Gaming rig on a budget

[]=[endo]

Here's ZDNets new Gaming Rig on a Budget piece. All-in-all...pretty good choices.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=5569

[MechaWyvern]

Nice read, and not half bad system. If it was my money, and this is just my opinion, and that budget range ($600-800 lets say, which is where most people like to be) I would go with this setup instead. Keep his case, powersupply, RAM, harddrive and video card as they are fairly solid recommendations that would be hard to beat. I would nitpick the HDD and go Western Digital for $8, but thats minor. Now, go with this MOBO and processor:

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz - $199.99
GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 - $109.99

Your only spending $80 more, and will have a system that supports the latest Intel socket and a quad core CPU to boot. Plus, every benchmark and review I've read shows the i5 outperforming even a Phenom II X4 965 BE in some cases (see http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... =3634&p=20 ). Granted you lose crossfire with that paticular setup, but we're talking budget system here. The Intel setup is a better "bang for your buck." Again, just my 2 cents for what its worth.

[]=[endo]

I prefer the Intel setup as well, but I don't know if I could buy an ATI card.

[MechaWyvern]

Yeah, that was my gripe with that build as well. But, for the money that ATI card is hard to beat. A GTX 260 core 216 would be a good alternative choice for not much more money, but you dont gain much performance.