My reference to a 3.5GHZ CPU is an OC'd CPU only.  My apologies for any confusion.

As long as you don't take your CPU above 3.5, you'll be fine with the CM even with two cards.  It's only when you get too 3.8-4.0 that it gets iffy.  This is of course assuming you're not OCing the video cards, either, but I think that's a safe assumption to make.

100% load means a game that is fully (or close to fully) utilizing both of your graphics cards as well as your CPU (all cores or at least most).  For the previous generation, this was essentially Crysis, as it even brought the 8800GTX to its knees on the higher settings.  (9x series is basically an 8x series refresh and doesn't count IMO.)

A new card in 1.5-2 years is probably a better idea than running 2x 4870s.  If you continue to run a single card solution at that time, you can probably still manage quite well on the CM.  You may wind up needing an adapter or two if standards change, but it's more than solid enough for single cards that aren't even out yet (with the exception of dual chip cards like the 4850X2 or 4870X2 which don't really count).

Here's Three cheapest items that could save you hundreds. But I revise you to recheck them out because These sort of deals sell out of items quick   heres a CPU $109.88 thats well known to overheat since amd is every GHz bang for your buck  AMD Phenom X3 8450 2.1GHz 2MB Socket AM2+ Triple-Core CPU.  Motherboard costs $57.99 Biostar A780G-M2+ SE AMD 780G Socket AM2+ mATX MB w/VID & LAN.  Graphics card costs $149.99 Sparkle GeForce 9600GT 1GB GDDR3 PCIe Dual DVI Video Card w/TV-Out. The motherboard already has a 3200 series of graphics unsure of memory might be 32 or 128 mb of memory thats just a guess? A Ram $33.50 Kingston KVR800D2N6/2G 2GB DDR2 RAM PC2-6400 240-Pin DIMM.  Just let me say this motherboard,cpu,monitor,ram/memoryx2,power supply, computer case, cd rom drive= $412.31

 This does not include the software!!!

Again I went to Geeks.com                                      

P.S. I would like any one else to Posts as Rocky84 and tell me About some other Websites that can be cheap on

Hardware,software some others damn good deals. Forgive me for the D word. 

I've never heard of Geeks.com, and I know Newegg is a trusted site (they do had DoAs but they have an awesome return policy). I'll look into it though

Anyways Sole like I said in the EDIT on my last post on the first page if I have the extra cash I'll get the 850 W (or was it 800? ). So that means I would have a wide margin for one card and OCing (from what I can tell) and be fine when I want a new card at some point. And how easy is OCing? Can I do it with software that comes with the part?

EDIT: Rocky, like I said Newegg.com is trusted and pretty cheap. You can find alot of good deals there (free shipping, free games, big rebates, ect). And Rocky instead of making 3 posts in a row you can use the EDIT button to edit your post.

I could've sworn we already had the AMD/Intel debate.

Recommending a tri-core?  That's just disgusting, no offense intended.

The 9600GT is inferior to the 4850 which he decided he didn't want to get...

Rocky84: Newegg.  Seriously.  Go there, now.

Based on your numbers, you're putting a PSU and case in there for around $40 total.  That's not going to fucking cut it, if you'll pardon my language.  $40 can get you a good case, or it can get you an 80% efficient 400W PSU.  It cannot get you a case and a 600W+ PSU.

Also: Dude, we have an edit button now.  Please use it.

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Thrawn:

No idea on SC.

I would definitely go for either Zalman if you can, as it saves you money in the long run by not having to upgrade the PSU later.  Whichever one you can afford is obviously the best choice.

There are certainly other reputable brands with high efficiency PSUs that you might want to consider but my goal was to find one within a relatively low price range that had 2x6 pin and 2x6+2 pin connectors for maximum longevity, which both of those Zalmans meet.

I do believe it's 850W.

A wide margin indeed.  An OC'd C2Q and 2x4870s (non-OC'd) leaves you with >150W (perhaps >180W) available on the 12V rails with the Zalman 850W, so you're good to go.

OCing is easy after the first time, and if you do it gently, the first time is easy as well.  As a general rule, you can hit the top released speed of any chip with the lowest binned chip-say taking a 2.33GHZ chip to 3.33GHZ (I know they launched a 3.33 dual, don't remember what the upper limit was on quads for stock speeds) with very little if any voltage increases, which is your primary power consumption increaser.  Beyond that, it's more about luck, but overclocking doesn't have to be done insanely.

Generally most of us OC using the BIOS, but the software tools for it are becoming better and there's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to do it that way at this point in time if you prefer.  I would however recommend that you become intimately familiar (no, not THAT way) with your PC when building it and that you especially take note of where the CMOS battery on your motherboard is so you can pull it (and put it back in) to reset the BIOS should you manage to give your system settings that prove to be unbootable.  More and more boards simply have a switch or a jumper next to the CMOS battery that serves the same purpose, but I don't recall seeing a board yet that wouldn't let you pull it.

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Darth, if you're seeing them, feel free to link them if they're relevant.  I know I was on your case a bit earlier in the thread, but I don't mean to chase anyone away.  However, in my 5 seconds of looking, I see less selection at equal or higher prices.  Also, it appears they only stock up to DDR2-667.  I hope someone has simply forgotten to update the site, but seeing as they have i7s on there as well, I'm not optimistic.

uh oh, my mistake in writing the cheaper prices were ment toward newegg.com and you are right that geeks.com do have a very low selection choice

Whith every computer you build it always has a standard BIOS that comes with it already on it, so it should auto-recognize any graphics card, memory, hard drive, if it doesnot you will have to fill in the details. Then you can edit things to overclock and like Sole Soul said if it will not boot pull out batter or use the pin switch.

Which is why I'm recommending that if he overclocks, that he does it intelligently, particularly as he hasn't done it before.

There are far more overclock success stories than there are overclock horror stories, believe it or not-and since he's building the system, I assume he's not as worried as most of the prebuilt crowd is about warranties or tech support.

You have a valid point, but just for the record, I live in Florida, the lightning capital of the world, and I have yet to lose a single component due to lightning-attributed damage.  This is partly being smart, and partly not plugging my components directly into the wall (a power strip does the job quite nicely, even one without hefty surge protection).  Although you may see it as lucky as well.

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Thrawn, the BIOS is (essentially) the OS on your motherboard.  So, yes, it comes with it. 

Here's what I would get:

• Intel Core i7
• 12 GB of memory
• Windows Vista 64-bit
• SSD drive for boot drive (Intel SSD extreme) with a Terrabyte secondary data drive.
• ATI HD 4870X2

BTW, Dawn of War II will be on Impulse also in all likelyhood.

Yeah Frogboy I just comment on your "dream machine" thread.

So yeah I should have just enough by Xmas (assuming I get $300 for Xmas). I'd have $1081 (which covers shipping) if I make $65 after taxes (9 hours a week). I'm crossing my fingers. They have (sometimes) given me less than that.

Also, all those parts better be instock or I will be pissed. I've waited years for a new computer, one more delay and I may snap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Here's a good Antec with three 120mm fans with 3speed awitches, it should hold everything you need.

The following are examples of some the different base configurations they have, each with many different options for every major subsystem.

Intel Core 2 Duo Configurator $530
Intel Quad-Core Configurator $642
AMD Athlon X2 Configurator $396
AMD Athlon X2 SLI Configurator $527
Intel Core i7 Configurator $775
INTEL DDR3 Configurators $649

Actually the other benefit from my point of view is that you can get it loaded with a vanillia XP (Home or Pro) as well as the various Vista or preformatted drive only options.

I just got an I7 920, with the gigabyte 58x ud5 m/b, 6 gigs tri-channel 1600mhz ram, gtx 280 overclocked evga vid card, the antex 12 case, 2 640gb barracuda drives in raid 1 and another 1g barracuda, logitech mx 1100 mouse, logitech g15 keyboard, corsair 750w power supply...and it has made me very very happy!  All in about $3000 canadian configured through ncix.  I put vista ultimate 64 bit on it.

The fans in question have four-pin power connectors, but they come with adapters to standard molex connectors-if memory serves the adapters are already connected.  I believe the stock fans are identical in this regard.  You could -almost- do it blind.

No offense intended.  It is, however, very, very simple.

I did check out your link and read the first dozen or so comments out of close to a thousand. Didn't read anything particularly negative other than the overall rating of 8.77/10. Not real sure what that means other than random people giving random comments about their experience. In comparison Newegg has over 24 thousand comments and an overall rating of 9.86/10. And while Newegg does have a better rating, someone must have complained about Newegg since their rating isn't perfect. In any case I wouldn't read anywhere near 1,000 comments let alone 24K comments in order to make a decision.

The point about Ibuypower is that you are buying a bootable system as a whole and if it doesn't work you have some recourse to say that *something* is definitely wrong with your purchase. When you buy a motherboard from Newegg or wherever and put it together with a PSU, case, processor and all the other things needed to make a system and it doesn't boot what can you do? You can say that you *think* the problem is the motherboard but unless *all* components have been purchased from the same source you're left having to "prove" which component is at fault and getting it resolved. And even if everything is purchased from the same source what assurance does the supplier have that you assembled it correctly? For all they know you jammed the PSU connector on backwards, blew the mobo and are trying to con them into replacing it.

I appreciate your response but I prefer to get something that's completely operational and simply plug it in. Then if it doesn't work I don't have to explain how I assembled it and whether or not I wore proper ESD straps while doing so.