I'm going to go against pretty much everyone here and say that if you're only going to be gaming and running single- or lightly-multi-threaded apps, an X58 setup is an absolute waste of money.
- CPU: Phenom II 965BE
- Mobo: Spoilt for choice here. Try and grab something 890-based.
- RAM: 2*2GB DDR3-1600 CAS-7 or lower (in my experience AMD-based systems respond a lot better to tighter timings than to higher speeds)
- VGA: 2*ATi HD5850 (Crossfire)
- PSU: Again spoilt for choice. 850W+, 1kW if you can fit it in the budget to reduce system noise due to PSU load
- SSD: Something Sandforce-based. OCZ Vertex II, etc.
- HDD: At least a 1TB drive, my personal preference is for WD drives
- Cooling: 2xZalman ZF-1000 applied to 5850 cores (see eg. this thread) or equivalent, large tower-style CPU heatsink
As the owner of an i7 920 @ 4GHz system and system builder doing a lot of gaming builds, I can honestly say that if the only thing I was doing with my rig was gaming, office work and single-/light multi-threaded apps, I'd have wasted my money. On the many AMD-based systems that I've built as gaming rigs and compared to my i7 system, I've noticed no gaming performance difference whatsoever between the 920 @ 4GHz / 6GB DDR3-2000 and a 965BE @ stock / 4GB DDR3-1600 -
but with the AMD system you save enough money to afford another graphics card and an SSD for performance boosts where it counts.
Originally Posted by zsamz_
nope it suks 2 overclockin
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