You can omit the sound card, since I talked him out of it, or at least making it the least priority.

Is this any good? Or can they be replaced by better parts? (Sorry if I didn't post any links, because he just showed me it). I'm not very good with computers either, so I wanted the opinions of people with actual experience with this kind of stuff.

Shit case, he doesn't need an SSD, and he has no storage drive listed which is double fail. Shit GFX, Fermi does nothing but eat power all day and produce heat. He's also using dual channel ram on a triple channel build. What is he stupid or something?

Solutions:
RAM:
Tell your toolbag of a friend that if he's going to go not only for i7 but for the socket 1366 platform, going with dual channel ram is like buying a racecar and putting a 4-door sedan's engine in it. Its just dumb. The X58 platform uses ram in 3 stick configurations, so he needs either a 3x1GB or 3x2GB kit. This G.Skill triple channel kit will fix this glaring problem. I also now know your friend knows jack shit about computers.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231304

Case:
The M59, which although it does need a 120mm front fan added, is an amazing case that already has a few fans on it. Based off the RC590 design. Good price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146058
Or
For something high quality but with less fans and less flashy, this Lian Li PC-K56.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112235

Harddrive:
For speed, an F3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

For reliability a WD Caviar Black.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

He does not need an SSD, he's already demonstrated he knows nothing about them and has no idea how to properly configure for use of one. He is a tool.

GFX:
An HD5770 or HD5850 will be his best bets depending on what resolution he's using. If he's using 1920x1080 or below, the 5770 will do the job with most games. If he's going higher, the 5850. I cannot in good conscience recommend a Fermi card until the power draw, heat output, and NV's horrible anti-costumer and just shit business practices stop. Although from the looks of things, your friend is probably an NV fanboy toolface and you can tell him I said so.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150494

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 15 2010, 10:53 am by Excalibur.

To voice my opinion on the graphics matter, the 460 is the best card in its price range, the 5850 is the best in its price range, and the 5770 is the best in its price range. All are good choices. The 460's competitor, the 5830, is a gimped excuse for a card, and was ATi's biggest mistake in the 5000 series. I think the 5850 is the worst choice of the three, though, since the 460 keeps up with it fairly well, and is much cheaper. The power draw and heat output of the cards is minimal considering the hot and heavy 4000 series, which is what was previously highly recommended. As you can see here the gtx 460 is quite power inefficient when compared to the 5000 series, but you can't argue with it being 20% more price efficient than the 5850.

As for PSUs, there's tons of good ones, but even more worse ones. If he buys antec or seasonic, he's practically guaranteed to have an excellent PSU. The one he found is overpowered for his uses, but is made by seasonic.

He should be able to get the dvd drive for free, or half off with a combo. You could also just troll him and tell him to get an antec case while you're at it (antec cases are overpriced pieces of garbage, and only worthwhile when they're on sale for ~ 50% off).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 16 2010, 11:48 am by NudeRaider. Reason: cause of needless discussions

And about the "He demonstrated that he knows nothing about them" SSD - 80GB can be enough if he plans on buying a second internal hard drive down the line or has an external one. 80GB can hold a ton of programs, games, music and the OS. I'm currently using 83GB, which includes a 20GB music collection, as well as WoW and SCII (25GB) and some other games. He may not even need all this space (though unless he's using only around 60 now, I'd recommend going higher than 80GB or getting a 2nd hard drive) - Ex simply doesn't know. The only legitimate mistake is the dual-triple-channel part, which could also be him overlooking it.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 15 2010, 7:58 pm by NudeRaider. Reason: removed non-contributive part

Well, I bought a computer 2 years ago and I think I overpaid for a LOT of things I didn't really need (like some 3-way SLI motherboard that I don't even fully utilize), and I don't want him to make the same mistake I did. I don't think he plans on overclocking either.

Thanks for the feedback anyways (idk if the first few posts were troll posts)

Have him look at this image for what I consider my best build ever (for the price).



The only troll was antec cases (and even then, you get half of what you pay for, so it's not terribly bad).

If he's not going to overclock, then there's no point in getting a super high end motherboard. If he's not going to use multiple graphics (and no, you NEVER buy one, then buy another later), then there's no reason to have a 3 way graphics motherboard.