No USB3.0 on my board, so 2 8 lane it is.

The problem with Fermi is that my computer broke in december... so can't really wait for it :/

The reason I go with 1156 is because the 750 is suposed to be good in OC (so i'll put it closer to 4ghz rather than 2.6) But it's true that it's not as performant as the other chipset :/

great thread! very informative!

could somebody advise me regarding mini-itx? i'm thinking of upgrading to a new pc and need to save space so i'm considering a mini-itx rig. is that any good? or will it be too weak to play current games?

Thanks for the tips! I don't know that much about Blu-Ray drives, having not become an adopter of the format yet, so I've added a recommendation for LG drives to the OP. As for hard drives, I wouldn't believe anecdotes on the 'net when it comes to the reliability of a certain brand; however, Caviar Greens only run at 5400 RPMs, so I wouldn't recommend them in the first place.

Thanks!

And no, I wouldn't recommend Mini-ITX for a gaming machine. You'll be hard-pressed to even find a mini-ITX mobo with an AM3 or LGA1156 socket (most use AM2+ or some older Intel socket), even a single PCI-E x16 port, or support for DDR3 RAM. In other words, the standard is poorly suited for gaming.

If you're looking to save space and you want to go with the Athlon II X3 435-based "standard gamer" build, then I'd start with a Lian Li PC-V351B and a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Micro-ATX mobo and go to town from there. That'll give you a case that's smaller than your standard mid tower, but with all of the features of a standard ATX build (minus one or two PCI ports and expansion slots). The video card will take up one of the PCI ports as well as the PCI-E, but that still leaves you with a PCI-E x1 port for a wireless card or TV tuner and a PCI port for whatever you might need a PCI port for.

A few caveats, though: First, a Micro-ATX case won't be able to fit most larger video cards, but you should be able to squeeze a Radeon 4770 or 4850 in there with little effort. Second, Micro-ATX cases may be difficult to build in for a first-time builder. Make sure that you get a modular power supply in order to minimize stray cables.

For comparison's sake, by the by: The Lian Li is 14.69" x 10.98" x 10.31", while the Cooler Master Centurion 5 (my standard recommended ATX mid tower) is 18.90" x 7.95" x 17.13"

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/01/17/nvidia-gf100-takes-280w-and-unmanufacturable/

No it isn't. It has had a six month delay due to incompetent engineering, epic die size so really hard to manufacture, abysmal yields, missed clock targets by 25%, and is the hottest graphics card ever made. I will be amazed if it beats the 5870 by 20%, yet they can't sell it profitably for anything less than $550. It's going to lose heavily on price/performance to the 5870.

Oh, and only 448 shaders on the launch model.

The author has been correct on every count about Nvidia graphics for almost two years now from early in GT200 development to today. Bumpgate, Ion 2 being a G310, the GT21x delays and cancellations, the Fermi delays (predicted March launch a year ago when everyone else was saying Q3), the fake Fermi boards at GTC, the recent shortages of GT200b parts, the exit of Nvidia from the chipset business... all written up well before it was clear to anyone else.

I'm just going by Newegg. It just seems Seagates have gone downhill recently. Both external and internal HDDs. People seem happy with the older ones though.

He wanted an Nvidia card and I gave him information about the one he should be looking at given his budget, type of CPU and motherboard for his given applications. I've read that same article before (twice) and I agree its probably pretty close to the mark factually but may be spun a little too negatively. It'll be expensive, but so are 2x GTX 265s... So it was the best card to suggest out of a poor range with limited $ vs performance all around.

OK, I agree with that.

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep them in mind while i try and put together my first  ever build. though this may be the first time i try to build a pc from the ground up, i have been keeping my current desktop for the past so many years :P i haven't gamed on this pice of trash for years!i dont realy know what board this shit has as i just got this from my brother and never bothered upgrading. though i have replaced the video card when the really old 32mb gforce crap gave, also replaced the psu when it exploded (funny,  everything still works even after it literaly went up in smokes), replaced the optical drive, hdd and added some ram. 

Haven't found much of a reason to upgrade. But with Starcraft2 and Diablo3 in the works i think its about time that i build myself a nice new rig or at the least something that can run those two games at settings between low and midium settings i'm not too particular with graphic details. I look more into gameplay though having nice graphics give some insentives.

on a side note, anybody knows if they've released the system requirements for starcraft2 and diablo3?

edit: nevermind i looked it up

StarCraftWire.net Minimum Specifications:

• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce FX 5500
• Hard Disk Space: Undeterminable*

StarCraftWire.net Alternative Minimum Specifications:

• CPU: Athlon XP 2500+
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9700
• Hard Disk Space: Undeterminable*

http://starcraft.incgamers.com/articles/comments/starcraft-2-system-requirements

damn, if that's the minimum specs then i'll just upgrade my freakin video card in my crapy p4 2.6Ghz PC and BAM! LOL

You really should consider upgrading your entire PC if you can spare the cash. Even the "hobo box" in the OP will blow a P4 2.6 GHz box out of the water. For reference, you're probably sporting an old "Northwood" P4 with only 512 KB L2 cache, an ancient Socket 478 mobo with no PCI-E slots (so you'll have to upgrade into an equally outdated and overpriced AGP card, probably from the secondary market) and MAYBE a max of 4 GB slow DDR2 667 RAM if you're lucky and got a high-end-for-the-time mobo. Also, with that setup you're probably still running Win XP, which you shouldn't be if you're at all serious about PC gaming.

You'll have trouble running on minimum settings even if you upgrade to the best AGP card, Socket 478 CPU, and RAM that you can find.