800-1000 Gaming desktop

[derialstrazus]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week
BUDGET RANGE: 800-1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming (Starcraft II most important, Bioshock II next), College work (possibly CATIA or other CAD programs), music, internet.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Anything that's not the desktop. Only shopping for the desktop.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com, anywhere else that might give a good deal
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel processor, ATX or full ATX casing

OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Not right now. Possibly in the future

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1600x900 (the really wide widescreen ones), possibly wanting to extend it to a TV for occasional gaming.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I would like a quiet PC. Also, first time building a desktop, so any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm pretty a much a newb when it comes to different choices between parts. Areas that severely need attention are the graphic cards and the motherboard. Lastly, if there's any tips on how to get a better deal or lower the overall price, I would love that too. For now, everything is coming from newegg. Thanks.

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Parts so far:

Processor:
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I5750 - Retail

Mobo:
ASUS P7P55D LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Memory:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM - Retail

Graphic Card (trying to choose between):
XFX GS250XYDFC GeForce GTS 250 512MB Core Edition 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
OR
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail

Power Supply:
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail

CPU Cooling:
XIGMATEK Intel Core i7 compatible Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail
AND
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Might want RAID0 in the future.

Casing:
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

OS:
Windows 7 Home Premium

Optical Drive:
Anything goes.

Current total: 1000USD (My parents aren't really happy with this. If it can go down to 900, I'd think they'll be much more satisfied.)

Current worries:
* Is the motherboard suitable for OC-ing?
* Am I overly concerned about the cooling?
* Which graphic card should I pick?
* Are there any deals that I've not noticed?

Hope everything works out well. Thanks in advance for all your help. =]

 

[fatfatr]

I'd go with a 5770 for future-proofing and to keep the build balanced.

I'm not sure about the motherboard, but it should have some overclocking headroom (not sure about this).
Concerning the heatsink, the Hyper 212+ will keep up with higher priced coolers and it'll be enough to overclock that i5.
As for the HDD a Samsung Spinpoint F3 will be much more suitable. Better performance than the Western Digital at a cheaper price.
Almost forgot to mention that the 750W Corsair PSU you chose is pretty much overkill. Go with a 650W at the most for your build, which will let you crossfire the 5770, OC your RAM, CPU, GPU and leave headroom. A 600W OCZ would be sufficient too.

Make sure to look for combo deals on newegg, and to keep the price as low as possible you can go get a Phenom II X4 955 BE which will be just as good for your gaming needs, and sufficient for some work on it too. Also, keep in mind that you can go with a cheaper case from Coolermaster or Antec. Since an Antec 300 for example, will be enough for your build.

 

[dndhatcher]

The 5770 is substantially faster than the GT250 and has DX11 where the GT250 is only DX10. The price is not much more for the 5770 so its a better value.

The Dark Knight does not come with socket 1156 mounting, you will have to spend an extra $7 for the xigmatek crossbow mounting kit. You could get the S1283 rifle cooler (same thing without the black coating) for cheaper. Coolermaster Hyper 212 is only $30 and will do reasonable overclocking.

Get a Samsung F3 500GB, its faster than the WD 640GB.

Since you are getting a low power usage 5770, you could drop the power supply down to a corsair 650 or even 550.

 

[squirrel15]

This looks a lot like my build I'm struggling with, I have an $850 budget on mine. You really cant be over concerned about cooling, but 5770 runs cooler and with less power. If I had a $900 budget, I would try and trim some fat off of that and maybe get an ATI 5850, its consistently about 20 to 30% better than the 5770. Check out the benchmarks:
http://www.techspot.com/review/209-ati-radeon-hd-5770/
What games will you be playing? If it like Wow then you dont need a super video card. Also if your using newegg be sure to look for combos that can save you from 5 to 20 bucks per combo. There is A TON of combos for the i5-750, same with the G.Skill memory you listed too.
Also if you want to crossfire with the 5770 lets say, theres no point in getting better a better videocard (5850 for example) to CF with in the future cuz it will most likely just run at 2x 5770 settings. You might be better off getting just a 5850, even 2 5770's wont match up to the 5850 (Is more power hungry than the 5770 for sure). Find some way to trim the fat off, maybe the cooler, a little cheaper case and MoBo (unless you still really want to CF), theres also some good hard drives for $55, 500 gb though like fatfatr mentioned. PSU is also too much, go down to a 650 or so too. Just do a little more research and figure out what you want.

 

[derialstrazus]

Best answer selected by Derialstrazus.