I’ve been doing a lot of reading at Tom’s Hardware site. It is very informative and often breaks things down into a concise and comprehensive manner unto which I greatly appreciate, as I am neither mechanically nor technologically inclined soul.

I’ve also come to the opinion that today’s’ onboard sounds is decent enough to negate the use of a soundcard so I’ve been able to shave a few hundred off the price there. Mutt did say this a while back, but I had to do my own research and verify for myself to agree.

So, posted below is what I’m currently looking at. A simple (read = CheapER) gaming rig to play mainly FPS’s with all the eye candy turned up, music writing/editing, photo editing, and common day to day nuances such as checking mail, writing papers, etc. Will this meet and/or exceed my needs without the need to upgrade in a year or two? A simple yay or nay will suffice.

Chassis Model: Cooler Master Elite 310
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz) OC’ed between 3.5-3.9
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
Power Supply: 750W
Hard Drive Set 1: 500GB Western Digital
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB
Sound Card: Onboard Audio
Boost Cooling: High Performance Cooler
Boost Airflow: Zalman Performance Fans
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)

Total costs about $1800

I know the RAM may be overkill, but I was under the impression of “the more, the merrier”. The overclocking may be a waste, but I don’t know. Thoughts? If I got rid of it I could save on the removing the fans, etc…

The next problem is figuring out which monitor to buy… I’ve read of ghosting issues with some, lack of response with others, etc.

Here is what I think the common gamer recommends:
- 2-5ms response time
- High contrast ratio
- Between 22 to 24 inch widescreen preferred (don’t know why though)

Thoughts, opinions? Acer has a pretty cheap 22 inch I found that meets all those specs.