$3,000 Budget

this might be a stupid question but are you looking for a desktop or a laptop?

ok so 1600 x 900 is your starting resolution... do you have any idea on what you will get when you want to upgrade... i'd rather get a higher res monitor then 2 lower res one.

you will never ever need 12gb of ram or ram higher then 1600 mhz unless your doing folding, picture editing or massive 3d video or editing. having tons of ram lowers your max oc

at your current resolution one 5850 is all you will ever need. if you go up to 1680 x 1050 you will still be great! if you want 1920 x 1200 2x 5850 would be better then 1 5870 which is what you would need.

nvidia costs more but it has better 3d rendering, physics, and tessellation.

sicne your in college i assume space is a issue if you choose desktop then a mid size would be better for you like the haf 922. if you have space of a fullsize then a haf 932 would be for you.

at that resolution you wont experience the full experience of a blu ray.

we don't mind long posts or answering a ton a questions. in fact we love questions.

i can tell you that we can get a air cooled rig capable of running the most demanding games at 60 fps with max aa/af for less then your budget. this also includes a 160 gb intel ssd 1tb hdd, nvidia gpus all for a 1920 x 1200 resolution. it even gives you room to spare on the budget where you can take the left overs and chuck your old monitor and get a top line one at that resolution above.

so take some time and think about all i said. ask questions and when you make up your mind on exactly what you want we will all be here for you

pleasure to be of service... i am just a loyal fan/customer.

the 6gb standard ram at 1600 mhz is all you will ever need.

if you can grab 2x nvidia cards and stay under the budget you can def do ati as well.

hd is 720p blue ray is 1080p to get true 1080p you need 1680 x 1050+

ATI is a great bang for the buck but nvidia performs better and still has room to improve driver wise which will increase its performance even more.

Nice build, the only thing I would change is go with a bigger psu for future upgrades, ssd and etc can always be added later easily if needed.

in dual cf/sli that mobo has 16x and 8x lanes to use, if you want 2 x 16x lanes at dual sli then go with 3x classified mobo.

here is the ati version:

Here you go Ticket# 408861 --- Price: $2655 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $2655

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Not Available
Trim Accents: - Not Available
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - Not Available
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (160GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Extreme Performance) (Model: SSDSA2MH160G2R5)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Seagate/Hitachi/Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (Does NOT fit on the regular EVGA X58 3X SLI)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Available
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - Not Available
Chassis Mods: - Not Available
Noise Reduction: - Not Available
Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Boost Video Card: - Not Available
Boost Memory: - Not Available
Boost OS: FREE: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - Not Available
Office: - Not Available
Benchmarking: - Not Available
Install/Test Game: FREE: Hot-selling game with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Medium)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Limited Warranty with Life-Time Customer Support

again as mentioned if you want only one gpu and don't plan on upgrading to dual cf/sli down the road then go with 750w corsair, but if you want to be able to upgrade gpu to cf/sli then for nvidia you want the 1250w psu and for ati you want the 1000w corsair.

1. If I am planning on dual 480 would you recommend the LE or Classified??

Edited by Damon - 23 May 2010 at 4:21pm

1. LE will be just fine but classified is always a nice mobo to have IMO, but not if you are on a budget, the LE is a great mobo and it would be hard to notice a difference between the 2 in most games and sli/cf.

2. lanes 1 and 3 are 16x lanes, I doubt you have to tell DS that, but worst case senario, it takes one minutes to move it to the right one

1 there is no point to the 960 it will oc the same as a 920
2 the asetek is not real LC it is crappy,leaky and not efficiant you will get better temps with the noctua
3 with that mobo you can't fit the d14 but u can fit the d12 (stage 1) and thats better then the asetek
4 drop the os tweak if you can. you would have to know how to re-enable or get a walk threw from ds. if it is not a option but it in the special instructions area
5 the classi can fit the d14 which is a better investment then the 960

everything else looks great


Edited by Raif - 23 May 2010 at 8:50pm

As for the monitor, I myself have the hp z24 which is the u2410 competitor if you will. Depending on your needs, a lot of people say the dell is better but as a hardcore gamer, the z24 does just fine and costs about 100-150 bucks cheaper than the u2410. Also its an ips so its better than TN panels as far as picture quality goes.