im building my first computer give me some advice.

my name is edgar and im a 16 year old sophmore in highschool. i know this has nothing to do with computers but its always nice to to know a little about who you arehelping.

im not an expert at computers but i do know quite alot. i can take them apart and put them back together and exchang and replace parts and components.

this is my first time making my own computer and i would like you guys to help me decide what would make a good gaming computer.

my budget is $2000.

here is what i was thinking:

Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1

p6T X58 1366 ATX MOTHERBOARD

phenom II X3 TRIPLE -CORE PROCESSOR 720

DYNAMO 650 WATT ATX 12V POWER SUPPLY

GOLD EDITION 4GB DDR2-1066(PC-8500) RAM

BARRACUDA 500GB 7,200RPM SATA 3.066LS HARD DRIVE

Sony Bulk Optiarc Slim 8x DVD±RW Burner with Dual/Double Layer Support OEMOPTICAL DRIVE

Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1024MD GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 GRAPHICS CARD

SOUND BLASTER X-Fi XTREME GAMER SOUND CARD

ALLEGRO EXPRESS USB 2.0 PCIe ADAPTER CARD USB PC CONTROLLER

TWIN CCF L LIGHT -2x8 BLUE/BLUE CASE, ACCESORIES

Thermaltake USA Inc
SpinQ 1366/AM2+ Universal CPU Cooler

NexStar 3 Aluminum 3.5" External Enclosure- Blue HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURE

ATX-238WR Tornado ATX Mid Tower Case - GREEN

SO HONESTLY GIVE ME YOUR OPINION AND PLEASE TELL ME IF THERE IS SOMETHING I SHOULD CHANGE ORE A BETTER COMPONENT I COULD GET BECAUSE I WOULD REALLY HATE TO BUY ALL THIS AND THEN FIND OUT THAT IT IS SH*T. THANK YOU.

Well first off you have a intel motherboard for an AMD cpu not going to work, Powersupply is iffy, You can make a great gaming computer for even $1000. This is the stuff you change, everything else looks ok.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131381

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145247

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=corsair%20650

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

Well, I'm not able to double check how good or bad your parts are, but this is kind of the flow chart I go through when I think about building a new PC.

First, determine the CPU you want. You can use whatever means you like for this, if you want something with nice overclockability, or something thats good and stable, etc.

Second, find a motherboard with the same socket type as the CPU you want, you can also look at all the extra features available to help you determine between these. I usually look for something with a fast bus, chipset, etc.

Third, look at the type of RAM supported by the motherboard, and the speeds that are supported, you can use this to determin the size and speeds of ram you can go with.

After these three things, the next couple things are up to personal preference.

Hard drive/s, optical drive/s, computer case.

Those are all pretty much up to your personal choice. Any non-standard CPU heatsync/fan you get should be able to fit into the case you select, keep that in mind.

After that you can pick the Video card you want to go with based on what kind of support your motherboard uses (or you can base the motherboard on video card support, but I personally have no preference between ATI or NVidea)

Then there are some online tools you can use to check out what watage of a power supply you need to keep your system stable based on the parts. A nice power supply will generally be heavier than lower quality power supplies, so be sure to compare weight as well as price.

I can come back later to check out your specific choices, but with these general guide lines I'm sure you'll be able to pick something that works well for your wants.

It all looks great to me as long as you make the changes suggested above, however is it worth getting vista which is a resource hog when windows 7 is almost here?

Personally id wait for windows 7 then get it all and some of the parts may also drop in price.

Hope that helps

Aventura54

Sounds like your in same position as me except im further into the build with just under half of my parts bought and sat in my room with the rest to come. Best thing you can do is to go over your build 10000000000000 times then ask here then go over it again :). you can get Windows 7 free (kinda) with Vista which is what i have done which was an added £35 and i now get (asside from p&p) I get Windows 7 ultimate 64 for free =D..

thanks guys i will change the post acording to what you have to ld me. i really appreciate the help.

ok so here are the modifications...

Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1

-ASUS M4A78 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

-Phenom X4 Quad-Core Processor 9950 Black Edition Boxed

-CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

- CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5C GRAM

-BARRACUDA 500GB 7,200RPM SATA 3.066LS HARD DRIVE

-Sony Bulk Optiarc Slim 8x DVD±RW Burner with Dual/Double Layer Support OEMOPTICAL DRIVE

-Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1024MD GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 GRAPHICS CARD

-SOUND BLASTER X-Fi XTREME GAMER SOUND CARD

-ALLEGRO EXPRESS USB 2.0 PCIe ADAPTER CARD USB PC CONTROLLER

-TWIN CCF L LIGHT -2x8 BLUE/BLUE CASE, ACCESORIES

-Thermaltake USA Inc
SpinQ 1366/AM2+ Universal CPU Cooler

-NexStar 3 Aluminum 3.5" External Enclosure- Blue HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURE

-APEVIA X-Infinity ATXB6KLW-AL Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX 350W power supply for AMD/Intel Power Supply

ok so here are the modifications...

Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1

-ASUS M4A78 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

-Phenom X4 Quad-Core Processor 9950 Black Edition Boxed

-CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

- CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5C GRAM

-BARRACUDA 500GB 7,200RPM SATA 3.066LS HARD DRIVE

-Sony Bulk Optiarc Slim 8x DVD±RW Burner with Dual/Double Layer Support OEMOPTICAL DRIVE

-Radeon HD 4870 XXX 1024MD GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 GRAPHICS CARD

-SOUND BLASTER X-Fi XTREME GAMER SOUND CARD

-ALLEGRO EXPRESS USB 2.0 PCIe ADAPTER CARD USB PC CONTROLLER

-TWIN CCF L LIGHT -2x8 BLUE/BLUE CASE, ACCESORIES

-Thermaltake USA Inc
SpinQ 1366/AM2+ Universal CPU Cooler

-NexStar 3 Aluminum 3.5" External Enclosure- Blue HARD DRIVE ENCLOSURE

-APEVIA X-Infinity ATXB6KLW-AL Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX 350W power supply for AMD/Intel Power Supply

And don't get Phenom 9950 get a Phenom II 955 instead. It is a MUCH better CPU. Everything else is O.K.

And get a GTX275 because it has better game support than that graphics card. I know it from personal experience. So here it is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127429

Phenom II 955 link was posted in another message so I won't repeat it.

Cheers and good luck.

thanks for the advice guys now all thats left is tobuymy components and build my computer.

ati 4890! that should be your gpu

my monitor is currently 21".