Any advice? I'm trying to keep it under 2,000 but get as much performance as I can. I will add a small overclock. All parts will be purchased from Newegg.
Price - Item
$280 Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
$60 ZALMAN CNPS9900LED 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail
$240 ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$260 G.SKILL Perfect Storm 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL8T-6GBPS - Retail
$172x2 SUPER TALENT MasterDrive SX SAM64GM25S 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail
$85 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
$310 Recertified: XFX HD487ACDF Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
$128 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional 70SB088600002 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card - Retail
$170 Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan - Retail
$120 CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail
I went with SP F1 1TB because it was $85. I haven't seen prices on F3 yet, but I'm guessing they will be higher.
I understand the advice on your 4870 point, but I was a first adapter with DX10 with my 8800gtx and I thought it was a waste of money. There still is not a lot of content for it. I'm thinking DX11 will be the same.
I should drop the sound card. It's not worth the $$ for the tiny bit of performance I would gain from it.
^ but with each new platform, the hardware becomes more powerful, with the 5870 expected to come close to the 4870 X2 in performance, or if you were willing to spend that $500, the 5870 X2 should obliterate any GPU setup on the market today.
^ but with each new platform, the hardware becomes more powerful, with the 5870 expected to come close to the 4870 X2 in performance, or if you were willing to spend that $500, the 5870 X2 should obliterate any GPU setup on the market today.
I wouldn't try to get people to hold off on a purchase based on a component that hasn't even been officially announced yet. Comparing a current piece of hardware to a theoretical piece of future hardware is just pulling numbers out of your rear also.
I would get the WD Black harddrives, better performance and reliablilty. 95$ for 1TB on newegg. yeah, don't get the Zalman cooler, the noctua is a good cooler, or a scythe mugen 2, which is on par or if not better than the Noctua, and only 37$. Great price, top end cooling, up there with the TRUE. I would personally get the 4890 aswell, and get a 5870 when they come out or another 4890 for crossfire. Oh and yeah skip the ram, get 1600 Max.
Very good advice from ALL the previous posters. They addressed each of the problems I saw. I would be wary of any SSD's excepting the X25-M. The write performance is suspect on the other MLC drives. That is changing by the day.