Budget HTPC/Gaming Build
 

trying to build a budget minded gaming tower that i can use also as a htpc. Here is what i have come up with.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE
8GB Kingston Value Ram 1333
Asus Sabretooth 990FX AM3/AM3+
Antec 300
Corsair HX650
WD Black 1TB
EVGA Geforce GTX560 TI 1GB
Windows 7 x64 w/ XBMC for HTPC Frontend.

Games will be played at full 1080p resolution. ODD will be a reused DVDRW.

Honestly if you are going to spend that much i would just get an i5 2500k... No point of going AMD until dozer comes out

why not try an i3,or the above? :)

have to agree as well. i3 2100 or i5 2400/2500k is the way to go at least untill bulldozer (hopefully not after).

If instead of the above (good suggestions btw) you want to SAVE more money: go for Radeon 6870 or even 6850. I'm running i5 2500K with the 6870, Starcraft 2 runs completely smooth, haven't really tried other games.

i wasn't sure if the i3 would be suffcient for 1080p gaming or not. (not much experince with the i3's mostly just i7's but that's over kill.) I will take a look at the i3's and the mobos for such.

On the graphics card front i will take a look at the 6870. Mostly the games i play are racing and fps. I can't wait to try out portal2 on my 96" HD projection system :)

OK so here is the new rig setup.

Core i3-2100
Asus P8P67
XFX Radeon 6870
4GB Kingston KVR1333 2GBx4
WD Black 1TB
Antec 300
Corsair HX-650

After taxes without PM $916 Doesn't include any rebates or such. After some searching and changes i have gotten price down to around $816 after taxes. :)

Asus is definitely a good name for mobos, it may be worth considering MSI, (lots cheaper, I'm using the P67a G43, for about a month now and works great so far.)

As far as CPU and GPU, one thing I've heard is to try to avoid "bottlenecking" ie both GPU and CPU should be about the same power (best guess is to just pay the same for both). Then again, FPS and racing, I think, are more GPU intensive than RTS, so perhaps paying more for the GPU would make sense?

edit: In the end, most anything will work reasonably well, high quality PSU, other good parts and you'll be fine, you just have to DO IT!

well when someone buy's by dslr kit i will have more than enough money to pull the trigger. until then it will need to wait until i get the cash. (some bills came in this week. so that's where the money went)

well the dslr gear has been sold so i pulled the trigger this morning. Here is what's coming my way :).

Core i3 2100
Asus P8P67
8GB Kingston DDR 1333
E-VGA GTX 560 TI
1TB WD Black
Corsair HX-650
Antec 300

yaay. :)

if they havent shipped the order out, maybe go for an h board? just in case.

and the 912 ahem ahem :p

tb black for os will be cool.