Getting back into it.....

[grunt]

So the most trusted place I can go, back to you guys. First off, hello again!!!! I am deployed and after playing a lan game of black hawk down amongst some coworkers I realized there is something missing from my ps3/360 gaming experience.

It has literally been years since I would configure and overclock my systems, now I haven't got the slightest clue as to what is what or who is who. I used to favor DFI boards, OCZ Ram, AMD CPU's and ATI video cards.... Now I'm like Ray Charles trying to see what is what...

So I went to newegg and snooped around which only made me rethink the decision and I am intimidated by what has evolved. Instead of trashing the idea, I will use the next few months trying to relearn.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBund ... mbo.326245

The above is about the higher end of the amount I want to spend, "system" only. All the other pieces (monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc) will come from in store look and feel. So, I trust you guys will start shooting up or down the items and I will adjust fire from there!!!!

[bubba]

I just built a similar set up. $658 shipped to my door. I reused my old PSU, GTX260, and drives

Asus P7P55D-E - http://legitreviews.pgpartner.com/searc ... lter-query
Intel i7-860 - http://legitreviews.pgpartner.com/searc ... 80605I7860
Corsair XMS3 CMX4GX3M2A1600C9(two sets) - http://legitreviews.pgpartner.com/searc ... 9/st=query

As for the cooler, go with the NH-U12P SE2. Similar price, quieter, performs better. Also the i7-860 run WAY cooler then the LGA1366 i7-920's, so big and beefy is not needed as much. Think OC'd to 3.6 my 860 is just tickling the 60's with the NH-U12P SE2

[pwcmed]

I made a wish list that came out to 1250.

I would wait until the Nvidia cards come out in March. Two things are going to happen, Nvidia cards are going to be faster but way to expensive and ATI will drop the prices on there cards. I do not like Nvidia and will never recommend for anything other than to fold.



Overview

i5 750
ATI 5870
Gigabyte Motherboard
Corsair Power Supply

[Apoptosis]

I would wait until the Nvidia cards come out in March. Two things are going to happen, Nvidia cards are going to be faster but way to expensive and ATI will drop the prices on there cards

NVIDIA GF100 will be faster than 5870... It's already known... It's also known that it will cost more. ATI won't have to drop the price on their cards much due to this though. If the cards performed about the same in games then a price war would happen. I can tell you for a fact that when GF100 performance numbers first came out on the web people at ATI were happy there was a significant performance difference as pricing wouldn't be greatly impacted... just my 2 cents.

[grunt]

Thanks for the info so far, another thing is also the "realistic" difference that I will notice. If I'm not going to be overclocking and stressing over my "fps" in my shooter games then how much cheaper should I go? Should I even worry about building it or just buy a prefab machine?

[smack323]

I think your always going to get better quality by building over prefab. You can also really save yourself some money by using your old PSU, CASE, OS..ect - I'd suggest windows 7.

[pwcmed]

I don't know, the prices have already been coming down slowly. Maybe it's because the supply and demand issue got resolved.