After my intial post on here and reading through a link someone posted for me, I have to say I am still a little confused. Im having a computer store build me a new PC and I'm giving them Windows 7 to put on it and as of now here are the specs:

Antec Case-900(this case has alot of cooling since I might have them overclock my processor)
Gygabyte 785 motherboard(I guess this MB has a decent video card on it they said, but I plan on adding a really nice video card later on)
500GB Seagate HD
AMD965 Phemon IIx4 3.4ghz w/ 8mb cahce
Kingston Memory 6GB/ 1333mhz
DVD-RW Drive

I need this sytem for playing up to 20 tables, running poker tracker, ITunes, uTorrent, etc. I want to game in the future maybe a little now but Im probably going to wait for getting a $300-500 video card. Pretty much for now I just dont want this thing to be freezing at all or have any lag while im playing and running a bunch of programs including PT3.

Please let me know what you think, if I can cut cost anywhere or just your oppinion, anything. They priced me out at $1127 so Im not sure if thats high or what, or if theres anything in the system thats unessacary. Thanks for any help.

How is this post or our replies going to be different than in your first post on this topic?

What are you confused about?

Pretty simple. This time I have a list of specs in place, therefore your replies would be different because you would be commenting on if you think theres anything wrong with that setup, such as me needing better RAM, or maybe a different processor, or maybe the price is too high. I just wanted to see if someone that knows alot about computer hardware and building computers could help me with this particular setup I got going and tell me what they think. Pretty simple.

You're paying way too much IMO. Do you have a friend that could put it together for you? It's really not that difficult to do so. I'd be happy to configure the parts from Newegg for you if this is an option.

I did a rough idea from newegg what you're buying:


Antec Case-900: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021
Gygabyte 785 motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128397
500GB Seagate HD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148395
AMD965 Phemon IIx4 3.4ghz w/ 8mb cahce http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103692
Kingston Memory 6GB/ 1333mhz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104162
( although I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231223 )
DVD-RW Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106328
= $680.95 + <10 shipping. You can save another $40 bucks and probably get better RAM with what I picked too.

I just built my first computer. It is very, very easy. A lot of small steps, but very easy. If you can play poker, I'd be surprised if you had a problem that a post here couldn't fix.

2 big requirements:
1) You know how to handle a screwdriver
2) You know how to plug stuff in. Most of it is plug this square plug into this square hole, this round plug into round hole, round & square plug into round @ square hole. It's pretty hard/impossible to plug most stuff into the wrong place.

I mostly just looked at the wires and looked for places to plug them into that fit.

CPU, 7 disks (power & data), 5 fans, couple motherboard power and a few extra random cables. VERY EASY. Much easier than I expected.

--------------Kitty

Thanks for all the help guys, I thought something smelled weird. I believe the only thing missing from that list of specs was the power supply.

CheckdaQuads I do actually have a friend that Im gonna have put this together for me, so if you could give me a good list of parts from newegg that would be awsome. Also, I was going with that processor to overclock it, do you think that it will be really hard or is that fairly easy enough to where I can do it myself?

In my opinion 6GB is overkill I would start with 4 and put the extra towards a vid card. RAM prices are always dropping, so pickup an extra 2gb if you decide you want it down the road.

Nice setup though

I highly suggest a velociraptor HD

I would go w/ this setup bc I prefer Intel over AMD and believe personally that this Intel setup will outperform any AMD configuration significantly. I just built one of these for a friend and it performs flawlessly:

CPU: Intel Core i5 750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750

This is Intel's new CPU that was introduced this week. It has outstanding reviews so far and is an absolute powerhouse compared to AMD's entire CPU line. Here is a really good review from a reliable source: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=3634

MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3R LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

MEMORY: G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD - Retail

All of these come in a combo package which is currently priced at $419.97 w/ free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.259309

CASE: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $69.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119137

PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Retail - $79.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341017

DVD: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner - OEM - $30.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151187

HARD DRIVE: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM - $64.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136320

TOTAL: $665.93

I didn't include a video card in there because you said you were getting one at a later date. If you need one now though I'd purchase this:

MSI N250GTS-2D512-OCv2 GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127423

Good luck with everything and I hope this helped.

Thanks alot checkdaquads, I'm really liking that setup alot! And I actually have a few extra dollars to spend. After the $665 I have another $335 within my budget not including the video card. So that really makes me want to turn this PC into a gamer as well. So I guess I have a couple more questions.

Is there a better video card with a noticable difference I can get than the one you showed me?
Maybe a better case with better cooling?
Is that processor overclockable? And will it even need to be overclocked?

So I'm pretty much wondering where I can spend that extra $ to make this computer a gamer and also get any noticable differences by maybe upgrading on other parts. Please let me know what you think. And thanks again for all your help.

For the love of god get a velociraptor or a SCSI 10k rpm HD

FYP

There was an amazing deal on these last night from buy.com who had them reduced to 227.99+ free shipping.

Also, it was the second generation card. I was so happy to pick one up at that price. After bing cashback i got it at $209 shipped.

Its my understanding that SSD's have an abnormally short lifespan. Is this not correct?

Why, in this day and age, for any reason whatsoever would someone overclock a processor?!

There was a time when a 133mhz processor needed overclocked by 20-40% to get the latest and greatest games to run, but anymore you're only getting a few points percentage-wise and very minimal performance boosts, most of which you can't even notice anyhow. (For example, going from 110 fps to 120. The human eye can't tell the difference)

But by all means, possibly void your processor's warranty, necessitate extra cooling and power consumption, and make your OS less stable just so you get a few extra operations per clock cycle.

'cause it's fun!!

Thanks for the advice, I read an article on here saying that you should almost definately overclock because there's no reason not too. But I agree with you, it voids the warranty and you cant tell the difference, so whats the point of that risk?

What benefits does the velociraptor offer over the regular hard-drive? And I noticed these are really small GB so obviously they have a great increase in speed but do I need that? Plus since they are so small would that mean I should get like an 80GB of one of those and the 500 GB hard-drive?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127423

Will this video card be fine for playing sports games like Madden, NHL 10, NBA 2k10, and games like GTA4, Battlefield, Call of Duty and maybe WoW? Last time I knew about video cards it was all about how much MB they were but now all of them are 512MB and I'm not sure how you tell which ones are better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-113-_-Product

MUCH better card for $20 more. Barring any system bottlenecks this would run any game currently available. Don't expect this to be an energy saver though.

That is not correct.

Lots of reviews have reported stuttering problems in the lower end cards but this doesn't seem to be as big of a problem in the higher end models. The lifespan decreases were noticed in earlier models also but this seems to have been taken care of for the most part through driver updates.

As of now, I honestly cannot seem to justify the price of SSD's. If you were insistent on one now I'd probably get the drive below because it will have enough room to hold your OS and most of your apps. This will give you a noticeably faster boot up time.

Crucial CT64M225 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail - $178

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148318

If you go with the SSD you can also purchase the 500GB WD drive for additional storage.

The second option if SSD is too expensive is to get 2 of the 500GB drives and run them in RAID 0. This will give you a significant performance boost over a single drive. The only downside to this is that if one drive fails then you will lose your data on the other drive also (i.e. complete hard drive failure if one drive fails).

The third option, as duh pointed out, is the Velociraptor. Only the smaller drive is currently in stock on Newegg but the larger one (300GB) runs around $229.00.

Any of these options would work fine for what you are using it for.

As to your other questions:

1.) Better card - For the money, this is probably the best card available as of now for price/performance. It will run any title close to max settings in 1920x1200 (expect Crysis) and should last you with most games for the next 2 years at decent frame rates.

EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $239.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130475

If I were you I might wait just a few more weeks though to look at the new ATI 5xxx series cards with DX11 support. The 5850 model is rumored to outperform the GTX 285 at stock speeds and should have a retail price of around $299. It will also probably drive down the price of the 4000 series cards too.

2.) Better case/cooling - IMO this case is the stone cold nuts (pun intended). I've used it for the past year and it's perfect in every way. Excellent cooling w/ 1 x 140mm fan and 3 x 230 mm fans and lots of room for future upgrades. This case will last you 10 years with no problems.

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $139.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119160

3.) Overclocking the CPU - The i5 can be overclocked right out of the gate at 4.0GHz with a maximum Turbo mode speed of 3.2GHz.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...orei7870/4.htm

Remember to purchase an aftermarket CPU cooler though if you do plan to overclock. There are tons on Newegg so just make sure the one you choose has the right bracket for your motherboard and processor.

Go Intel. I suggest the i7 920. Stick a $40 heatsink on it and you can easily overclock it from the stock 2.66GHz to 3.8GHz completely stable. I would choose it over any LGA 1156 CPU (the i5s and i7 8xx series). LGA 1366 (what the i7 920 is) supports tri-channel RAM, while LGA 1156 only does dual-channel. Also, i5s don't have hyper-threading like i7s do (i7s have 4 physical cores and 4 virtual cores, i5s just have 4 physical). LGA 1156 is mainstream and LGA 1366 is high-end, basically.

As for hdds, Western Digital >>>>> Seagate.

My suggestions:

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 - $280
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - $190
^^ Combo discount: -$25
EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR X58 Motherboard - $220
Antec Nine Hundred Case + 650W Power Supply - $165
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB Hard Drive - $65
Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - $37

Total: $932, and you'll have an incredible PC. If you want to knock $50 off that total you can go for the ASRock X58 Extreme motherboard instead. The brand isn't really well known, but it got excellent reviews.

Wait for the DX11 video cards to come out before you get a new one.

EDIT: Ah I forgot about the DVD-RW drive. That's only like $30, so whatever.

Alright again I would like to say thanks for all the help, this has been awsome and I feel like Im going to be really happy with my final choices. For now this is what Im going with and I'll be ordering the parts tomorrow so that gives me a little bit of time if theres a swap I should make before making this final:

CPU: Intel Core i5 750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750

MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3R LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

MEMORY: G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.259309
I like those because there in a combo package for $420 w/ free shipping. Plus I can overclock that processor at a later date if I feel the need to and I will probably do that but not right away.

VIDEO CARD EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $239.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130475
I don't feel like waiting for the new video cards to come out and I think this one will last me for a couple years and then I'll replace it with a top of the line card. For now I think this one will be pretty sick. If you think this is the dumbest thing ever please let me know. But if waiting is to just drive down the price or to get a barely noticeable difference, then I dont really mind not waiting because I'm too pumped to wait.

CASE AND POWER SUPPLY Antec Nine Hundred + EA650 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 650W Power Supply $164.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-064-_-Product

HARD DRIVE 2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM - $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136320
Im going to do CheckDaQuads suggestion here and run them in Raid0. However I do have a question on this, will have 1 terabyte total here or just 500gb? Im not sure what running them on raid0 even is but I'll figure it out. In the near future I will probably be buying a velocirapter though.
DVD SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner - OEM - $30.99

Grand Total: $986

Alright well there it is, what I think to be a pretty nice fricken system and Im more than excited to start building this thing with my friend. These parts aren't final but I did put alot of thinking into my options and what to go with. Please let me know what you think. Hopefully I've hit a homerun, but if theres anything that will make a drastic difference please feel free. Thanks

Total size will be 1TB. RAID0 will not give you much of a performance gain and if I were you I wouldn't go that route. It adds too little performance for more risk of failure. Save your money for SSD, that is where a real performance gain is to be had.

RAID0 will basically only increase your seq read/write which are pretty much irrelevant for desktop use. Random I/O is where the bottleneck lies.

Im really confused on the hard-drive option for computers.

What exactly are these expensive hard-drives doing that the 500 GB WD doesnt? If it's just start-up time then I could really care less about the more expensive ones. I would rather just buy two 500 GB and run them seperate so there is no risk and I have 1 terabyte worth of space. However, if they offer a noticeable difference in peformance in areas such as playing games and running all these program at once, then I would definately want to go down that route and just spend more $.