American in Malmo needs help with building first desktop. Please?

I am a member on Reddit and was recommended to talk to you guys by a couple of swedes. You can find the corresponding post here.

I have been living in Sweden for 2.5 years and am finally getting around to building a PC. I want to spend less than 5000kr and have also been using the TomsHardware $500 build as a guide. The problems I am having are finding the right balance for someone like me who doesnt need top of the line, but also wants something that will be, simply put, smooth. Is there anything I should definately buy from the states in regards to cost, quality, etc? What about the new sandy bridge, should I wait for it to come out to see if prices drop?

I have been checking out the webhallen demo deals along with deals at komplett, and dustinhome. Do you have any other recommendations of websites I could use?

I really appreciate any help you can give. Also, if you are in Malmo and feel like taking me down to webhallen to help explain some shit to me I would be much obliged. There is beer in it for you.

Tusen tack

Wow, just wow. Thanks for the amazing amount of input. I feel that I should clarify some things.

-Since we have a ps3 and hdtv i have no real need of a bluray player

-I love gaming and would love to be able to play any game at highest settings, but with the money I have I am just trying to emphasize where I care most. If I could swing a badass graphics card i would

-I dont need an OS, I have a copy of win7. I want to make the switch to linux someday, but this being my first computer i thought baby steps were in order.

-I dont need a monitor now, but do need some speakers (2.1).

-I would LIKE to have usb 3.0 capabilities

-I would like 2 HD's. One fast ass one for booting (raptor? SSD?) and a terabite for storage. I will wait to understand and deal with RAID at a later date.

-I am building this for the now and not "future proofing." I only need a PSU strong enough for the proposed build.

-I dont know anything about overclocking, is it worthwhile for someone with my interests to look into that and taking some of the post recommendations for buying a OCable system?

You guys are great. I feel so damn welcome and will certainly be a slowly growing part of this website. INET.se definately seems to have the lowest prices and free shipping? Hell yes. Thank you for that info.

Smooth is key. How much of a difference in performance would i notice between the GTX 460 and the 5770? I also think I might buy a SSD from the states as the prices are so much cheaper and out of everything I buy it would be most likely to survive shipping without any effects. Just browsing i can find a 64gig SSD for a similar price as this one. That being said, is it easy enough to buy a terabite now, build the computer and then at a later date get the ssd for the boot? What would I have to do in regards to transferring the necessary information from the large harddrive to the new ssd? Would I have to reformat?

I really think that, from my limited knowledge, the GTX 460 is far above what I need. Lets say I wanted to play the crysis 2. I would hazzard a guess that this card would rock that game? What should I look for in a graphics card that could play that game on med settings smoothly? I only use crysis as an example as I would assume that most games for the next year or two wont exceed the requirements of that game.

I am taking it easy today after a long night filled with champagne, wine, and whiskey, but plan on beginning ordering tomorrow. I hope you all had a fantastic new years and want to thank you again for all of this help. Im feeling pretty confident about this with you guys getting my back.

Two more things, is there a chatroom in this website for live help while I am putting it together? Also, dont I need to get a thermal compound and a cooling fan for the mobo/cpu?

In regards to crysis 2, I mean med-low settings. Of course i would love to play it on high, but as you said that is unrealistic on my budget. That being said, for the money i want to spend are you saying i should definaltly stick with one of those two graphics cards?

So far, according to the opinions here I have gotten the following advice:

MSI 870A-G54 AM3
Asrock M3A770DE
Asrock 3N78D
MSI 770-C45 AM3
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H

1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ
500GB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA II

AMD Phenom2 X4 955 3,2GHz Black Edition
AMD Phenom2 X2 555 3,2GHz Black Edition
AMD Athlon2 X3 445 3,1GHz
AMD Athlon2 X4 640 3.0GHz

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) Value Select DDR3 1333MHz
A-Data 4GB (2x2048MB)1600Mhz Game Series,CL9, PC3-12800
A-Data 4GB (2x2GB) Game-Series 1333MHz

Gigabyte Radeon HD5770 1GB
Gigabyte GeForce 9800GT 1GB
Sparkle GeForce GTX 460 1GB OC
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1GB OC
XFX Radeon HD5770 1GB

Cooler Master Elite 334 Svart, Utan nätagg
Antec Three Hundred
Cooler Master Elite 310, Svart/Silver
Rasurbo BC-10
Fractal Design Integra 400W

Samsung SH-S223C 22X DL Svart
Optiarc AD-7260S DVD±RW Svart SATA, OEM

Corsair VX 550W 80+ KAMPANJ!
Fractal Design Integra 400W
Corsair CX 430W

Can someone help me with possible pros/cons of these items so i can make a decision? With varying opinions it comes down to me deciding what works best for my needs. That being said, you all know better than me at what i need so if it was possible to come to some sort of consensus on what i should buy it would make it significantly easier for me to decide.

It seems as though the largest difference, both in price and opinion lies with the cpu and the graphics card. I like the idea of attempting to overclock the phenom to quadcore in the future so i am leaning towards that. The graphics card is really where i am stuck though. For something like crysis 2 on low-med settings what can i get away with? Does my desire to have dual monitors in the near future effect my choices?

Finally I have a hesitant request. I am hesitant because of how helpful you have all been, but I have to ask. There has been plenty of recommendations on systems/components, but I am still in the dark as to WHY i should use these parts. Can someone point me towards a resource, or explain to me themselves, what I should be looking for in each part? (cpu, gpu, mobo, etc) By this I mean that I have been learning a lot lately but I still dont know nearly enough to make independent decisions about what parts to buy. I want to feel like the computer I build was just recommended by experts like yourselves (shameless praise) but that I actually had a hand in it and know why i chose the parts I did.

Tusen tack och gott nytt ar till allihopa!

I am leaning towards this build

http://www.inet.se/kundvagn/visa/78433

What do you think? With a HD like that do i really need a ssd for the speed i want/need? Can I trim any cost off of it? Would everything work well together? That is the chip i can possibly clock into a quadcore right?

Can I go with a mATX chassis? For what reason would i need to get a full atx like the antec 300?

thank you asheileon.

I am really leaning towards this build.
http://www.inet.se/kundvagn/visa/78433

here are the questions that remain in my mind.

phenom2 x2 555 or phenom2 x4 955? Both seem great, but the lower cost and possible quadcore unlocking of the 555 is making me lean in that direction. Other than the core, is there any difference between the two i should be aware of? Will the components listed work with/effect possible unlocking of quadcore?

With that harddrive will I be ok without a SSD? I have read the increased cache really makes a difference.

For my gaming needs the 5750 works right? I have been told that I NEED the 5770...

I will pick a case once everything is decided according to final cost and aesthetics.

Do I need 550watts or could i drop it to 500 without any ill effects? Just curious as komplett has one for a little cheaper.

Is fractal design reliable? I had someone tell me to stay away from them as they are a unknown brand.

Also, noone has mentioned it, do i need to buy a thermal compound for the assembly? The howto guide on tomshardware said i needed it but noone here has mentioned word one about it.