phenom 9550 is the revised version with the b3 stepping, so you don't have to fear weird crashes caused by the cpu. it resides on a am2+ socket which is good for future updates (hypertransport 3.0 etc.). the 770 chpiset offers only one pci-e x16 slot, so you won't be able to upgrade to crossfire, which is the biggest flaw imo.

Looks like a nice system you got there.

By the way:
"CR x-in-1" sounds like a CardReader which supports x different card types.

Thanks for the info and advices, i'll consider them

Best bang for buck currently would be the AMD/ATI HD4870, excellent performance for a great price. I'd stay away from Nvidia because eventhough they have the fastest cards (I'm talking GTX280 and so on), they also are too expensive for the difference compared with say an HD4870.

Also, and this is true at least since Nvidia released their 8800 series, ATI drivers nowadays really are good. Usually the really new cards improve a lot with each new driver, but Nvidia takes a lot longer to iron out driver bugs lately.

When it comes to CPU, go for Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Core 2 Quad. Anything from an E6600 and better is fine, don't go for the really really cheap Core 2 Duo ones though, you might end up buying an underclocked and slow processor.

I'd recommend 2Gb of at least DDR2 (800mhz) memory, but depending on the motherboard you go for (for example a X38 or X48), you might end up buying 1Gb DDR3 RAM first... It's a bit more expensive, but in the long run it's worth going for. Just upgrade to more DDR3 ram by the time you can afford another extra 1Gb.

All in all, if you want to buy a PC that will be able to run the latest games AND will be able to keep up for a year or two, you'll likely spend about 1500$ - 1000€ at least. In my opinion it's totally worth it though, even though at the moment graphics card and CPU development is going at insane speeds.

I'd recommend against 64bit Windows by the way, way not enough companies fully support 64bit.



Actually, that's something of a myth... there are lots of programs already capable of making use of the extra cores. Also, multi-cores really is the future, so why not make the switch now? More importantly, all future games will make use of quad cores... all PS3 and Xbox360 games that also end up on the PC are usually able to make use of multi-cores.

As for the HD3850, it's a good card as well, but you might want to check out the newer and faster HD4850 instead. It's a bit newer, a lot faster and the price really isn't that much more (about 30% usually, which translate to about 60€ or so).

Cheers

Get a Mac !

why? because it offers inferior computing power for "only" $1000 more?

get linux. but i wouldn't try with that ATI/AMD card, better choose a nvidia chip instead.

Thanks again
Mac is not my thing, mainly because of the price and incompatiblility with some applications.
As for linux i wanted to try it someday if i'll be able to install it. not really sure about the benefits though

Aww, this is so a myth! This may hold true for PowerPC Macs but not since Apple moved to Intel. Actually Apple offers the best performance on the market in notebooks for example. Check Notebookcheck.com or some other independent notebook-testing community.

And the program compatibilitay issues.. You will have the very same on Linux.. in Video or Graphics-Editing even worse.
I would say OS X has more compatible programs than Linux.

BUT! I don't want to start a debate, since people base 90% of their decisions not on rationality but on emotions and prejudices, which there are many against the mac, so.. I know you will not listen to me :P

i see much more prejudice against PCs.

i would go nVidia. i'm not prejudiced against AMD/Radeon but i've always been happy with nVidia. granted, i'm having issues at the moment, but their support is pretty good. i can't believe the GTX 2xx series is already out. i got in early on the 9xxx series (which came out late i guess), and now the next generation is already out. i guess going to uni makes a long period of time seem really short (it's such a waste of time; i could've started off as a second-year student with what i already know).

i very rarely get a new PC. this one i have now is quite a few years old, upgraded bit by bit. there's nothing left from its birth except the case.

good luck

julz

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3978475&sku=P450-9120%20B&SRCCODE=WEM1655BY&cm_mmc=Email-_-Main-_-WEM1655-_-Components

Best bang for your buck!