AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $83
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $90 (after $15 rebate)
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 - $60
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB - $110
Antec Three Hundred Illusion - $60
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $55 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20
Discount: $63 ($20 DVD/PSU Combo, $20 HD Promo, $15 Case Combo, $8 PSU Promo)
Shipping: $24
Total: $564
The first thing you should note is that the processor is dual-core, but motherboard has the ACC feature which may allow you to unlock one or two more cores. This is not a guarantee, and success will depend on why the two extra cores were disabled in the first place. You have no way of knowing if this will work until you actually try it, but people generally seem to have good results. Regardless, modern games still show little benefit from using more than two cores when played with reasonable detail. For a total of $143 for this motherboard and CPU, you really can't go wrong either way. Note that the motherboard does not support firewire, so you'll have to pay a little more if you want it.
There's not much to say about the RAM or heatsink. Decent latency and plenty of cooling. DDR2 prices are right up there with DDR3, so might as well stick with the newer stuff unless you find an unbeatable deal.
Video cards are still pretty expensive right now, but the Radeon HD 4850 seems to be one of the few exceptions. There are still plenty of these cards to go around, so the price has remained stable. It will run Starcraft II smoothly at great detail, so it's the ideal selection to hold you over until we see how the competition with newer cards plays out.
The hard drive has a nice $20 off promo code until 5/10, it has a 1TB of space, and it's a top performer among non-SSD drives. You could save around $35 by going with something smaller and slower, but this great value makes it a tough decision. Note that it supports SATA III even though the motherboard only supports SATA II. However, I'm not sure you can notice the difference between the two unless you use a SSD.
The Antec 300 Illusion also has a $15 off promo until 5/10. The case is nothing spectacular, but it is tried and true with excellent cooling.
The OCZ power supply is modular, meaning you can detach the cables you don't use. It has an $8 off promo until 5/11 and a combo that basically gives you a free DVD burner. If you desire, you can save an additional $9.50 by getting the 500W version, which should be plenty to power all the items listed here.
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $83
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
ASUS EAH5850 DirectCU TOP/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 - $340
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 - $60
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB - $139 (after $10 rebate)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB - $80
NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK - $60 (after $20 rebate)
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W - $55 (after $25 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20
Discount: $68 ($30 GPU/RAM Combo, $20 DVD/PSU Combo, $10 HD Promo, $8 PSU Promo)
Shipping: $14
Total: $908
Here we have the addition of a Radeon HD 5850, which will basically play any modern game smoothly at its highest settings. This isn't the cheapest one you can find, but the $30 combo with the RAM makes it a reasonable deal.
You'll notice that this build uses a 60GB SSD. The OCZ Vertex is a good performer with TRIM support (just make sure you're using the latest firmware) to prevent performance degredation. If you use it to hold your operating system plus a handful of your most used games/applications, you will eliminate a lot of waiting from boot and loading times. Store everything else on the Caviar Green, which is inexpensive, cool, quiet, and has plenty of space. If you're interested, it utilizes the new large sector technology you may have heard about, but that'll make little difference when compared to the Vertex. The Green also has a $10 off promo until 5/9.
I actually had the pleasure of recently building a machine with the NXZT Hades. It has three temperature probes that display the results on the top of the front panel, and they're quite accurate. There are two voltage knobs inside the front panel that allow you to regulate the speeds of all the fans if you connect them properly. There are several other features I really like about this case, and it's amazing that the price is so low.
You might have some trouble with the large side fan getting in the way of your CPU cooler. I used a Xigmatek S1283 without the fan attached, and there was only a little room to spare. I moved the Xigmatek fan to the rear spot on the case and put the rear 120mm fan on the front top spot, which worked out very well.
This build is more expensive, but you will absolutely notice the performance difference.
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz - $200
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $30
OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $95 (after $20 rebate)
Galaxy 70XKH3HS8GUX GeForce GTX 470 - $350
ASUS P7P55-M LGA 1156 Intel P55 - $108
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB - $139 (after $10 rebate)
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB - $80
NZXT Hades Crafted Series HADE-001BK - $60 (after $20 rebate)
Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M 750W - $75 (after $20 rebate)
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+-RW - $20
Discount: $80 ($60 GPU/PSU Combo, $10 CPU/MB Combo, $10 HD Promo)
Shipping: $12
Total: $1,099
If you're not an AMD fan, feel free to give this machine a try. The processor is one of the best gaming processors available today, and the motherboard supports firewire. However, these advantages will cost you about $155, and you may not even notice the difference in performance for most games.
The video card/power supply combo of $60 off is an amazing deal. There are actually several flavors of GTX 470 with the same price and combo, so feel free to take your pick. The 470 will perform a little better than the 5850 in most games, but you'll want to consult benchmarks for the ones you play.
That's it. Many of these parts can (and probably should) be mixed and matched to suit your price/performance needs. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or via e-mail. Even though I haven't tested most of this hardware myself, I always choose parts that get at least 4/5 "eggs" on Newegg (unless there is a very good reason to pick something else), and I check the reviews for other information like component noise. You can be relatively confident that these components will be quiet, efficient, and reliable.
