I7 3D Graphics Workstation

Hello everyone, planning out a new desktop for 3D Graphics, After Effects, Photoshop, and the occasional game. Overclocking and SLI/xFire are possible, but probably later down the line if at all.

Also, I'd like to keep the power consumption, heat, and noise to a minimum.

Here's the current breakdown, let me know if there are any glaring problems:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz $279.99

Pretty set on this one. But will I need an extra heatsink/fan?

Motherboard: Asus P6T SE $209.99

Seems like the best choice of what i've seen, but i don't know all that much about MoBo's, so if anyone spots a problem that would be great. (I was planning on ATI or single-card, so the loss of SLI isn't an issue)

Memory: Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB DDR3 1600) $170.00

Going to start with 6GB, can always upgrade to 12GB down the road.

Storage 1: WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM $94.99

Main storage -- read plenty of reviews saying this is the best you can get at the moment for the price.

Storage 2: WD Caviar Green 1TB 5400RPM $89.99

Backup storage -- more energy efficient and virtually silent.

Graphics Card Option 1: Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 $109.99

Quieter, Cooler, and more efficient than all the 4800 cards, possibility to run in crossfire down the line. However, will this be powerful enough to handle large scenes in Mudbox and Maya, and Dual-monitors? (24" + 17" ) Otherwise....

Graphics Card Option 2: Sapphire Radeon HD4870 1GB GDDR5 $179.99

Faster, but much hotter/louder as far as i can tell than the 4770, and more expensive -- which manufacturer makes the coolest-running, quietest version?

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling S75CF 750W $109.99

Not going to skimp on the power supply, from my research, PCP&C makes some of the most high-quality, efficient, and reliable PSU's.

Optical Drive: LG Black Blu-Ray / HD-DVD combo drive $109.99

So I can play Blu-rays and old HD-DVD's that would otherwise be worthless.

Display (to be purchased seperately): NEC LCD2490WUXi-BK Black $1079.99

Won't be able to get this right away, but after hours of research, it's simply the best there is, and comes with a nice 4-year warranty.

Case: LIAN LI PC-7F Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower $119.99

I heard i can cut the fan LED lights to the front intake fan -- would this cause any problems? I would much prefer to not have a blue glowing computer.


TOTAL: ~$1370 without monitor

well, if you need this build for a while and you have a large budget (3k+) and you need some significant CPU horsepower with many threads (8+) then i would say go dual xeons (The Nehalem ones) and go 12 (or 24) GB of memory and a decent GPU