help building my first computer

[AlexoftheWest]

I have had 2 laptops die on me recently, and ive decided i will never be dealing with one ever again. im now using my old but incredibly reliable old hp with an amd in it.

its time for a new computer and i want to go the custom route.
All i really need is the tower and an o.s. and im strongly leaning towards windows 7. my price range ceiling is 1k, but id like to keep it under that as much as possible. i'm looking for a very solid $700-950 system (including windows) having tried all the procesors, i will be going with an amd cpu. I will be using this for gaming (and i want it to excel at this) and standard computer use. I DONT plan on doing that bizzarre double monitor thing that people seem to like. i dont need a massive hardrive because i tend to format them regularly. i probably woudlnt need anytihng beyond a regular cd burner.

here is what I have come up with so far, but please give tips and point things out that might be better. plus, as this is my first time building a computer, im not certain all the things i went with are compatible. one thing i am especialy unsure about is what kind of power supply i need.i dont really know what video card to go with. i am told the 5770 is a great card, but a lot of people are mentioning lag and glitches with it.
here is what i have come up with thus far:

if the links to the items dont work here is a screenshot of my setup so far:
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7383/20885293.png

(ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398
(AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103727
(OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V) +(SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.329720
(G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193
(Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136320
(Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021
(SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151188
(Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116754

 

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

What about Peripherals? (Monitor / Mouse / Keyboard / Speakers etc) need anything like that included in your budget?

You will need a PSU with your setup.. 450W-500W ish minimum,

And also I prefer to go with the Phenom II x 4 955... Its cheaper, and you can overclock it up to the 965 stock easily enough - you can save yourself probly 30$ or so there.

I dont know if you are interested in overclocking or not though?

 

[AlexoftheWest]

i only need the tower, i already have a monitor and stuff.

-i dont really plan on overclocking at the moment, perhaps later when my computer needs a boost, and then ill have to buy a cooling system. people have been saying the 965 runs pretty hot if you oc it with the cooler it comes with. as for the 955, dunno, 30 dollars isnt a huge difference in price from the top amd to the second best one. its not like the thousand dollar intel chips.

ive never tried overclocking though, is it worth it? is it hard to do? and how do you test how hot parts are running at?

 

[Remeniz]

Ive never tried overclocking though, is it worth it? is it hard to do? and how do you test how hot parts are running at?

Overclocking is worth it when you consider that you can clock a CPU to the equivalent higher speed chips in the series. Check my sig for example. With my i7 920 I can achieve the speeds of all the chips above it that cost much more. £30/$30 it doesn't matter to me either but i'm not going to spend the extra when I can overclock a 955 to 965 speeds and spend the saving on something else. I don't have a 955 but i'd bet you can OC it to 965 speeds with out vcore increase... Bonus!

If you don't like to/want to overclock then spend the extra I guess.

You can monitor the temps with Core Temp.

 

[foothead]

You can get a 955 to 3.5 GHz on stock vcore. At least I can.

BTW 955 and 965 are the same chip. No need to pay $30 for what you can do for free in ~5 minutes.

 

[AlexoftheWest]

i know you can oc the 955 to be the same as the 965, but you can oc the 965 to higher than that right?

but wait, your saying the 955 and the 965 are exactly the same just that the 965 is an already overclocked 955? is that true?!

 

[foothead]

Yes. 955 OC's better than 965 too.

 

[Remeniz]

Yes. 955 OC's better than 965 too.

Which again proves that the 965 is not worthy here.

 

[foothead]

I still have yet to see anyone explain why. My theory is that the 965 is hand-picked lower leakage chips, which would explain it.

Higher leakage chips OC better.

 

[nbrikha]

I suggest you get an aftermarket heatsink too. The AMD quad cores get really hot and the stock heatsink just blows...Cooler Master V8, Zalman CNPS 9900, or a Xigmatek are all good.

Seriously, you're probably gonna idle in the 50s with that stock heatsink/fan combo. And if you're gaming it's a must.