Hi everyone, thank you for taking the time to read this.

This is my first build, and I'm self taught within the last month or so.

I've chosen to go with AMD for my first build because of its cost efficiency. I also do not plan on overclocking untill the pc starts becoming dated (with exception to CPU, might overclock relatively soon)

Have picked up a few pieces already, but nothing i'm not sure on. Stuff like monitor and speakers.

Crosshair V (am3+ for future upgrade)
Phenom II x4 965 BE
Crucial ballistix ddr3 8g ram
asus dcu2 6950 (2nd one down the road, after pc is "finished")
Ultra x4 1000w 80+ gold (crossfire certified)


Going with the am3+ mobo for whenever amd releases bulldozer cpus.
I would definatly like to play games coming out this year at 1920x1080 1080p

Sorry for all the text.. Thank you to anyone who provides input.

Wow... that's a lot of wattage. I really doubt that you'll ever need a PSU that powerful.

In a few years I might Lifetime warranty ftw.

Thats the only piece I listed that I've already purchased, was 60 bucks off and came with the warranty.

I see no reason to get one that powerful. I have a 600W and it should last me for years yet. Do you happen to have any new hard drives in mind? You should probably upgrade to a larger hard drive since you're already building a new system.

Yeah I plan on getting a 1tb hdd, 7xxx rpms (forget exact), was around 89$.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1204058-first-pc-build-tips-and-advice-appreciated-greatly/ (For relevance to others) Also it would be 7200RPM.

I got myself a bare bones (No frills, hard drive itself only) 1.5TB, 7200RPM (I think) hard drive for about $60 off Newegg. Try checking there.

Most definitely will do, Thanks.

wow, Why the INSANE price on this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136878

but I've already seen better deals then I did when I last looked at hdds, but I haven't made any final decisions on that so good catch.

Its a pack of 20HDDs.

And what normal do-it-yourselfer wouldn't need a pack of 20 1.5 TB HDDs?

I would be the person to need that much space.......if only I could afford $2400 worth of HDDs.

Okay http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337 that I bought. Unfortunately it is out of stock, possibly permanently.

Also, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 if you're interested.

1000W can look a tad much at first glance,it kind of grows on you so it is nice to have those watts later,eventually if you go for 3xsli or cf those watts runs away,admit only run two or 2+physx-card in mine with 1000W,plenty to spare but mine is only gtx 460+220,imagine it grows with newer cards,meaning instead of upgrade entirely you add one or two cards to your existing one provided there is room for it,and then 1000W is nice to have,and add all those extra you have,it makes perfect sense with 1000W imho.

other than that I could soon pick something similar for my next build,have to see how amd′s new stuff plays out though.
For hd′s I just recently "upgraded" parts of my hd′s so I got a few 2 TB disks,samsung mostly since I only use them for storage,considered WD blacks instead of my raptors,but then I had to do over all that windows/alternative os and all that jazz,and there is usually samsung for storage and WD for os/programs anyway,works ok enough all considered.

The day that you'd need 1000W for a dual video card setup is the day that you'd probably have to replace the power supply because that PSU will probably have bit the dust in terms of age and degradation. You DO NOT need that much wattage. Understand that PSUs are actually less efficient the more overkill you go too.

For a dual Radeon 6950 setup, a quality branded 750W is plenty (Seasonic X750, Corsair AX750, Silverstone Strider 750W, Corsair HX750, etc). Heck, a 650W PSU would run that setup with room to spare. You're just wasting money and Ultra doesn't exactly have the greatest units.


And I can understand if you want to look forward to AMD's Bulldozer, which is actually only a couple months away, but it doesn't make much sense to me to get a 965 processor right now at all unless you're on a tight budget. Seeing that you can shell out for an Asus Crosshair V board (totally unnecessary btw), I'd say your budget is actually decent.

If you're looking to buy very soon, what you should be looking at is a Sandybridge setup...the 2500K/2600K processors are just ridiculously faster than anything AMD right now and the 2500K is very well priced....the motherboards can get rather cheap too. I don't see your idea of "cost effective" considering the parts you're considering. If not buying soon, then you might as well wait for Bulldozer to drop and make a decision then....it's not that far away.

If you wish to overclock your CPU soon then I suggest you include some after market cooling in your build. Water cooling is the best but you can still get decent temps with air cool setups.

should said I ran other setups before,kill-a-watt was at most in the high 800′s or barely over 900′s,,that was iirc with older less efficient cards like the 260′s.
of course for one or two cards,one hd,one optical it is way overkill, so if one thinking of going 3-way it might be way over the top which of course depends on the cards aint it ?