New "Budget" i7 Gaming Rig

[AlphaQ]

Any concerns or opinions? Everything is ordered and I think I got some decent deals here and there. I'm going to re-use my HDD, optical drives and peripherals.

CPU: Intel i7 860 Lynnfield - $243.31
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D - $139.03
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - $103.91
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W - $84.27
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB - $143.79
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932 - $122.07
Monitor: Asus VW246H 24" Wide - $200.55

Total: $1036.93

I'm debating if I need an aftermarket heat sink fan. If so I was going to look into Cooler Master Hyper 212.

Also would it be worth it to go for an SSD drive? Performance-wise it is the same as a Western Digital VR correct?

 

[vznoobie12]

Looks good . Which ripjaws did you get btw? Just my nit-picking, but some of the ripjaws are slightly, if not marginally, better than others.

You could actually go lower on the psu, getting a 650w if you don't plan to crossfire... which I hope you don't plan on doing as your board runs it at x16/x4.

I can vouch for the hyper 212+, I use it on my i5.. low idle, low load temps.

Whether an SSD drive is worth it depends on your budget and how much you value the extra time saved. I'm happy with my caviar black until SSD prices drop or there's a really good sale, though I did think about picking up kingson's m-series, which is a x25-m hiding in a kingston body. Performance-wise, they are incomparable. SSds are enormously faster. 1 legged bicyclist vs speed junkie in a m3 faster.

 

[dndhatcher]

The new 500GB platter 7200 RPM HDDs like the Samsung F3 are faster than Velociraptors. A good SSD is substantially faster than a velociraptor, not that I am convinced SSDs have really hit their prime yet. They are rapidly improving still so I would get a good Samsung F3 HDD and wait on the next generation of SSDs (next year).

 

[Guest]

Where is this deal:
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB - $143.79

 

[AlphaQ]

Circuit City: http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5563895&CatId=3669

$199.99
-$20 MIR
-$10 Paypal promo ($10 off $100)
-$26.20 Bing cash back (13.1%)

Although I think the $10 Paypal promotion is over but still $153.79 is a great price for this video card.

 

[AlphaQ]

Oops! I originally was going to go with Ripjaws series but ended up with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193

Should I have gotten something else?

 

[dndhatcher]

Cas 8 or 7 RAM would have been a couple percent faster than that CAS 9, but those will work.

 

[AlphaQ]

From my previous experience...CAS latency has had very little noticeably in the "real world" of computing. I was originally going to go for a 7-7-7-24 timing but figured why pay almost double and not get much boost out of it. 9-9-9 is fine for me.

 

[dndhatcher]

Look at the latest Toms article. The difference floats between 1 and 8 percent depending on the application and speed.