Building The Most Super Of Computers

hey guys hey, im currently building a computer and i would like to know if all my parts are compatable with eachother and im getting the best bang for my buck. Its for my g/f she needs to do a ton of school work on it, she loves to play WoW, and The Sims 3. I have a budget of about 800 bucks including the OS (win7).

I'm not sure what PSU to get, or if i need a fan for my processor. But here is what i have looked up so far. The parts that say "OR" I'm not sure which one i can skimp some money on and still have a good machine.

Processor-http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103858
OR
]Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOXna&AID=10521304&PID=4164509&SID=1ho1rclmbkgf0[/COLOR][/COLOR]

Video Card- Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

HDD - Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Case - Cooler Master Elite Mid Tower Case, RC-310-BWN1-GP (Blue) RC-310-BWN1-GP
OR
Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

MotherBoard - Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

I'm not sure whats wrong with it, another forum said the am3 socket wasnt very upgradeable, any suggestions would be appreciated

RAM- Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-8GBRH

CD/DVD ROM drive - Newegg.com - LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - CD / DVD Burners

 

Ok looking through the list, as a start you might as well save $25 and get this RAM, faster speed 1600MHz, you won't notice the difference with the RAM timings - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231428

The reason they say the AM3 socket isn't very upgradeable is because it is a few years old now, AMD has released new processors called APU's (Accelerated processing unit) which basically have a graphics card on the same piece of silicon as the processor, but they aren't as good as the processors you linked above plus a separate graphics card.

I'd advise the first processor you linked though ($160, 6 core), you'll at least have a more future proof computer with that.

As for motherboard would be best to go with an AM3+ board, some of the new APU's support AM3+ so might leave an upgrade path open if AMD support it long enough, this one will do the same job as the one you picked out - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157272

An alternative to the graphics card would be the AMD 6790 or 6850, both of which have a nice performance boost over the 550, the 6850 would be the better bet for an extra $7 - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814161384

Again this HDD would save $30 for pretty much the same performance, only difference is less cache, which doesn't make a great difference in performance - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148697

This case should fit the bill, I've got same case (just without that white/grey trim) - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811119115

As for a PSU they can be expensive to get a good one but worth it in the long run, you don't want one dying and possibly taking some of your hardware parts with it, to power all that above and leave some room as well probably need about 650-700W from a PSU, this one should do - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817341018

As for cooling there is a fan and heatsink with the processor, though if you want an upgrade this would be a good option - http://www.newegg.co...6_TS_-_-1_11___

You need this to apply to the CPU if you do choose to upgrade the CPU fan & heatsink - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835100007

And a couple of these case fans should suffice for cooling the case, as well as not being to loud - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835103091

Should be everything, someone else will probably pop along for a look as well to see if anything can be improved on for the parts, hopefully that comes in under your $800 budget, haven't totalled it up myself.

 

I'd hold fire AMD and Intel are both launching new chips in the next month or so :hush: