New Gaming System Advice, Approx $2,500

Hi everyone,

Well, I was planning on starting to follow the hardware news over the next few months so I could do a small refresh on my quad core watercooled system with my 8800GTX in there, but thanks to a very unwelcome burglary I find myself computer-free and feeling more than a bit out of the loop with respects to hardware. So if anyone can help me spend my insurance reimbursement wisely, I would be grateful for it.

Priorities are gaming, preferably at the 1900x1200 resolution I didn't have before, followed by media (I like to keep my substantial DVD collection on my computer), and work, though the latter should just come with the first priorities.

I enjoyed playing with the watercooling setup, but I think I will forget that this time around. Also, I would like an SSD, but am planning on including that as a future upgrade, just letting those cutting edge prices drop a little more.


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Soon as I feel part confident, tomorrow probably
BUDGET RANGE: Up to $3,500, but I don't want to throw away tons of money for marginal gains.
Part Preferences: I am leaning to a larger 1900x1200 monitor, a full tower case, and already bought a processor. No mouse, keyboard, or speakers needed. Rest of stuff I could use help on, heh.
OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: I think so
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1900 X 1200
Additional Comments: I don't care much about a quiet PC (I usually play games with a headset anyway) and am OK with a larger end case.

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 - $170
I do enjoy my full tower cases, and this seems quite nice cosmetically and convenient with those neat handles.

Power Supply: Corsair 850 TX - $140, $30 rebate
On the fence on this. I might want to switch to a modular one.

Motherboard:Asus P6T Deluxe V2 - $290
I choose this based on reviews on Toms and elsewhere, but I would love thoughts on this, and alternatives if people think this isn't any good.

CPU: Intel i7 920 - $200
Already purchased from Microcenter, didn't want to pass up the price.

Cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems - $65
Really just following what I researched for this one. The good price on the CPU makes me feel somewhat justified here.

Memory: OCZ Platinum 3x2GB DDR3 1866 - $130, $10 rebate
It's here because it was a reasonable price bump from the DDR3 1600, I can be easily swayed to a different level or set

Graphics: (2) XFX GeForce GTX 275 - $440
Planning on SLI with these two based on their value compared to the upper crust single cards.

Monitor:Asus 25.5" monitor - $315, $260 after rebates and coupon
Seems like a sweet spot of price and size.

Hard Drives: I am going to put off most of the heavy spending here (large capacity storage drives, an SSD) for a few months, probably just live with a cheap 500GB drive for now. Will this hurt me anywhere except boot times and loading screens, generally? Anyway, I'm budgeting for now to upgrade this in the future, I think.




I won't torture people by making them help choose my fans, thermal grease, and misc. wiring. I'll also throw in a few random odds and ends, a flash card reader, flightstick, monitor arm, things like that. I'm planning on a Blue-ray drive in the future, but just don't feel the desire now so why not let the prices drop a bit more. So anyway, after a few hours of research, this is what I got. This is around $1,700 before rebates for the above parts. I still have money left over for changes, miscellaneous parts/grease/fans/cables, hard drives, and the optical drive I haven't really looked too hard into yet. Now hopefully everyone will come and convince me that there are better ways of doing everything.


Thanks for the help!

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