another Samsung hdd and put the two Samsung's for a raid

or

buy a GTS250.
Why, well to use it as a PhysX card. Supposedly, it enhances performance and most games that uses PhysX. (It is proven that there is a significant gain in performance.
The reason I say "supposedly) is because on game that dont use use physX, it performs lower than with them (at least ofor me it does.)

read this to be the judge for yourself - http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3332/gigabyte_geforce...

Using a dedicated PhysX card is almost never useful. It's especially dumb since you're using nVidia already.

The 460s are nice cards, but you lose an upgrad path that way.

Good points everyone, that's what I'm looking for. Haven't been researching computer parts since last time I got a computer 3 years ago, so it's only been like a week of research. I thought 2 GeForce 470's out perform 2 5850's? So should I get 2 470's or 5850's over 1 GeForce 480 or ATI 5970?

I need a monitor too, I liked http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168....

So with a 24 inch monitor and a 1600 budget. A few things I'm on the fence about, i5 or i7, my thinking why not get the best. Nvidia or ATI? I always bought EGVA and was always happy but I want which ever is better. 470, 5850 or 480, 5970?

Thanks for your help!

The problem is that dual 470s run crazy hot and use a massive amount of power. The only new nVidia card that should be recommended is the GTX 460.

You shouldn't touch the 470 or 480. In my opinion, you shouldn't do dual cards to start a build since it eliminates an upgrade path. So it's really just the 5970 as the GPU for my recommendations.

With P55 yes, but with X58 and the P55+NF200 you could always add a third card.

a 5970 is a great option and MadAdmiral is right, buying a 5970 leaves more room for upgrading in the future, but as in the second link in my last post, the dual 460 is almost as good, and over $150 dollars cheaper than the the 5970. If you have the money and/or want to upgrade your gpu later on, go for the 5970, (which u have the money), but if you want to save some cash, get the 2 GTX 460's.

@Timop: The problem with the third card isn't the chipset. It's the fact that adding it doesn't improve performance enough to justify the cost. Even if the board allowed 16x/16x/16x, and most X58 boards only allow 16x/16x/8x (or worse), the slight performance increase wouldn't justify the expense of the card. That's why I don't consider Tri-Fire or three-way SLI an option.

But with an 5970, there's isn't much to upgrade wither, adding another 5870 is literally tri-fire, which scales equally as bad.

You'd be surprised. Someone posted a review of three 480s in SLI and two 5970s in CF, and while two ATI cards aren't as good in terms of scaling (I think it's usually around 65-70% versus 75%-85% for nVidia), they don't lose much after that. I believe the 5970s had about 65% scaling overall, versus something like 40% for adding the third 480.

Of course, with a single 5970, you won't need to Crossfire for 4-6 years, so by that time you should be able to get a second one for nothing.