Finally ready to buy

[359degrees]

Finally ready to buy. Suggestions to save money or better performance. Computer will mainly be used for surfing and photography.

Vista

EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Micro Intel Motherboard

LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

LIAN LI PC-E8L Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

hec HP485D 485W ATX12V Power Supply - No Power Cord - OEM

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail

OCZ Reaper HPC 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3RPR1600LV6GK - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

 

[jbakerlent]

You could save a whole bundle of money by going with a perfectly capable AMD x3 build. Also get a better PSU such as one by Corsair, Antec, PC P&C, OCZ, Seasonic... get a micro-atx case (or an ATX motherboard) no sense in mismatching them. Get a better graphics card, and skip the HSF and paste unless you're overclocking. Hope this helps.

 

[hunter315]

Get a sata dvd drive and a good psu like jbakerlent suggested. If you arent spending your life doing image manipulation or hard core gaming with a multiple card solution you dont really need an i7 and you are better off with a different type of build. If the 2% faster photoshop times will actually add up to alot for you then you are going to want 12GB of ram

 

[gkay09]

For your needs do you really require the i7 ???
And could you explain what you meant by "For photography" If you are talking about using s/w related to photo editing/ rendering, then the i7 would be fine...

 

[359degrees]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have made a few modifications already.

Photography = using Lightroom to edit and print pictures.

 

[359degrees]

For your needs do you really require the i7 ???
And could you explain what you meant by "For photography" If you are talking about using s/w related to photo editing/ rendering, then the i7 would be fine...

Suggestions other than i7?

 

[gkay09]

The X4 955/ X4 945(If you dont plan to overclock) are very good alternatives...It would reduce the overall platform cost while not loosing much on performance...

And by going with an AMD PC, you can also do away with the graphics card...There are very good boards with decent onboard video, that would be suffice for your needs...

Here is a really good combo, that you can consider...
X4 945 + ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX + Corsair 4GB DDR3 + Samsung F1 1TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.213770

And definitely change the PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016

And change the DVD drive to a SATA as the cables would be thinner - less clutter...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188\