What the hell is going on in this thread? I seriously hope that you guys aren't giving other people advice, because the reality is you shouldn't be. No, there are better gpus for the money now. 550 ti was never really a good buy, even when it was new. What? Are they tri-channel CPUs? Hint: They aren't. What did I wake up this morning and its 2008? i7? For a budget build? You realize that the vast majority of games aren't even multi-threaded? Let alone take advantage of the HT that an i7 provides? Granted, that will change in the next generation but you will not need an i7 for gaming any time in the near future. To all of you. If you guys are giving advice to others, just stop. Wasting other people's money is one of the worst things you can do.