Trying Again --- NEW i7-860 BUILD

Is there a reason you want to re-use your old IDE hard drives? The new models are much faster for around $50. I don't see why you would cripple your new system with a slow hard drive.

unfortunately, there are no micro centers in florida >_>
and i would love to wait, except my AMD Athlon 64 sucks, and i require more power very quickly.
also, what is the difference between the two motherboards that you recommended? (as well as the memory, because they seem to be the same except for price, and i know that i have seen cheaper i7 compatible memory)

shortstuff_mt, the reason i want to reuse my old harddrives is because i have 700 gigs of them, and i see no reason to just throw them away. i have a 1T SATA drive on my desk right now, but it is not compatible with my current motherboard. this is the drive that i will install windows 7 on, and put the most important information on.

why would tighter (i am assuming this means faster?) timing cause issues?
and do you think that 1 PCI-E slot is worth the extra money? because its a lot...

what is UD6? a technology on motherboards for OCing?
and what are the main benefits of usb 3.0? i have heard that its faster, but is it going to replace usb 2.0 in the next 3-4 years? because i dont plan on getting a new computer for a while after this one.

and what about memory like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820211410 ? how do i know which memory to use, keeping in mind that im on a budget and i want it to be fast?

the thing is, i have a LOT of media. enough that i have filled the 700 gig of internal hard drive space, and filled another 250 externally. i would really only be using these extra hard drives to store the large files that i use infrequently, almost like a server inside my machine. everything important i will have on my hitachi 1T, which it appears newegg.com has stopped selling.

i appreciate the memory recommendation, that looks like the type i will be using.

the price difference between the motherboards with usb 3.0 and without doesnt seem to be too significant, so i think i will probably get one of the two recommended with it.

any input on what gpu to get that will suit the needs of my system, along with a HD 1080p monitor?

Do NOT purchase this RAM. This is rated at 1.65 - 1.85V. The P55 motherboards can only run RAM at 1.65V or less. Anything else can fry your system.

This is the RAM I got. I have not had any major difficulties with them. That being said, I also am not running them at their optimal settings right now. Each time I tweak them something unrelated happens and I have to set them back to default recognized levels (1333) to iron out problems. If I could do it over again I would have gotten tighter timings on 1333 speed RAM so then I wouldn't have to mess around with changing the settings so often.

These recommendations should work great for you if you can afford them. Because they are faster than 1333 you will likely have to tweak the settings or turn on XMP. How exactly that is done will depend on the BIOS of the board you choose.

There is a balance between latency and speed. I suggest reading these 2 articles:
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2325.html
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=3589

The differences between each step up in RAM is often marginally noticeable, and outside of a benchmark it is difficult to say whether or not you would even notice the difference. And yet the cost difference adds up fast. The best advice I got from these forums was buy the best RAM that fits your budget, if you find yourself stretching things just to get 'better' RAM that's probably money better spent on other components.

I almost pointed that out, must've forgot. The P55 chipset / Lynnfield CPUs are just too new to have similar articles written. And we may not see them anyway because the results will likely not differ too drastically. Or maybe that's just conjecture...

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

You have to be sure you pick a quality power supply. That's actually the most important component in a computer, but a lot of new builders go cheap on it. It's absolutely critical to use a quality PSU from a reputable manufacturer like Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Antec, etc...

Here's a few combo deals to consider. The first two are if you want to leave Crossfire open as an option.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.288425 $154.90 - $20 MIR (Antec 300 Illusion + Antec TP-750 PSU combo)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.288424 $149.90 (Antec 300 Illusion + Antec TP-650 combo)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.288427 $124.94 (Antec 300 Illusion + Antec EA650 combo)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.288426 $106.94 (Antec 300 Illusion + Antec EA430 combo)

I would check out the new HD5770 GPU's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] rder=PRICE

There's a $40 off combo deal with this Powercolor 5770 and the Antec TP-750 PSU. That's a great deal!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.274501