Build Help

[MIRTBelGeran]

Been out of hardware for a bit and dont ahve the time to research myself.
I'm upgrading/building 2 systems and plan to reuse differant hardware in each. My end goal is to have 2 "almost" identical systems in the end.
#1 if for ME #2 is Bro in LAW

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing?
Both systems are primarily for Gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
#1 $700-1000
#2 1000-$1300

3) Where do you live? TX

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
#1 = CPU, RAM, MB, Maybee Video, Maybee HDD,
#2 = Everything but the case and DVD

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
#1 Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W, HDD 74GB WD Raptor Maybee, NV8800GT Maybee...
#2 DVD Drive and Case

6) Will you be overclocking? Mild OC To get my best value without adding expence of major cooling

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? Wide screen full HD resolution do not need this speced out as part of the build. 24+

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? 1st week in Feb buy build 2nd week

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc. No special needs just stability with a mild OC

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit? Yes XPx32 but thinking of going to W7 x64

 

[defaultluser]

Here's your baseline build for both systems.

Core i5 + Gigabyte mobo with USB 3/SATA3 $320

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.319613

4GB DDR3 1333 $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251

XFX 5850 1GB $300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150442&cm_re=hd_5850-_-14-150-442-_-Product

That brings the total to $720 for both systems. This will fit your goal of making them almost identical. We can fill-in the cracks with additional components to fit your goals.

System 1: optional HDD/SSD
System 2: needs a PSU and HDD.

PSU: Corsair 650w ($90)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...005&cm_re=corsair_650w-_-17-139-005-_-Product

This is enough power to add a second 5850 in Crossfire and overclock the hell out of your Core i5.

So, we're down to the HARD DRIVE.

What do you want to add? Do you just want a regular hard drive, a Velociraptor, or an SSD? Do you want to keep the Raptor on System 1, or just go hog-wild and get a drive for both systems?

Some suggestions:

Combo SSD (games + OS) + new hard drive (data)

Intel 40GB $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...167025&cm_re=intel_ssd-_-20-167-025-_-Product

OCZ Vertex 60GB $240 ($210 after MIR)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...27394&cm_re=ocz_vertex-_-20-227-394-_-Product

Intel 80GB $290

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...167016&cm_re=intel_ssd-_-20-167-016-_-Product

A good data drive: WD Black 1TB $100 (there are cheaper drives available)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284&cm_re=wd_1tb-_-22-136-284-_-Product

 

[engiNURD]

Another good data drive would be the Samsung F3 1TB:
$90 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA300

If you go with an SSD, I'd highly suggest the Intel or Kingston 40GB (or soon to be released 30GB) if you only plan on getting a single SSD. If you want fast sequential speed, the vertex drives are faster than Intels, but at the cost of much slower small random write speeds. http://ssd.alphaq.org