Computer Rebuild Help

[aricjonho]

Hello, another user who's been out of the game for too long requesting some help. Thank heavens for this amazing community!

My computer's been giving me too many problems so I'm going to do a rebuild.

PC will be used for medium-high end gaming, net browsing, carelessly leaving a million things running at once. Also the occasional video/movie making, and general media usage(movies, blu-ray, tons of music).
I'm from the US.
I'm a newegg fanboy.
I'm an AMD fanboy.
I don't overclock anymore.
My budget for the parts I'd like to purchase is around $400-800.

Here's what I'm keeping:
I use dual-monitor setup, each with their own resolutions:
-Sceptre 24" widescreen, usually run 1900x1200
-Some 19" lcd, usually at 1600 x 1200

I <3 my Case.
- Antec p180(just wish it weighed a little less)

My power supply is pretty recent:
-PC Power and Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
-http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009
Will this be sufficient?

My Video card's pretty solid:
- MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
-http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127361

I'm keeping my hard drives, 2 x SATA drives with most of my stuff.


I just spent the past week or so trying to catch up on my reading/technology, and I still feel out of the loop. I've browsed the past week or so on this forum, just looking at other people's builds and questions/suggestions.

Mainly, I guess I just need some strong suggestions for motherboard/cpu and memory. I'm also considering an SSD for OS/applications. If it can fall within my budget... Motherboard reliability is probably the most important thing to me right now, the last few builds I've used had motherboards that died and caused some headaches. Also, my timing is pretty relaxed, and if I remember right, January/February is a good time to buy, so I don't mind waiting if there's going to be a major price drop soon. Ideally I'd like to purchase within the next month.

So, in quick summary:
Budget = $400-800
Needs: Motherboard, Cpu, Memory
Possible Upgrade if within budget?: SSD

Edit: Forgot about OS! Totally out of the loop in the OS world, I've been stuck on my XP professional for like 8 years now, it's suited me fine, but I'm not opposed with giving 7 a go, which I would also need to purchase. Info/Suggestions appreciated on this topic as well.

Thanks all for your input and help!

 

[mpilchfamily]

While your upgrading then go with Win7. What was your old CPU and how much RAm do you have. If its a recent CPU then there isn't much need for upgrading since the CPU wouldn't be limiting your video card in any way so your gaming experience wouldn't change.

 

[MisterDonut]

Since that is a pretty big budget for just a mobo/cpu/RAM, I would snag an i5 set, despite the fact that you're an AMD fan boy . It'll last longer, but as far as gaming goes, the Phenom II X4 955 matches the quad cores...but that's usually for people with a tighter budget. Plans to SLI/CFX ? SSDs would be a nice upgrade, but they're only cheap around 30g (OCZ Vertex). Anything more starts to explode in price...

 

[aricjonho]

My cpu was an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor. It's probably still good, and I really hate to waste it, but I'm also tired of the headache. I considered just replacing my motherboard and memory, but for the price, I figured it would be more logical to just upgrade. After this build too, I should have enough spare parts for another rig too, so I might be able to use the cpu in a HTPC.

I have 2 sticks of memory left, but they might not be good, I havent run the full mem86 test on them yet, but I'm pretty sure my motherboard may have damaged them. Periodically I receive memory post errors. They are two sticks of OCZ ddr2 6400 1 gig each, dual channeled.

I doubt I'll run SLI, not in my plans anytime soon. Although I am moderately curious just with running dual monitor, I wonder how much the 2nd monitor drains my video card? I feel like it should just be a small chunk of its memory. Usually I work on one monitor, and then my side monitor is full of a multitude of browser windows/office applications.

 

[aricjonho]

So, after more planning, I've decided upon the following.

Eventually down the line, i'm going to build a HTPC out of a bunch of random spare parts I have, and it'll probably be some sort of file server too if I can find a decent case that's microATX and still has plenty of internal 3.5" slots.

But for my new computer, How do these sound?

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders

-OCZ AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

-MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard


-AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core

-OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5

These will be combined with my:
Antec P180 Case
MSI GTX260
PC Power and Cooling 750w

Will this be solid system?

The total price tag, after mail in rebates is about $795