It is time for me to get a new computer. This time I am looking to build it rather than buy a Dell. For me, it's not about price; rather, it is about matching the computer to my needs. I simply want a gaming computer to play WoW/SC-II/D-III and Spore, I will also use this computer to store pictures and mp3's. It will run Win7 Pro, and I'll use it to RDP into my laptops for work.

Originally, I wanted to go with all Giga-Byte components. After looking over the reviews, specifications and what not, it seems that ASUS is the brand to go with this time.

The motherboard received great reviews, but there were a number of complaints about the onboard NIC. I would rather have a bare board and drop in daughter cards for sound, video, network - alas, I was unable to find a board to do that. On a side note, I do not plan to do any over clocking of the components.

My video needs are that of WoOW. The 1GB 9800 that I have now still has a framerate issue. I am hoping that this clears it up - and if it doesn't, perhaps linking in a second card will resolve this issue. Occassionally, the kids will watch a movie on my second monitor while I am working on the first - unless I am playing WoW - the Dell computer I am replacing will become a community machine so that will be a non issue going forward.

I am a big fan of Kingston and Simple memory but several of my friends swear by G.Skill, so I ill try it out. It is not clear if my selecting will cause a bottle neck in CPU/GPU performance - it seems that this is only a concern when over clocking and that my selection should accomodate the throughput.

I plan on using the first drive as a system partition and the other three in a RAID configuration. The MOBO didn't specifically state that it had an onboard Raid controller, none of them seem to have it, for SATA drives. If I am not able to find a MOBO that has an onboard raid controller, I'll either buy a daughter card to do it - a waste of six SATA slots, or use the OS to create the RAID. All my games/files will be hosted on the RAID volume. I do have an external DROBO unit with 2 TB of storage, but I want the games to be local.

If you have time and feel like it, let me know your thoughts on this assembly or other configurations (my budget is about 1K:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131623
ASUS P7H55-M PRO LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Note: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product had too many poor reviews.

I am not opposed to another MOBO, I just want someone to tell me why it's better or makes more sense - I've been out of the clone world a tad too long. I tend to encounter too many issues with ADM and that is why I tend to lean towards Intel. Perhaps I am not making the correct configurations for an AMD box.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115217
Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale 3.33GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 87W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I5661

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ

Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121363
ASUS CuCore Series EAH5770 CuCore/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136218
(4) Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182191
Rosewill Green Series RG700-S12 700W Continuous @40�C,80 PLUS Certified,Single 12V Rail,ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91,SLI Ready,CrossFire Ready,Active PFC"Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply

This is to replace the 500w unit I had with a ADM quad core set up. I don't have much luck with AMD's.

Thermal Compound: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835100007
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

Thanks in advance

Intel is still the top dog speedwise, just a bit more expensive.

Are you getting the MicroATX board for a small form factor box? If not I'd get a normal ATX board.. ASUS and Gigabyte are my two favorites currently.

That CPU has the onboard video, and is only a dual core. Since you are getting a dedicated video card, I'd probably go with the i5 750 or 760, they are the true quad core i5's and no onchip video.

I'd go for a little more ram, 6gb or 8gb. You didn't specify but I'd assume Win7 64bit. if you are sticking in the 32bit world, then go 4gb.


I'm pretty sure all the intel chipset boards have basic raid capability for the sata slots, I'm not sure I'd do the 640gb drives. I'd probably go for 1tb or 1.5tb drives, but however you like it. (For a nice speed boost, get a SSD drive for your system partition.)

Get the 64 bit of windows 7 just incase you ever want to go above 4 gb of memory. I finally formatted my machine last week to go from 4 gb to 8 gb of memory (when it arrives).

Does WoW even run in 64 bit mode? If not, windows on windows (32 bit mode) wont have access to it, will it?

But I have been considering Win7 64 bit since I don't do any development on it.

Dag, do you have a model number on the MOBO's you are speaking about?

Thanks.

WoW runs fine on Win7 64bit. WoW itself is a 32bit application though.

Gigabyte
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128425

ASUS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131400

The H55 board you posted has the connector for the onchip video, since you aren't going to use that a P55 board is probably the better option. Now, if you are planning on using 2 video cards in crossfire or SLI mode, then you may want a board that will do PCIExpress x16 in 2 slots. (That's the X38 series boards, $$$)