.
One thing I was clearly wrong about is that,
if you wanted to go Intel, then you can
certainly get a solid mobo for under $150 (not the $220 I listed; those exist but are getting into the top performance range).
Apart from that, it seems you're willing to go AMD. For what you want to do, it should be all the power you need & still meet budget. For the rest of us to make sure, it would help if you can list maybe the top ~5 or so most intensive games you intend to play.
As far as AMD mobos go, here is a shining example of a modern, powerful AMD board:
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GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990Xcurrently going for $168 (including shipping). If the price drops on this (usually by $10 or $20 and free shipping), this is the board I will get for my build.
OR one very similar -- for me, price is pretty critical right now.
When you're looking at AMD boards, notice this:
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990FX is pretty much the top model chipset, so a 990X or 990GX or 990XA makes some compromises; you will pay a $30 to $50 premium to go with an FX board, but you may not need it.
- the "AM3+" means you can upgrae the processor to the next generation Bulldozer ... once it's available. So, maybe in ~12 or 18 months you might be able to really jump your CPU horsepower. A "AM3" socket will top out with the Phenom line, such as the x6 core you're looking at.
- on the Gigabyte boards, the UD3 is below the UD5, which is below the UD7 models. Again, more bling$ to buy into those ... and you may not/probably don't require the extra features.
Even though I used Gigabyte as an example, ASUS and MSI ( to name at least two others) are equivalent brands right now ... so Gigabyte offers very impressive features and an superb BIOS, but I'm not advocating it as the only option.
Generally speaking, if you intend to run two video cards in SLI, you'd want two PCIe 16x slots for maximum/premium performance. To get that feature, you would need to look at 990FX / UD5 boards. On the other boards, the first PCIe slot runs at 16x with one video card, but if you add a second GPU to the next slot, then both slots drop down to 8x speed.
That's still enormous amounts of mad power, unless you are really a l33t gamer ... in which case, your budget would need to be expanded.
So, what games you want to run? Would you want/need dual video cards?
I'll also take issue with the x6 core CPU. You can certainly get one, but do you really need that power? Very few apps can use 6 cores (so far). By the time that changes, in about a year or so, then the Bulldozer CPUs will have been out for some time. You might consider a solid x4 core
now, such as the Deneb Black Edition 965 or 970, if you can get one at a good price. These will overclock to 4 GHz with ease; most folks get them up to 4.2 on air cooling.
This solution
might be good enough for your needs; it's a shitload of power, especially coupled with 1600 MHz RAM (which can usually be OC'd to 1800). Then, if you've got an AM3+ board, you could jump the CPU up in a year for ~$150 or $180 and completely revitalize your system for newer games coming out in late 2012.
Final thought for this post: 950 watts for a power supply is vastly over-powered ...
for a single video card. A 650 watt would do you just fine, and 700-750W is a bit overpowered but still a comfortable "headspace" of extra, unused capacity. Once you hit 800watts and above you're wasting money.
Look for something more like this example:
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COOLER MASTER GX RS750-ACAAE3-US 750W SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZEwhich would come in at $70 including free shipping AFTER rebate. And, you can do a bit better by shopping carefully. If you found one for less that was 680 or 700 or 720 watts, get it. 750 should be the upper limit, unless you decide you need to run two video cards.
The 80 PLUS rating is high energy efficiency rating ... more electricity gets used, less wasted, less extra heat generated. The Bronze Certified is always good; just means nice, solid build. Look for those ratings, they are nice to have & are worth the extra couple $$$s that go into a quality PSU.
