Help Building First Computer

[ckrp25]

Hey guys, ive been looking around this board for ideas for my new computer for a few days and decided to get some input on what I have so far. I know you get about a billion questions from inexperienced people every day about their new rig, but i would really appreciate any help you could provide.
I basically just want to build a midrange computer to play games such as Call of Duty and Fear and do some photo and video editing. I hope to be able to keep this project under $1000 (or as low as possible).

These are my components:
Case
Looks like it has all the features I need.
PSU
Will this be compatible with my other components/enough power? Is it good quality?
MOBO
Seems like a good choice, everyone here seems to like it.
CPU
Do I need a CPU this powerful? Would the money be better spent somewhere else?
Video Card
Very unsure about this choice. I would really appreciate some suggestions about video card.
Hard Drive
Looks speedy, has all the space I need. Will the SATA 3GB/s be compatible with my motherboard?
Memory: Unsure, open to suggestions.

Ok, so thats what I have so far. Any thoughts on where I should downgrade/upgrade the hardware I picked would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance.

 

[ckrp25]

Ive been looking around a bit more and think I will go with the 6800GT instead but im not sure what brand to get.

 

[weringo]

Great choice with all components and I would stick with the 6800GS over the 6800GT as it can be overlocked very well to over the GT's performance. If you can afford a bit more, the EVGA 7800GT is the best price/performance card atm and can max out all games if used with a decent system.

Also, I would get the Opteron 165 over that 3700+ as software is starting to use both processor cores which will mean dual core setups will blow away single cores in the not so distant future. The Opterons can be overclocked very high as well

 

[Mk97]

Ok, some not bad choices, here's what I'd get for $1000.
Keep in mind I'm human and tend to get a bit of brand loyalty, so someone else could give a good suggestion for something instead.

Case - X-Plorer I like the case, it seems to be a good budget case.

PSU - ePower Puma 450watt This is where I'm not to good, I think it's the cheapest I could find from a good brand... someone else should give you a suggestion.

Mobo- Abit K8N SLi I don't think you'll do much OC'ing, and it's sopposed to be a good stable board, it's got the good standard nForce 4 features and sli.

OCZ 1GB stick RAM I'd suggest a minimum of 1gb, I nly buy OCZ or Corsair ram, I find it's great quality, even the value ram from them.

Seagate SATAII (3.0) 160GBHD Once again I only buy Seagate, but most other brands are fine I guess.

Optical- NEC DVD Burner Burns DVD's..only $40 great deal.

Here's where it get's into what you want... all that comes to about $500... so you could buy a $300 dual core AMD 3800 x2 and a $200 6800GS (this would allow you to buy another later on for SLi if you wanted). Or you could buy a $200 Athalon64 and then a 7800GT.

If your not doing any major GFX work then I guess it'd be okay to go with a regular processor and get the power w/ the 7800GT, but I's suggest scrounging up $100 and nabing a 3800 x2 and a 7800GT

Here's a list of the processors/GFX cards I'm talking about.

Athlon 3500 This is the $200 athlon I was talking about



A64 x2 3800 This is the dual core I was talking about

Ok, here's the GFX cards, a lot of people like eVGA so I'll just give you the link of the eVGA 6800GS, some brands are better, but quite a few are worse.

6800GS

Here's links for the 7800GT. I'm getting either the XFX one, or the Gigabyte one.

eVGA 7800GT

XFX 7800GT

Gigabyte 7800GT

Hope that helps... on another note, I just saw the ASUS 7800DUAL card for $900 on newegg... crazy.

 

[weringo]

DO NOT get the XFX card, they use low quality components on their cards such as cooling devices which causes the card to overheat.

Good video card brands include EVGA, Leadtek, MSI, Asus, Gigabyte and BFG

 

[ckrp25]

Thanks for the input. Yes I will defenetly consider going with the 7800gt. Probably the BFG or eVGA. Im still not sure about the memory though, is it really important to have a low CAS latency or dual channel?

 

[Mk97]

Well, I'd say get dual channel if you go for 2gb, other wise I wouldn't like to have a board filled with 4 512mb sticks, kills any possible upgrades.

 

[The_Tobes99]

ye definitely get 2x1gb sticks, that would own all over the 4x512