Darren Gatt - Gaming PC

This was Darren Gatt's first go at building a dedicated gaming PC and he needed to do it on a budget.  He says: "I researched on the internet for about two weeks before deciding on the components.  I wanted to be able to upgrade and/or mildly overclock the system when I had the extra $$ later. I looked for budget items that would work together to get the best performance.  The video cards were on sale at the time, which is why I bought both. The original plan was to buy one, then get the other one when the prices came down."

Darren is a member of the 'Aussie Underdogs' social gaming clan.  He's also into into fast cars and bikes. "I currently have a Honda VTR1000 Firestorm and a Toyota Caldina turbo import.  Most of my mates don't believe me when I tell them I'm into gaming :)"

CORE SYSTEM

CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition - $245
It was a toss up.  I'm an AMD fan and the 9950 was good value for money at the time.

COOLING: Coolmaster 'Eclipse' - $79
It was recommended by a friend, so it's the only piece of hardware that I didn't really research or think about.  I just went and bought one.

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS M3N72-D - $185
I researched this one a lot.  I went with this board as it has hybrid SLI support, which I figured would boost my graphics until I could afford a second GPU for full SLI.  As well as that, it supports up to 8GB of RAM and has quite a few more features, like EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) than most other boards around the same price.

GRAPHICS: EVGA 9800 GTX+ Superclocked - $254
I've heard very good things about the quality of EVGA products and their backup.  And the card was best performance for a budget price.

RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR2 8500 - $560
Once again, I took my time in researching the RAM.  I went with Corsair as a few of my friends use it and have had no trouble.  The Dominator series also looks good for overclocking and has EPP.  I orginally went with 4 GB and then upgraded to 8 GB when the price came down.  It has the corsair dominator fan fitted over the top for cooling.

HARD DRIVE 1: Samsung 250 GB x 2 - $100
I had two of these in my original system that I used in my new one to keep the cost down.  I have them set up in a RAID stripe.
  
OPTICAL DRIVE: Sony Optiarc DVD-RW AD7200-s - $50
One word...CHEAP.

PSU: Antec True Power - $120
It's NVidia SLI certified and has great cable management....plus it's quiet.

CASE: Antec 900 - $150
Good space for all the hardware, excellent cooling (for overclocking later on) and good cable management.

Core system cost: AUD $1,743

EXTRAS

MONITOR: BenQ G2420HD - $245
I'd heard good things about BenQ, plus it was on sale.  The selling point for me was that I can run games at max resolution and get the most from my SLI.

KEYBOARD: Logitec G15 - $120
For the LCD display and backlit keys for gaming.

MOUSE: Logitec G9 - $90
A few of my gaming clan members have one and recommended it.

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium - $
As I mainly use the PC for gaming, I didn't need a version of windows with all the bells and whistles.  I went for the basic upgrade from my version of Vista. i went the 64 bit version to get the most out of my ram and processor.