I am planing on building a mid level gaming rig, I dont absolutely have to play everything on the max settings, I just want to be able to play most all of the games at decent fps. I know that not everyone is on a budget and can afford to buy to 9800's and put them in SLI, I on the other hand cant lol. I'm trying to spend a max of maybe $1300 I've got all of my componants picked out and would like to know your opinions so please comment and feel free to give feedback.

Case: NZXT Lexa Blackline (already bought and is sitting in the box waiting for componants)

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146038&Tpk=lexa%2bblackline

I went slightly over budget but its speakers mouse and all. Also I got a razer diamondback already so no need for mouse, but I did buy a CHEAP PS2 mouse and kb set because I hear some mobo's dont recognize usb keyboard and mouse in the bios.... let me know if that isnt true. 

unless ur planning on 32 bit os, might wanna ger 4 gigs.

also if your planning any type of overclocking u might want a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

good dual core and a p35 board should support.

also

get the 8800gt

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

at this price it just $15~ more after rebate and better performance. =)

but the just my opinoin .

Overclocking kind of scares me lol cause I'm not experienced with it, since this is my first build I may try it later, but as of now I think the e6750 will be pleanty sufficient.  Oh and btw the Q6600 only cause around $30 more than the e8400 so that would be a better buy in my opinion. I'm going with Vista Home Premium 32bit so 3gb is perfect. That 8800gt is definitely a GREAT find, I missed that one apparently.... but my question is should I stick with NVIDIA and go with the 8800 or is there an ATI card you reccomend, (I am kinda trying to go with a red and black theme)

smokebytheacre420:

  Oh and btw the Q6600 only cause around $30 more than the e8400 so that would be a better buy in my opinion.

well depends if your gonna do 100% gaming the e8400 will be alot better cause 99% of gaming cant use quad to boost perfomance, and 45 nm have shown to give a boost in gaming over 65 nm counterpart,

but if u plan to multtask alot or other things alot then i can see taking q6600 over the e8400.

gl =) 

Processor: Go with the E8400 or Q6600.... I personally like the Q6600 better because vista usually balances all four cores. Also, your motherboard is 1066/1333 MHz FSB, so the Q6600 could easily be overclocked (if you decide to do it later) because the Q6600 native FSB is 1066MHz. While I wouldn't recommending overclocking the E8400 on that board (its 1333MHz FSB), it would still offer great performance at 3.0 GHz. Here is how I see it: You can OC the Q6600 easily to 3 GHz, or leave the E8400 stock at 3 GHz (I wouldn't touch it with that mobo)... so i'd go with the Q6600 so you can have a quad core processor at 3.0GHz as opposed to a duo core at 3 GHz... The E8400 is a more power efficient chip, but I'd take quad over duo any day.

Also, if you go with the Q6600, make sure you try and get a SLACR G0 stepping processor.. clubit.com sells exclusively these chips since they overclock better and don't overheat as much: http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA1938460

Video Card: Stick with nvidia. The 8800GT is a good alternative to the 9600GT in my opinion. And if you end up getting some extra money, throw it at the 8800GTS 512mb card.. its a beast and worth every penny. Oh, and performance is more important that color schemes ;)

Mobo: Only comment I would make is that I would personally go with a nvidia chipset... i.e. 750i. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131232 or something similar. However, its your call on which motherboard you get... I like nvidia because I trust their boards based on my personal building experience.

Everything else looks good!

 Hope this helped.. good luck!

 Q660, 8800gts (512) and 680i or 750i chipset. 

Why 3gb or ram why not 4gb of ram, just run a 64bit OS.

ok I changed a few things.. check out the first post and tell me what you think.

I like it!!!!

Only thing is, you have 2 different sets of memory...

I would ditch the 2x512mb one and just go with 2x1GB (the first one). If you end up going 64-bit vista, go for 4GB of ram... but 2GB is fine for the 32-bit OS.

But other than that, i'm liking it...

Also, the cool thing with that mobo, you can throw in another video card later on (lets say you get one for bday or christmas) and run SLI if you wanted...

 well since you say that let me ask you this... should I go ahead and buy 2 of the 2gb sets and and have 4 1gb sticks even though Vista would only recognize like 3.2, that way if I ever did decide to go to 64bit I'd be set?

You could... but just remember thatwhen you intall a new OS.. its basically like a reformat... your starting from scratch. 4GB of ram would have you setup for a 64bit OS, so if its cheap enough, you might as well do it now. Also, a 32-bit OS sees more than just 2GB of ram... 3.2GB-3.6GB (I think) depending on your OS configuration. So having 4GB would provide better performance (although it may not be noticable) anyway.

What I would recommend if you decide to go to the 4GB arena, is to get a 2x2GB kit, and not 4x1GB sticks... 2x2GB sticks will actually perform better than 4x1GB sticks. There are some really cheap deals out there:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227248

Just to list a few... just search newegg.com or clubit.com to browse kits.

Also, try to make sure your timings for 800MHz ram are 4-4-4-12 or there abouts...