If you do want to go for a <$300 CPU, remember: Athlon II and Phenom II are better than Core 2 Duo/Quad.

If you are considering going with AMD, I find this chart very useful for comparing them with Intel.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-g...w-31696-6.html

if you want an i7 9XX and you don't have the money, just save up for another month or two.

I agree SP with the AMD suggestion, with an AM3 board and a Phenom II.

I actually have a s939 2600 barton, and recently built a Phenom II machine. It's a big improvement. Even with launching a web browser doesn't take nearly as long.

I should mention that with the i5/i7 processors on the p55 boards have felt "snappier" than anything else on the market today. Mainly because it's got a more optimized turbo boost feature. The only caveat is that the tolerances for the pins are really high (when you make the pins on the board they have to be very precise in length) and some manufactures didn't follow spec. This may lead to some damage to your CPU. From what I can understand anyways.

can't save when you're not making jack... hahah im not working till i come back from vacation in dec 9th-jan9th

can anyone recommend a good tower build for phenomII x 2 (unlocked) or x4?

like what pairs well with it, etc?

Like you, I'm looking to build a new rig. From a price perspective, why don't you wait til boxing to get all your parts? I could be wrong since I haven't build a new rig in that last 6+ years. Can others chime in with your experience with boxing day deals?

lol trust me they're WELL WORTH IT.

6+ years?! holy, none of my computers have went more than 4.5 years, and the ones that did were cuz I was a poor highschool kid that kept playing starcraft and or diablo II, even though warcraft 3 was out. hahaha

d00d socket 939 is two sockets past socket A, and a whole generation of cpus ahead of the barton cores. :thumbsup:

yea i would just hold off until you can pick up a corei7 hell those core i5's are looking pretty damn good right now.

boxing day sales have been fail the past couple of years, ncix and the like will have a few OMGWTFBBQ 2-3 video cards per store, otherwise sales are like every other sale (margins are slim already)

except for notebooks i got lucky and found a 14" HP core2 w/ geforce 8400 notebook for $500 at the seymour st location while i was wandering through downtown during last boxing week

If your not in a rush, try and collect parts from NICX sale each weds night.
I did that and save myself alot of $$!

Note that the X58 boards will run i9 when it comes out.

yeah so u can keep upgrading!

this new ati eyefinity setup on the new 5xxx series is fucking sweet, it treats the three monitors like one ultrawide monitor 5760x1200

(fastforward to 3:25 in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkWsVBpApOY#t=3m25s

no point....
by the time i9 are out , the current X58 will probably wont support it and requires rev 2.0 or some shit.... other then skinnypupp, i dont think i know anyone that upgrades cpu every once in a while....
:haha:

the core i7 -860 system will last a while, by the time its not enough, diggy will have to buy a whole new system again anyways....

Source some of your main components (cpu and VGA) from CL or second hand market. This can save you some serious money.

I built an i7 920 rig with 6GB OCZ, 64GB SSD*2, 1TB WDC Green, GTX260, PCP&C 750W along with a lian-li aluminum case all for under 1500. And that was back in june. The CPU I got it for 300 when NCIX was selling for close to 400. And the guy's CPU was brand new, never opened.

It might be some extra work dealing with private parties here and there to obtain all the parts, but the saving was totally worth the work.

err.... no its not

have fun when you find out your components DOA :haha:

1) no waiting every week for sales etc, i do know of thisprocess, but then it becomes a hassell trackign down paperwork for RMA etc... and then the multiple trips probably are going to equal the gas cost/time cost anyways.

2) i NEVER go used electronics... a front strut tower bar... cool, but electronics, you never know if it's on it's last legs, or operating prematurely etc... plus DOA = even with receipt, some won't do unless it's in ur name (as per mailing cheques and shit)

I'm still on the fence, but the water thing isn't playing out too nicely
http://www.revscene.net/forums/warni...47644&posted=1

so i'll have to see in the coming weeks

Hey guys, I'd start my own thread but since I've already learned alot from this thread might as well post my own build.. I'm a computer noob, but basically I already have a nice Antec case and hard drive.

Here's what I'm planning to put in the case.. All looked through NCIX.

G.SKILL F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit (6gigs of ram)

Gigabyte P55-UD3R ATX LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2PCI-E 4PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GLAN Motherboard (Gigabyte mobo)
-Does this work well with my CPU i7 860?
-Does it work well with my GPU HD 5870?

Intel Core i7 860 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.8GHZ Hyperthreading 8MB Cache Retail Box (i7 860)

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI Display Port DirectX 11 Full Retail Video Card (Radeon 5870)

Antec Earthwatts 650W Power Supply ATX12V V2.2 EPS12V Active PFC 80PLUS 120MM Fan (650W PSU)

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI 7.1 Surround Sound Card (OEM)
-Cheap sound card I'm getting to support 5.1 speakers

Anyways, just wondering if this is a good build, it only comes out to sub $1200, good price for pretty good looking specs, IMO. I don't want to cheap out on a graphics card because my belief is 'what you pay is what you get' in the department. Also am I missing any essentials other than the case and HDD?

Some critique would be very appreciated, sorry Jun Kitami for semi-hijacking your thread, I just thought it'd be no big deal because our builds are so similar. If you want me to make my own thread about this just drop a PM.

any on board sound support 5.1 nowadays

I'm looking to build a gaming system around the $1000 region too and I was thinking about going with the i5 750 instead

so no use for sound blaster i guess?

creative never made good cards in the first place :thumbsup:
unless you have a highend $700 reciever any modern onboard will sound as good as other card.

companies like auzentech and HT Omega who take the creative soundblaster/x-fi processor chips put them on their own cards and use quality home theater components along with their own drivers are much better alternative to anything creative, but in the long run any PC 5.1 setup will be absolutely fine with a onboard realtek hd chip. asus xonar are also good cards.

swap out the sapphire card for a XFX 5870 as already stated in the thread XFX has a much better warrenty/support and frankly sapphire cards are shit.

i'd also swap out the antec earthwatts unless your going with the Antec Truepower New series there are better alternatives to antec psu's these days. the corsair tx750 is $90 in the ncix sale, as well as the seasonic m12 is on sale. (they make the majority of corsair and pc power&cooling psus)

hmm i was wondering what RAM i should get i originally got a 2x2gb corsair TWIN ddr2 ram but then one was broken shortly after the exchange date expired so now im looking at add 4 more gigs of RAM to my comp. any suggestions to pair up the 2gb i have now?

Thanks for the thorough reply. Oh shit, just realized my LAPTOP has realtec HD sound! :D never knew what it was for... hahaha

BTW, how important are PSU's to a computer's performance and why?