Medium Budget. Need Parts Ideas.

[Orayn]

Over the summer, my new job will rake in about $1500. I'm planning to build a middle to high end gaming computer with the money, with my parents possibly splitting the cost for some parts. However, I can't for the life of me decide on any parts. Here are my conditions/guidelines. If anyone would like to suggest some specific parts, or bring up arguments against the parts I already want, that'd be great.

• I'm using an Antec P-180 Case and a Sparkle FSP 550 PSU.
• I'm completely clueless when it comes to my motherboard. I don't really need/want SLI, though.
• I'd like either 1 or 2 gigs of high-quality RAM.
• My HDD should be around 160GB.
• I've got my heart set on a 7900 GT.
• I also need a recommendation for a monitor. (Preferably LCD, 8ms response, 17" or smaller, DVI connection.)

 

[gurusan]

DFI nForce4 ultra is a great mobo....
and the DFI nForce4 Infinity is an awesome budget MOBO as well...i'm using one.

a 160gb should cost you about 60-85 SATA depending on where you get it from....

As for a monitor...just browse pricewatch and look at the stats

 

[Tyler1989]

• I'm using an Antec P-180 Case and a Sparkle FSP 550 PSU.
• I'm completely clueless when it comes to my motherboard. I don't really need/want SLI, though.
• I'd like either 1 or 2 gigs of high-quality RAM.
• My HDD should be around 160GB.
• I've got my heart set on a 7900 GT.
• I also need a recommendation for a monitor. (Preferably LCD, 8ms response, 17" or smaller, DVI connection.)

No links but here are some general suggestions you should consider.

7900 = bad wait for a G80 or get a cheap video card perhaps 64 Megs of memory to hold yourself over till they the G80 are released.

High Quality RAM is really only for ECC and OCing low quality isn't as bad as it sounds and may suit you fine.

CRTs are cheaper if you use LCD also note that DIV cables do not improve quality that much and are expensive. But Samsung SyncMaster is a good series.

Make sure your hard drive is SATA or SATA2