[Solved] Need to confirm that my build is complete and will work

Hello all, For the past 20 years or so I've always bought Dell computers and always swore that my next one I'd build myself so I could upgrade components w/o being restricted by their motherboards. Well, it is finally time for my "next" computer.

After looking here and at New Egg and Amazon, I've selected the following components. I just to want to confirm that I'm not doing anything supremely stupid (other than spending too much money). Also, I want to confirm that the x58 motherboard requires the DDR3 RAM to be installed in 3's and won't take pairs. I was hoping for more than 6GB of RAM (for HD Video and large photo file editing.) Also, suggestions on cases would be great, as well as any small things usually forgotten (like cables, screws, hardware) that I need to make sure I get up front.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: by end of March; aiming for sooner, but depends on when I get the taxes done; budget is sub $2K

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Photo editing (RAW files w/ Lightroom and Photoshop) and HD Video editing (with Cyberlink Power Director and others) (files from Canon EOS 5D mk2 so the files are large); gaming that includes WoW, LoTRO, Crysis, etc.)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (newegg.com, Amazon) COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel CPU

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: (1920x1200)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Quiet PC would be nice

Here is what I've got earmarked so far:

Main Board: ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131614

Graphics: SAPPHIRE 100282SR Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Retail;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102857

Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail ;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006
-- but not sure whether to get this or the 750HX

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115202

RAM (8GB): CORSAIR DOMINATOR 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMD8GX3M4A1600C8 - Retail;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131614
-- UNLESS I have to use 3 sticks, in which case I'll go w/ the 6GB below

RAM (6GB): CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D - Retail;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product
-- Or I'd be happy to use the OCZ RAM OCZ 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3X1600R2LV6GK - Retail
Compatible with Intel i7 CPU and X58 chipset;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product which seems to get good marks around here.

Hard Drive: 2X Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136284
-- I'm debating going with a smaller drive that may have better access times;
-- I store all my images on external hard drives and will likely use the BD burner below for additional backup.
-- any reason to go w/ an SSD for OS and program files?

BluRay Drive: Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer Model BDR-205BKS - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827129051

2nd optical drive: PLEXTOR Black 8X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal BD Combo Model PX-B320SA LightScribe Support - OEM;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827249055

Case:
this: COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product
or the 932 or I'm wide open to suggestions.

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment (and just broader than my post -- I really appreciate the time and energy the community takes to help folks out -- I learned quite a bit from reading the threads around here.)

Matt

RAM: You need triple channel RAM, and never of those sets are very good. Here's some really good triple channel sticks: G.Skill Pi Series 3x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 for $180.

HDD: Switch those for Seagate 7200.12 1 TB. They're faster and all around better. They're also cheaper. Or get the even better Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TBs if you can find them.

Optical: Do you really need a BR burner AND a reader? You're spending a good $355 on parts that don't actually give you any performance. Do you even need to burn BR? If you just need to burn DVDs and read BRs, get a BR reader and the cheapest SATA DVD burner you can find. It will cost you something like $120 instead of $220

GPU: A little light for playing Crysis at your resolution. I highly suggest rethinking the BR burner and separate reader and uping that to the HD 5870 for another $100. If you can't do that, consider getting an i7-860/Asus P7P55D-E Pro build instead. That will save you $120 on the board and $65 on the RAM.

RAM: It's cheaper, better specs and actually better quality. In a recent overclocking competition, G.Skill won 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th places (out of 10 total).

HDD: That's the drive on Amazon.

Optical: Much better choice.

GPU: I would go with the 5870 because you keep Crossfire open as an upgrade path, and it's big enough to play everything now. In addition, the DirectX 11 support makes it more current. There are also a lot of other features in the 5xxx series that aren't in the older 4xxx cards (Eyefinity support, bitstreaming, quieter/cooler operation, more energy efficient, better scaling in Crossfire).

Thanks Shortstuff!

Do you think the Seagate is better or just providing a link to it as a backup?

I'm not a fan of setting fire to my money, so I'll go w/ just a DVD combo drive. I was only thinking the extra Blu Ray reader in the event that I needed to dup a Blu Ray disc.

Thanks,

Matt

You can use a single Blu Ray burner to make backups just like you can use a single DVD burner to make backups. It just makes a temporary image on your HD and burns from that.

750W would be enough for Crossfiring.

It might have been referring to the size of the GPU coolers. Which is mostly unavoidable nowdays.

It makes everything seem lightening fast. Games load faster, Windows operates extremely fast. That said, I would wait for a bit because the price.

You should add them in sets of 3. It could be 3x1 GB or 3x2 or 3x4, but it's better to add the same sticks to it for compatibility issues.

RAID only works with absolutely clear drives. So you must either completely reformat the old drive or use 2 new ones. Most people here don't really think RAID is that useful, as if you lose a drive, it's extremely bad.

Only if you're overclocking. I recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212. It's cheap, but it's one of the best.

Monitor is expensive, but I couldn't find anything w/ comparable color gamut in the same price point. A few reviews (just read them) mention pink tint, so that's giving me pause, but I'll keep digging into that.

I wondered if I'd have to clear the disks to do a RAID; figured I would. Oh well, not really a high priority.

I think I'll wait for the SSD. I'm pretty sure that the performance rate will be such an improvement from my existing computer that I won't need it for awhile

I'll cross the RAM bridge when I get to it. Again, I think the performance improvement will be sufficient for awhile.

I'll take a look at the hyper 212.

Thanks all,

Matt

Like this one: NEC Computers LCD2490WUXI-BK 24-Inch Widescreeen LCD Monitor http://www.amazon.com/NEC-Computer [...] MJC79D41VR ? It's also about $1K. I'd love to get an Eizo too, but those are generally $1400 - $5K... maybe when business picks up or I start selling a lot of photos and can quit my daytime job :-)

Photoshop is supposed to be able to utilize the entire Adobe RGB gamut. The real gating factor, ultimately, is the printer gamut. But so long as the printer gamut is a complete subset of what the monitor is capable of displaying (and Photoshop/ Lightroom is able to utilize that gamut) then I'll be happy. Or at least happy if Lightroom ever gets soft proofing. But I can always roundtrip from LR to PS and back (or just print from PS) before printing to check the soft proofing, since I have my papers and printer profiled.

Matt

Hard Drives - It's incorrect to say one HD is "better" than another unless you define exactly "better at what ?" No HD is better "across the board" in all test. it's is important therefore to match your choice to usage patterns that are specific to what YOU will do on your machine.

Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive performs best under your usage patterns. The WD Black 2 TB is a good choice but at smaller capacities, you are limited to the Seagate 7200.12 or the Spinpoint F3. The 7200.12 excels in gaming, multimedia and pictures whereas the F3 wins at music and movie maker. See the comparisons here (copy past link in manually, link won't work in forum):

(http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/compare,1006.html?prod[2371]=on&prod[2770]=on), look at the tests that reflect your usage and choose accordingly.

RAM - It's hard to recommend a particular RAM over any length of time cns till you are looking at 240 pin, 3 x 2GB, DDR3-1600 and see the CAS choices. Start at CAS 6 and rank by lowest price and grab the cheapest one from a brand you are comfortable with. Today that's the Mushkin at $249 ....were $204 few weeks ago. If that's too pricey, hit the back button, "rinse and repeat" as the saying goes choosing CAS 7. The Mushkins again take the title spot at $177
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820226104

As for the rest, I'd wait.....new Intel CPU's drop March 6, new cases and PSU's from CES hit store shelves same week, now MoBos will start dropping in next 2-8 weeks, Intel drops prices at end if February and fermi's arrival should drive GFX card prices down.

If ya can't wait, this combo for $244 should be considered as an alternative.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.335367

As for displays

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus. [...] 1229341472

Photoshop can use the aRGB color gamut as well as the larger ProPhoto gamut. I don't have ready access to links that show the 3D wireframe representations (maps) of the gamuts as compared to various output devices (printers or monitors). Lightroom's (and ACR's) colorspace is based on ProPhoto for editing, but you have a choice of changing color space at export.

from here: http://www.ppmag.com/reviews/200701_rodneycm.pdf;

Good white paper from Adobe on color spaces: http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/p [...] lspace.pdf

And some older (2007) comments from Andrew Rodney -- but they are still relevant (don't read if you are a Ken Rockwell fan though): http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00LyZN

as for monitors... there is always: http://www.amazon.com/LP2475W-24in [...] cr_pr_pb_t the HP LP 2475W, but the fun thing is they seem to send you either an S-IPS or H-IPS version, but totally at random. It's only $599ish.

Matt

Thanks for the links; I hadn't seen the display web page -- that's nicely organized.

I didn't know that all the price drops were so imminent. I'm eager to get going, but I can probably wait a few weeks and see what happens.

Best,

Matt

Best answer selected by mkress65.