Need help building fairly high end performance.

[Alpin3star]

I'm definitely looking into those full towers, not only will the performance be enhanced but I'll have a bad*** looking tower. As for overclocking, I'm not sure exactly what it is, besides pushing things to a more extreme limit. I'm also not sure how I would go about doing it, or what the negative effects could be if I were to overclock. I was considering the cooler because it was recommended though. Any chance I could get a brief explanation and an answer to "should I overclock?"

As for the graphics card I think I'm going to stick with a 4890 but Muffinman recommended I use Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! instead. Which offers me the 4890 as well as the better timing ram like you suggested. Both of them for slightly cheaper then the original plan. What are the odds

 

[Muffin Man]

yea, i listed the antec 300 because it was for your budget. a full tower will allow more room, thus more airflow, and the haf 932 that was suggested is a good case, yet a bit pricey.

you can always try to OC if you want, and while a better cooler will help keep cpu temps down with high OC's, it might not be neccessary if your doing minor OCing. a better cooler will lower the temps, thus increasing the life-span of the cpu, so if you have some extra money for it, i would opt to get it.

 

[Alpin3star]

Yeah, I think I'm going to swing for one of the full towers mentioned. I'm not sure which one yet though. Another problem just came to mind though, a monitor. I have several monitors that I could use, but if I'm swinging and spending this cash, what would be some minimum requirements to get full use out of my rigs specs. I would love to swing for a 1900x1200 but it seems to be a little bit out of my price-range. A 1900x1080 may be possible, but anyhow if you guys could recommend a monitor to base the specs off or something I'd appreciate it. Like I said, I have a few monitors and perhaps one of them would be good enough to run games fine in a decent resolution.

 

[Slaymate]

Samsung is my personal favorite. And this one is priced pretty good.
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG ToC T240HD Rose-Black 24" 5ms HDMI Widescreen HDTV Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 10000:1 Built in DTV Tuner & Dolby Digital Surround Speakers - LCD Monitors

 

[JamesMW]

Overclocking is adjusting the CPU or GPU to run at a higher frequency. With an i7, you would go into the BIOS and increase the fsb. My technique is to increase the fsb until a high stress program crashes, and then increase the various voltages to make it stable. I can run my 920 24/7 at 4GHz completely stable. There are many guides out there on the internet.

On of the major limiting factors with overclocking is heat, which is why you generally want an aftermarket heatsink if your gonna be OCing. The one you chose is one of the best low price ones, if you want to OC to high level, one of these would be good.

Newegg.com - XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Thermalright "Limited Edition" TRUE Black Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink (Socket LGA 775 / LGA 1366 / AM2 / Xeon*) - FrozenCPU.com

As for the question of whether or not you should overclock, the answer is absolutely, I would be banned from this forum if I said you shouldn't (that is if one of the mods didn't track me down and shoot me ).

It is always advisable to use caution when overclocking for the first time or you may contract overclocking fever.

 

[Alpin3star]

All right, sounds good. I may check it out but for now I'm going to hold off on the after market cooler (until I decide to attempt to OC). Btw, would I still need that bracket if I were using the stock cooler?
Newegg.com - Sunbeam CR-LGA1366 LGA 1366 Core I7 Socket Retention Bracket Set - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

 

[patonb]

No, you won't need the bracket for a stock fan.

That haf case is a great case... For cases, check out the wire management thread, start at the last and go back, for a sense of what room you'll need, and what cases look like stuffed full of parts.

 

[Alpin3star]

All right, thanks. I'm currently looking into a friend to see if he can get me the same parts listed on Newegg wholesale. Once I find out if he can, or cannot, I'll order whichever is cheapest and start my first build. You can probably bet that I'll be back here asking more questions to be sure I don't mess anything up, thanks to all of you for the help / tips.