Hello. Here's brief spiel: About 6 months ago, I assembled a full build list of parts I wanted thanks to help from guys here, but I didn't end up being able to build it then (and unrelatedly, you helped a friend and myself choose the parts for his recently completed build).
Basically, I've got a list of components from my old build and I'm looking for recommendations concerning which parts could be swapped for better components. A lot of the components I chose 6 months ago are no longer stocked at Newegg, so please bear with me!
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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: 1-2 Months
BUDGET RANGE: $1800-2000
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, 3ds max, Internet, Music
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Operating System, Case, Optical Drive
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.com
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel
OVERCLOCKING: Yes
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1200
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: A mobo with USB 3.0 would be nice. I've been hearing about SATA 3.0, as well. Not necessary, but nice for future-proofing.
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CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0-stepping Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core
Heatsink: XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX
OR
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Graphics Card (1):EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 (2.0v) Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130475Graphics Card (2):EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 (2.0v) Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130475Hard Drive:
Old Pick: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 New Pick: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185Case: Antec P182
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC -Apparently this is no longer availble.
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=CORSAIR%20CMPSU-850TX%20850W%20ATX12V%202.2%20%2f%20EPS12V%202.91--
Questions/Concerns:
1. I would like to stick with LGA 1366 for future-proofing reasons, unless I can be shown otherwise.
2. It seems as though that i7-920 Nehalem is pretty hard to find/phased-out, so what should I go with? Here's an alternate choice.
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202&cm_re=core_i7-_-19-115-202-_-Product3. The graphics cards. I'd like to future-proof my video cards. Should I be concerned that GPU's should have DirectX 11?
4. I'm willing to wait a bit in case better components come out
5. I'd like to have at least 6GBs of RAM, but I'd really prefer 8GBs (4x2GBs), so if you could recommend some good RAM which I can overclock a bit in the future, it would be great.
Thank you so much!
