Unless you have two 5970's in crossfire, need fast processing speed for work or some very hungry application, or game at 800x600 resolution, you're going to see MINIMAL difference between an i7 and a Phenom II. Yes it is best. Notice the performance difference in gaming with a highly graphical game. Even the Phenom II 720 BE pulls its weight for $104 on newegg.com (doesn't come with heatsink)

I've had my 4870 1GB and Phenom X3 720 for nearly nine months and I don't see any reason to upgrade yet. The only "problem" I've had is only being able to play Dragon Age Origins at 1680x1050 with max quality and 2xAA (Damn those pixels!). I'm going to wait and see if Fermi is ****, then decide if I want to upgrade or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009158

millerlight89

That's a very good 20" monitor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009145&cm_re=x223-_-24-009-145-_-Product

This is the same monitor, except 22" and 1680x1050 resolution for about $20 more. I'm using it right now.

You may get sarcasm like, "I can run Crysis on max settings with my Radeon HD 3850."

I haven't seen any malicious advice, but if there is ever any, I'm sure it will be called out.

34-35 MINIMUM FPS would be playable.

Xbox 360 would be best. Most new games would probably run fine at medium/high settings and low textures, but I don't think it would be worth it because of the resolution.

My cousin is a Mac too (she has an iPhone 3GS and put an apple sticker on her Toshiba laptop.. never useddesktop Mac OS X). So, I installed Mac OS X on my old Dell Laptop just to hear her say, "But how can you do that? Mac is not a PC!" LOL. Took it off afterward and put Ubuntu/XP.

I would say about $850 (considering memory price inflation) is the bare minimum for a gaming PC that is not gimped. I think it is best not to get the latest and greatest; just wait until the latest and greatest come out so that the previous generation component prices drop. I built my budget PC nine months ago from Newegg.com for 653.19 (including shipping and tax -no rebates -used 'old' Seagate 7200.12 hard drive). I don't see any reason to upgrade yet, unless I want to upgrade to 1920x1200 res.

Specs:

• ATI Sapphire 4870 1GB
• AMD Phenom II X3 720
• ASUS M4A78T-E 790GX AM3
• G.Skill DDR3 1333 8-8-8-21
• Corsair 650W
• Sony Optiarc 24X DVD-RW
• Antec 300

Have patience and contemplation. Once a merchant issues a refund, it takes 2-3+ business days for YOUR bank to post it into your account.

Uh, Far Cry 2 CLEARLY has better graphics than Crysis at 800x600 and low settings.. Oh, and Uncharted 2 has far more advanced graphics than Crysis. Seriously though, the atmosphere in Far Cry 2 is very immersive and is well optimized for older hardware.