VeeshanVault

Here is the system I'm planing on building in a few weeks to take the place of my old sys. I don't plan on running Vista for awhile so thats why no 8800. I love the peformance on the XFX 7950 but I don't like the warrenty procedures if you have to return the card to them so I'm going with the BFG instead. If anyone else has a recomendation for a card in 199-275 range let me know. The card needs a lifetime warrenty or I won't consider it.

Case - P180
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6811129017

MB- MSI P965 Platnium
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6813130055

Power sup- Corsair CMPSU-620HX
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6817139002

Ram- G Skill DDR2 800 4 1 gig sticks
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6820231087

HD- 2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 250 gig
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6822144701

DVD Burner - Samsung 2M Cache SATA DVD Burner With LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6827151141

Vid Card - BFG 7900GS Temp card basicly untill I feel like going to vista.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814143070

CPU- Core 2 Duo 6600 (I might wait for the price drop Maybe)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6819115003

I would probably suggest the Gigabyte DS3...seems to be the motherboard of choice with the 965express northbridge...but I don't really think it matters that much.

Prices do seem to continue to climb on the Core 2's, that's for sure. I know fry's HAD the 6600 for $297 shipped last week, but now they are back up to 322. So not sure what to tell you there. The price drops aren't due until second quarter, and if vendors are getting away with $300+, I don't see that price drop actually hitting the streets until the very end of the second quarter....which is June. So the question really is, can you wait until June/July to get your E6600 for $230 or not? And is $80 bucks worth the wait?

The video card is kinda rough though. Personally, $200 is overpriced for a 7900GS now. If you don't mind ordering the card from someone else, you can get the eVGA version (lifetime warranty, yes) at MicroCenter for significantly less than NewEgg. They have it right now for $159.99 and a $20 rebate...so it makes the card only $140 after rebates. Even without the rebate, that's a good price for a 7900GS...or should I say, the proper price for one. Enough people here will tell you eVGA has a steller rep. Me being one of them. Also, the eVGA version's heatsink cools the memory as well, where the BFG version relies on the airs flow to cool the memory.

MicroCenter eVGA 7900GS KO
NewEgg eVGA 7900GS KO

edit: I keep saying it, but that Corsair 620w PS rocks. Its so friggen quiet, and really pulls some air out of the machine at the same time. So great choice there If you want to save some money on the Power Supply, you can buy it from ZipZoomFly...just as good as NewEgg...sometimes cheaper, sometimes not.
Corsair 620w @ ZipZoomFly $130 after rebate

And if you want cheaper memory, but the same IC chips used (Promos)
OCZ Plat Rev. 2 PC6400 Ram @ ZipZoomFly $187 after rebate

All those rebates end 1/31/07 though.

edit 2: The 7950GT can be had cheap too at newegg HERE
But that is the 256mb version.

I'd go for a 7950GT.
When you want to "upgrade", just get a second 7950gt

The only issue with the MSI board is the ide driver but I won't be using any ide drives so that won't even be an issue. I'm pretty set on the MSI board and it performs pretty damn good on every comparision I have read.

The only issue I have with the 7950 and getting a second later is when I do upgrade to Vista down the road I won't be able to take full advantage of DX10 with those cards. So a cheaper 7900 for the time being will keep me happy and its also a nice backup card if I need a second one later.

Thats why I said maybe on waiting on the price drop I doubt I will but I was contemplating it.

Yeah I probably won't get everything from newegg those links were just for refrence on the items. Yeah eVGA was one of the other cards I was looking at along with BFG and XFX. Thanks for the links I will check those out.

Looks great to me! That board isn't SLI though, might consider the Asus P5N-E (650i chipset) instead (mine has been great so far!).

In regards to the video I would suggest the EVGA version, they have the 90 day trade up program so if you get a 7950 GT right now (they make a 512K version as well it's like $250 for the regular, $280 for the KO Superclocked) then you can trade up if you decided to move to vista.

I have that PS and it's AMAZING! I'm getting like 4.9v on the 5v but it hasn't caused any issues. Everything else is actually a little higher, the modular cables are nice and it just feels rock solid (the 5 year warranty is nice too!).

My sons have already taken my wife's PC since it was fixed so it looks like I'm going to be putting together another soon for them. If you really are going to get another video card in a few months, the BFG 7600GT is like $89 after rebate on NewEgg and it will play todays games just fine. Not with everything turned on at super high resolutions but it does 1600x1050 on most games very well with a 3.4P4. That is what I'm going to put in theirs. I've already got it in my mom's machine and she plays EQ2 with it at that resolution. It's definitely faster than a 6800GT that was quite a card 2 years ago.

Marb

I'm not worried about the SLI since I have no plans at all on using it. The other P/S I was looking at was the Xcilo Greatpower 750. I will probably end up going with the eVGA card. If I do go with the 7950 its going to be the 512 version. I'm pretty set on everything but the damn video card. For me thats always the hardest choice. I'm not going lower than a 7900 that I know. It will probably come down to the day when I order the shit before I decide on the vid card.