Don't do this. LGA 1366 is a CPU platform for people who want to run CPU- and RAM-intensive apps at the cost of lots of money and a decent upgrade path. Games barely (if at all) benefit from hyperthreading and triple-channel RAM.

The best that you can buy right now without getting into serious diminishing-returns territory is an i5-750, Radeon 5850, Micro-ATX mobo, Antec Mini P180, a 550W SeaSonic PSU, 4 GB RAM, and any other components you might need - which should set you back about $1200 at most. That gives you at least $300 left over for upgrades further down the line, or maybe a nice 1900x1200 monitor.

     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS GUY^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. Hes got it right. i5 wont bottle neck a 5850, That and it doesnt need tripple chan ram its a waste of money. However that psu?!?! if he would want to add another 5850 down the road i would be kinda iffy on having that push both of them and that cpu. Imo i would boost that to a 650 if anything, that should leave you some room for any overclocking you would want to do. However take that with a grain of salt i dont know how many watts that would draw at a true 100% load so a strong 550 should do, it will deff work if your not going to crossfire the gpu down the road. Garcian smack me up if i got it wrong i dont like giving bad info....lul

This is the build im running. Amd 965 c3 stepping____Asus Crosshair 3 Formula____Kingston ddr3 1600 4gig_____5850 stock clocks but you can unlock it with MSI afterburner_______750 corsair psu, and all the other random crap. Price around $1,300 usd.

nice rig 

the one i built i had to do on a budget of 500 bucks so for what i had to spend compared with what i had to get i think i didnt do too bad myself granted its not 3D but hell I dont like all this 3D glasses crap anyways. so for what i have is a q6600 quad core, 500 watt psu, a p5ql pro motherboard, i am actually using an old hard drive i had in antoher pc but added an external to i have 600 gb total space, and my case i have a pic of it earlier in the thread. with a nvidia 9400gt 1gb hehe but only 2 gb of ram but i hope sometime soon i can get more ram. so yeah i do have a budget rig but its still a decent rig as it is. 

You are in luck, this is the rig I JUST got no less than 1 month ago and it came out to $1528. A bunch of them were combo deals which saved me a bunch of money, and of course i fyou don't like something you can change it. I also use my PC to work and code so I use it for that as well. All in all, this will last me forever. As for why I picked a GTX 480 instead of a 5870, PhysX, CUDA, and the retarded scalability of Fermi (some games have over 100% increase in FPS when SLId), so when push comes to shove I will just buy a 2nd one cheaply to nearly double, at worst, or more than double, at best, my FPS. Also 3D capability. All in all, I am extremely happy with the rig so far and I have yet to see a hiccup in any game out right now on max, and I do not expect to see one for a while from now either.

@vlad321

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/nvidia-s-geforce-gtx-480-and-gtx-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/20

The GTX 480 is "between 10 and 15% faster than the Radeon 5870 depending on the resolution"

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18682/14

The GTX 480 "draws more power, generate more heat and noise, [...] but they're not substantially faster at running current games"

Are CUDA, PhysX and SLI scaling worth 44% more than a 5870 for it?

It pretty much depends on the specifics of what he wants to use the system for down to specific games that use each of the features inherent to either ATI 58XX series cards or Nvidia 4XX series cards.

If he is planning on a multi GPU build, it's acknowledged that SLI does a better job of scaling in most games over CrossFire.

Nvidia also has 3D if he cares.

If he wants to do a three display set up for games, ATI has EyeFinity which is pretty nice.

For multi GPU set ups, Nvidia Fermi based set ups require higher wattage PSUs than with ATI, but I really don't see this is a deal maker/breaker.

I'm currently using that GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard he was looking at. I usually buy Asus, but I've had zero problems with the Gigabyte, which gave me a comfortable 4.05Ghz clock at a fairly low 1.2 volt VCore (OC results are generally more dependent upon the individual CPU sample though). I'm using a Prolimatech Megahalem for aircooling and it manages temps well, even in single fan (med speed 1250rpm) configuration.

44% more? Maybe you need to doubel check that because last I checked a 5870 was $400 and a 480 was $500, barely 25% more. As for scaling, check this out:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/3/26/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480--gtx-480-sli-review.aspx?pageid=5

Yes, there is a 117% gain in STALKER Call of Pripyat, and 98% gain in Metro 2033. Let that sink in, and let's hear how Crossfire does with the 5870s:

http://www.techspot.com/review/289-geforce-gtx-480-sli-versus-radeon-5870-crossfire/page3.html

in AVP, 480 had 90%, 5870 had 74%. In Bad Company 2, 480 had 81% and the 5870 had a measily 56%. Crysis Warhead, the 5870 couldn't even handle the anti-aliasing so they had to turn it off and even then, 480 was at 93%, the 5870 at 32%. Just Cause 2 was a little more even, 480 had 94% gain, 5870 gained 56%.

So considering I can basically count to nearly double my power by jsut sticking in another 480, and they will certainly drop in price by the time I have to actually buy a 2nd one, it will be a very cheap and easy upgrade to put me back up on top.

PhysX is also the shit.

FInally, PSUs are fairly cheap, especially witha  given update, and with my already mildly overclocked 480, I have barely reached 80C when my fan was at 70% at full load, so even the temp isn't a problem. So yes, you can only gain by going with a 480 over a 5870, and it is definitely worth the extra 25% in dollars.

480 that was linked in the post I was responding to: $527

Cheapest 5870 on Newegg: $366 (at the time, now $370)

527/366 = 1.44

I accept the scaling is better. However, I'll bet that the installed base of 2 480s is extremely small.

There was only one batch of 480s ever produced anyway; they are EOL. The reason they are still in stores is that, after the initial run of preorders and Nvidia fans, sales are now practically zero due to poor value and high temps. Unless you use two, which almost no one does. Prices won't come down either as supply isn't being replenished.

I guess we will just have to wait and see then huh? Oh yeah, also if you water cool a single 480 you can push it to a good 20% gain without it ever even breaking a sweat. Then put THAT in SLI, and ATI will be left in the dust by a long gap. The card is just BETTER at everything than a 5870, unless you are some green freak, evironmentalist, or trying to lower your energy bill.

Also, in the link I posted, have you not noticed how under some settings, the 5870 doesn't even work? I'd expect that my video card to work with all games.

Yeah Vlad, how bout I put some phase change cooling on my lovely 5870 here so you can put that in your crack pipe and smoke it? So the cards just better at everything the GTX 480 does so THERE.

P.S. The GTX 480 is obsolete, the GT104 is a far better chip and the GTX 460 proves this as the full blooded version is faster than an HD 5850. Not bad for a cut down chip, eh?