Building a new gaming computer

[Norch]

Hello all with the new expansion coming out very soon Ive been thinking of replacing my old Dell Inspiron 530 desktop with all its nasty integrated stuff and finaly build my own computer for the first time!

Im also on a 600-650 US dollar budget so please keep this in mind if you are going to reccomend something.

Here is what I have in mind so far :

Case or Box - Thermaltake V3 Black Edition Mid Tower Case

Motherboard - Asus M4A785TD-V Evo

CPU - AMD Phenom II X2 555 3.2 GHz

RAM or Memory - Corsair XMS3 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 RAMicon

Video Card - Diamond Radeon HD 5670 1024MB

Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB

PSU- DiabloTek PHD550 550-Watt Power Supply

DVD Burner -Sony Optiarc AD-7241S-0B 24x High Speed DVD LightScribe Drive

Please help me if you can!

[dgen]

It would help a lot if you mentioned which country you were from.

The following is a PC I built for a friend - prices are all in Australian dollar (1 AUD = 0.9719 U.S. dollars).

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 3.20GHz 8MB Cache (AM3) - Black Edition @ $169.00
MOBO: Asus M4A87TD-USB3 AMD Mainboard - 4x DDR3 / 6x Sata Raid / Gigabit Lan / AM3 @ $110.00
GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA N460OC-1GI GTX460, 1GB, GDDR5, PCIE 2.0, DX11, 2DVI, HDMI @ $264.00
RAM: Corsair DDR3 4GB PC-10600/1333 (2x XMS3 2GB) TW3X4G1333C9DHX Ram @ $128.
PSU: Corsair VX-450 450W ATX Power Supply @ $88.

Total of $757.50 AUD.

Now, assuming you're based in any country other than Australia, you should be able to add the HDD of your choice (Don't buy anything other than WD or Seagate, unless you go SSD, in that case, OCZ aren't too bad).

Few things to note.

• Don't just buy any old PSU. Just cause a PSU is 700W, doesn't mean it'll power an SLi/CF GPU setup. Read the ratings, make sure it's got decent rails.
  
  Don't go buying any old GPU. The Nvidia 1GB GTX 460 is best bang-for-buck for all of 2010. Do not buy GTX 465 or GTX 480, they're both power hungry and two GTX 460s outperform both cards, even in SLi configuration. The 1GB HD 5850 is good, even better than the GTX 460, but you also pay more for it.
  
  Don't buy any old CPU either. Try to get ones with good reviews, and ones that are mainstream. You wouldn't want to be purchasing a 1156 Intel CPU for example. Get hardware that you'll be able to work with for future upgrades. The CPU I provided in the above quote is perfect for WoW and many other 2010/2011 games, as it's overclockable to 4.0GHz very easily (the PSU I listed will support it even post-OC).
  
  Don't assume that any old RAM is decent. You want speed. Look for a kit of RAM that best suits your Motherboard. You don't want to go buying Triple Channel RAM for a Motherboard that only supports Dual Channel. Prioritize 7-7-7-20 timed latency RAM over all others too.
  Stick to Gigabyte, MSI and Asus(AsRock are also made by Asus) in terms of Motherboards - all else has failed in my experience.

I won't comment on Optical Drives or Cases, cause you shouldn't even be considering upgrading your current ones when you're on such a tight budget(assuming your current would support your new Motherboard upon purchase).

Let me know if you need anymore help.

[B@nj0 P3do]

Gfx Card and CPU will bottleneck you in cataclysm. you might have a chance to unlock 1 or 2 cores from the Phenom 2, but if you use them, it might make your CPU run hotter or go unstable. but if you unlock them, the CPU wont bottleneck you as much, but you need a new cooler

[Norch]

I live in Miami(USA) and Im still on the basics when it comes to PC

Also im going to stick with both the CPU and Mobo i chose so what should i get from there since

[llDemonll]

The CPU and mobo aren't worth the money. Spend 800-1000 and buy yourself a computer that will last more than a year or two

[Norch]

A few changes now i changed my MOBO to a Gigabyte GA- MA770T-UD3 and my video card to a sapphire 100287L Radeon HD 5670

[Shuckless]

Ok, short and simple, right here right now. $600!

Processor - AMD Phenom II X3 740 BE 3.0GHz 95W Triple-Core OEM
Motherboard - ASRock EXTREME3 870 SATA6Gb/s USB 3.0, CF 8x/8x ATX
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
Video Card - GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 768MB 192-bit
Hard Drive - Samsung F3 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive - LITE-ON Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner
Power Supply - SeaSonic S12II 520W 80PLUS BRONZE Certified
Case - Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX 2 x 120mm + 1x 140mm fans
Cooling - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler


That system will give you the most performance for your price budget. If I added correctly, it all comes out to be 632 bucks. Newegg.com is where I got all my prices from.