Buying/Building New Gaming PC

[Koalah85]

Hi all,

I'll be putting together a new gaming PC for myself fairly soon. I have almost all the parts ready except for a few.


Intel Core i7 920 Quad-Core Socket LGA1366, 2.66Ghz, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, 45nm (Retail Boxed) (BX80601920)

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Socket 1366 Intel X58 + ICH10R CrossfireX Triple-Channel DDR3 2000+/1333/1066Mhz Dual GigaLAN 7.1Ch Audio 6x SATA 2x PCI-E X16

Corsair TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX 12V 52A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan

Western Digital Caviar Black (WD5001AALS) 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 32MB Cache (OEM)

All that's missing is a case, a video card, and ram. Any recomendations for either 3? The case doesn't need to be fancy but I'd like usb ports in the front of course. I have about $300-$400 left to spend.

Any input would be appreciated as my knowledge of PC hardware is pretty limited.


Oh, also, in regards to the OS.. I'm thinking I'll finally cave and upgrade from XP to Win7. How much of a resource/ram hog is Win7? Should I at all be concerned about this? As I recall, Vista was a huge pain the *** for some friends because of the system requirements.

 

[Trotter]

Canada Computers - Cases > Mid Towers : Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case ATX 3/0/(6) 2xUSB Audio No PS .
$60

Canada Computers - Video Cards > PCI-Express Cards > Powered By ATI : MSI R5770-PM2D1G ATI Radeon HD 5770 Chipset (850Mhz) 1GB GDDR5 (4800Mhz) Dual Display Dual DVI/HDMI/Display Port PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card.
$189

Canada Computers - Memory > Desktop Memory > DDR3 1333 PC3-10666+ : OCZ (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) DDR3 PC3-10666 1333MHz Gold Edition Low Voltage 4GB (2x2048MB) Dual Channel .
$102

Total = $351

 

[Koalah85]

Wow, thanks for the quick response!

Any particular reason why you leaned towards the Radeon? Just curious.

 

[Trotter]

Bang for the buck, pure and simple. I've used both ATI and Nvidia and you just get more for your money with ATI right now.

Make sure to get the newest drivers for the card, as it is a new chip and the older drivers won't do much for it.

 

[Koalah85]

Good call.
Personally, I've had a few bad experiences with an old nVidia geforce card.
ATI? I've never had a single problem.

But that's just me.

One other thing, my current ("old") sound card and dvd-rom should work fine with the new system, correct? The sound card is a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. I'm not even sure about the dvd-rom/burner though. It's pretty generic and about 4 years old.

 

[Trotter]

Yes on both counts. I just checked to see if Creative had drivers for Win7 64-bit and they do. you should be good to go.

 

[Koalah85]

Thank you, good sir!

 

[Slaymate]

Don't buy that ram. It's only a 2x2GB kit and you have a triple channel cpu and mobo. Give me a few minutes to see what's available. If you've already placed the order you need to cancel it quickly.

After looking at Canada Computers I would go with this
Canada Computers - Memory > Desktop Memory > DDR3 1600 PC3-12800+ : G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600MHz (PC3-12800) 6GB (3x2GB) Triple Channel Kit (F3-12800CL8T-6GBRM).

 

[Trotter]

Man, what an oversight! Sorry about that. I had i5 on the brain.

Good catch, Slay!

 

[Muffin Man]

^ Trotter linked him to dual channel ram because the mobo he picked was dual channel. Edit: ah, i see this has been addressed.

But i agree with getting triple channel ram, like that set that Slaymate posted.

And get this mobo instead, its only $1 more, supports triple channel, plus it has a bigger rebate so in the end itll cost slightly cheaper.
Canada Computers - Motherboards > Socket LGA1366 : Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 Socket 1366 Intel X58 + ICH10R 3-Way Crossfire Triple-Channel DDR3 1333/1066Mhz GigaLAN 7.1Ch Audio 6x SATA 3x PCI-E X16.