Will this be a decent gaming computer?

[Lucid]

ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard

 

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

 

 

APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

 

ZALMAN CNPS9900LED 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

 

EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

 

 

I was thinking about getting a 720 watt power supply rather than the 500Watt

 

Will this be a decent gaming computer?

 

Run games like L4D,TF2, Source Based games?

[ReGIONALS]

everything on there looks fine

if i were you id get tuniq tower for your cpu rather than a zalman they are massive but the new 120 extreme looks dead sexy

 

and the mobo should be http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363 ive got it and its great for your wire management sine the 20+4 pin connector isnt in the middle and there is no reason to flash the BIOS on it ive got the same CPU as you and they both worked right out of the box

[Shadowex3]

If you're spending more than $800 you're paying too much for underpowered hardware and should switch over to an i7 build, if you're spending $800 or less you're doing well and it's a respectable gaming computer.

 

But, like I'm telling people way too often, you need to get a REAL power supply for someone you can trust. Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, or Seasonic are good solid power supplies that cost about as much as everyone else but are actually trustworthy and generally of a much higher quality.

 

Also unless that CPU cooler's only about $20 just get a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme or one of the Noctua NH-U12 models.

[Akaru]

The Crosshair III is a really good motherboard. IMO, it's better than the one suggested by ReGIONALS. One noticeable difference is that the Crosshair III comes with a dedicated sound card. This means crisp clear sounds. When playing L4d, you can hear the witch crying from a mile away or a zombie walking up behind you.

Another difference is that the M4A79T has 4 PCIe x16 slots, which I find useless because even with Quad SLI, you only need 2 PCIe x16 slots. Tri SLI requires 3. 4 is just unnecessary.

Other than that, it is essentially the same board. The way I view it is that the Crosshair III is better because it is given a name, rather than a model number.

 

Your choice of power supply is not the best. Apevia doesn't really seem that trustable to me. If you can't afford one of those Godlike PSU that Shadowex3 suggests, I recommend a bare minimum of OCZ or BFG. They are able to deliver top quality memory or graphics cards respectively, so I wouldn't doubt the quality of their PSUs. They're not the best, but they won't kill your computer in a month.

 

TBH, I don't think a third party cooler is required unless you are overclocking your processor. That is ~40 dollars saved if you do not overclock. Stocks will be find, especially with AMDs.

 

Good strong choice of graphics card.

 

I'm not a big fan of Seagates, so I don't keep up with them. I recommend Western Digital, but that's just me. I'm not sure which one is better, I just like Western Digitals.

 

Where is the memory?

[Shadowex3]

^^^ "Godlike" hardly describes Corsair in anything but quality, they're actually one of the least expensive brands of power supply. Right now the 650 non-modular (about 40a on the 12v rail) is only $100 and the 520 modular (over 50a on the 12v rails) is $110 or so.

 

Also EVERY motherboard has onboard audio, the crosshairIII isn't special like akaru says it is. Plus it's only EAX4 instead of the current x-fi line which is EAX5. Think 64 sounds vs 128 and a lot more ability to process things. Having come from an Audigy4 to an X-fi xtrememusic there is a pretty big difference.

[Akaru]

^^^ "Godlike" hardly describes Corsair in anything but quality, they're actually one of the least expensive brands of power supply. Right now the 650 non-modular (about 40a on the 12v rail) is only $100 and the 520 modular (over 50a on the 12v rails) is $110 or so.

 

Also EVERY motherboard has onboard audio, the crosshairIII isn't special like akaru says it is. Plus it's only EAX4 instead of the current x-fi line which is EAX5. Think 64 sounds vs 128 and a lot more ability to process things. Having come from an Audigy4 to an X-fi xtrememusic there is a pretty big difference.

 

Well, I was only comparing it to the one that ReGIONALS posted.