fallenliberty

I've had a similiar issue with a whining noise. I forget what the setting was called, but it had something to do with power saving. I found it in the bios and shut it off, no more whining. I know the sound you're talking about though, I didn't notice it at first either, then it started to drive me nuts once I did. After doing a bunch of research online, I learned that it's the capictors on the motherboard that the sound is coming from... pretty weird. I wasn't aware of the USB3 and SATA issue on the newer Gigabyte boards either, thanks for that info. Although, it will be atleast another year before I look at upgrading again. Asus also makes a solid board, so he will do good there. And to the guy that said 1000W PSU... no... just no. You would be wasting so much energy. When choosing a PSU try to stay close to what you need with some headroom for expansion or spikes in usage.

Gigabyte makes a great motherboard. I only buy Gigabyte mobo's, never had any issues... well I blew a cap' on one once, but that was my fault. If you do decide to Crossfire, id say a 750W would be perfect with a little room to spare. The i7 is a beast of a processor. I've got the i7 920 in my system at home and I have yet to slow the thing down. If you really want crossfire, go for it. Like I said, I've got two 4870s and I have yet to see any real great benefit from having two. Some games benefit from them more than others. But there are drawbacks to using 2 cards as well. Check out this article - http://www.overclockers.com/micro-stutter-the-dark-secret-of-sli-and-crossfire/ Just something to consider.

Oh, sorry I didn't read your post right. You're buying a computer complete, not building one your self. On that note, Cyberpower is just fine, I've heard good things about them. When you're looking at computers from them, you want to make sure you get a 64 bit system, atleast 4GB of ram, and an Intil i5 or i7 processor. The Intel i-series processors are simply amazing, and I would advise against getting an AMD system at the moment - but don't get me wrong, I love AMD and they make good stuff... Intel just has the upper hand with the i-series at the moment. What I said about power supplies and video cards is still valid though. The only reason you'd need 750W is if you were going to SLI or Crossfire your video cards. And I don't recommend doing that unless you have the money to burn. I have 2 ATI 4870's in crossfire on my system and it's not much of a performance increase. Looks cool though.

Personally I am a fan of ATi cards. You couldn't go wrong with the 5850 or the 5870 depending on how much money you wanted to spend. A comparable nVidia card would also do just fine for you. If it was me, and I had the extra money, I'd get the 5870. As far as power supply goes, 750 Watts is overkill for what your going for. I'd say anything around the 550W range would be plenty for your setup. Get something that is 80+ certified in efficency. Good brands are Antec, PC Power & Cooling, Corsair, and OCZ. As far as where to order from, if your in the US, then I'd order from newegg.com. Great customer service and pretty competetive prices, been ordering from them for years. Hope that helps.