Gaming computer questions

[Roark]

Depends on what you want to spend, bang for buck at the top-end I'd say HD 7950.
Goes toe-to-toe with the top-end Nvidia (GTX 580) for ~$50 less, can snag one for about $450.

i would have gone with a P67A-GD65, Gskill memory and a Corsair power supply!

P67A-GD65 would also work for sure. Getting fond of the Mushkin, good brand and short heatspreaders @ G.Skill prices.
And while I love Corsair I feel like they're going the WD route, overpricing cause they have a good name.

 

[Sean W.]

eh, that may be so... but ill probably never buy a piece of computer hardware brand new ever again... ive been having a lot of luck buying used parts, save a lot of $$$ that way...

 

[ModernMessiah]

eh, that may be so... but ill probably never buy a piece of computer hardware brand new ever again... ive been having a lot of luck buying used parts, save a lot of $$$ that way...

Where do you get used parts, and do you get some kind of warranty that they will work? I would be down if I heard some positive things about it.

 

[Sean W.]

Overclock.net has a GREAT market place, TONS of things for sale, everything from mobos to cases, water cooling parts, graphics cards, monitors to fans... everyone is pretty flexible on their prices and they are almost always willing to bargain. ive built entire computers from buying used parts from there...

 

[t0mlike]

CPU - $230 Intel i5 2500k
MB - $170 MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3)
RAM - $47 8GB Mushkin Blackline
HDD - $125 1TB Seagate Barracuda
PSU - $130 Silverstone Stider 750W

Thats $702, with $45 in rebates ($657).
Leaves $298-343 for a GPU if you want to stay close to $1K, I'd suggest a GTX 570 or HD 6970.

If you don't mind going closer to $1.5K I'd so go for an HD 7950 or 7970 and add an SSD.

Something that expensive might be a bit of a waste unless he's going for a hugely powerful machine overall. And you won't notice much of a difference between that and the GTX 560ti to be honest. Not with the current games out anyway.