[Surtur55]

Hey guys! I'm looking for some advice on a lower to medium rig.. I have around 800-900 to spend, looking to get the most bang for my buck. I don't really have a lot of experience with all this. I went through Newegg and did my best to try and put something together. I already have a new version of an OS and a monitor, so I don't have to worry about that. Thought I'd try to get some feedback before I ordered it.

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
-COOLER MASTER Hyper 212

ASUS P7P55D LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R

[rabb1t]

You may not want that motherboard. Though it has 2 GPU slots note that one of them is referenced as running at 4x speed. You wouldn't want to run dual card with that I don't think. The Asus P7P55D PRO at $170 is probably what you want if you are ever going to consider dual card. If you are going for the kind of board that is really only good for one GPU you could go with a Gigabyte for teh cheap at $110 (-$40). (Though the Asus one you originally linked does have that fancy 12 phase power.)

Also, I'd say go with the OCZ Gold 4 gig DDR3-1600 kit it's $5 cheaper than Corsair, and it's got slightly tighter timing. The G.Skill Ripsaws used to be king with super tight timing at priced at $95, but they seem to have spiked up quite a bit. If you don't mind slightly slower timing than the Corsair, you can save a bunch with the OCZ Obsidian 4 gig DDR3-1600 kit currently at $60 post rebate.

I'd say the XFX 5770 at +15 over Sapphire is probably worth it for the double lifetime coverage (vs. two year). Your choice though.

The EarthWats is likely fine, but you may want to check for reviews to be sure it doesn't run max fan speed. (It shouldn't since it's designed to save energy, but I vaguely recall reading a review once which said it did (run at max).)

I'm fairly certain the green drives are not good for gaming due to having slower spin speeds. I read an article back in the day and recall that they pointed to several factors which made them a poor choice for gaming or heavy media use. (Light media was 'ok'.) I don't see anywhere that references it's RPM speeds at NewEgg or WD. Though a fair bit more, I'd say stick with the WD Black 1 Tera at $110 if you are going to be gaming.

[Surtur55]

Hey rabb1t~

Thanks a bunch for the info. I went ahead and took your advice about the memory and Mobo. Went with the pro version of the P7P55d. I was thinking about switching into crossfire eventually so I'd like to have the option open. I started looking more into PSU's, but my budget is getting reallly tight. Do you think OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W would be a better option?

Thanks again, I really appreciate it!

[Fozzik]

I'm not sure about OCZ's power supplies. They may be good, I haven't checked. The price seems awful cheap for that wattage rating, though...and that always scares me.

Corsair and Seasonic are both good, also PC Power & Cooling. Wait, didn't OCZ buy PC Power & Cooling a while back? I wonder if they are integrating any of the goodness into their own (OCZ) power supplies. Maybe someone else would have more useful info than me.

[Amsra]

I have a Nice 750W Corsair in my recent build and love it. Rock solid stable and quiet Lol, and a nice touch.....it came in a black velvet bag, much like fine liquor Having a good power supply is the best base for system that can last you years. Imho, it's worth a bit more money for something that will last

Hehe, not sure if I ever posted pics of my system here, built it in April of this year. E8500 modestly OC'd to 3.5, 4G, sli or xfire ready......my only weak point was a 250GTS 1G vid card but honestly I haven't had any problems with graphics with it. Cost me 1k usd at the time including the 22" wide screen. Oh and I have about 900G of storage between about 3 drives I can pretty much play anything on the market at max effects or close to em at 1980x1020, so I'm happy. When Nvidia comes out with hopefully something new, I'll think about upgrading again

I have to thank Foz, rabbit and all the other great peeps who post here for helping with my system. Just from your comments and such

Anyway, here's the pics...

http://picasaweb.google.com/Amsra1/N...MvQlpbK6oLsTQ#

[Slide]

Originally Posted by rabb1t

I'm fairly certain the green drives are not good for gaming due to having slower spin speeds. I read an article back in the day and recall that they pointed to several factors which made them a poor choice for gaming or heavy media use. (Light media was 'ok'.) I don't see anywhere that references it's RPM speeds at NewEgg or WD. Though a fair bit more, I'd say stick with the WD Black 1 Tera at $110 if you are going to be gaming.

The WD Green has variable spin speeds, and it's Samsung counterpart the F2 Green is fixed at 5200 RPM. Even with these slower speeds, these drives are pretty quick because of the cache and the dense platters. They really are more suited to being a storage rather than OS drive. People over here are really rating the Samsung F3 as being ludicrously fast with the WD Black coming in a bit behind.

Interestingly, if you get one of those drives and make just one small (300MB) partition at the start of the drive and don't partition the rest up you get something approaching Velociraptor speeds as seek times are reduced, and the outside of the disk has higher velocity.

[rabb1t]

I often send people to the OCZ PSUs for teh cheap. Never had anyone come back and say it was bad. They are often on sale.

700w is a better target in power for dual card, but if you look at the lines on that one you are limited to two lines (one a 6-pin, one an 8-pin). That's somewhat risky what with the dual plug cards. (The reduced plug count is likely why they are always cheaper)

Though quite a bit more, you probably want to stick with something 'safe' like the Corsair 850w with 4 plugs. No time to check around at the other PSU manufacturers though right now.