FIRST BUILD - i5 gaming/HTPC

oh and here is the case kinda..this is an updated version of the case i got
http://www.newegg.com/Product/NewProduct.aspx?Item=N82E...

and this is my power supply... maybe a little OD for what i need but it was on sale when i bought it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/NewProduct.aspx?Item=N82E...

value ssd for boot/apps?

Very workable as it is, here are a few added thoughts.

For the gaming part, particularly at 1920 x 1080, the graphics card is much more important than the cpu.

I would look at the $210 GTX460 as a good card at that resolution. Recent reviews show it to be a very good value. Read some. Also, it seems that the GTX4xx cards get very good scaling when sli is used. Better than ati crossfire. That said, my upgrade plan would be to sell the GTX460 and replace it with a stronger single gpu card .

Are your apps and games multi core enabled, for three or more cores? Very few games and applications are. To get the extra cores, compared to a duo, you will give up clock speed for the first two cores. If you will overclock modestly, look into the i5-530. Read this article on the suitability of the 530 for gaming:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588... You might want to reduce your cost of the cpu in favor of a stronger graphics card.

I do not know how well the Intel motherboard can overclock. You might want to look at EVGA/ASUS/Gigabyte instead.

I really like a SSD for the OS. Everything feels much snappier. 40gb might be a bit small, the Windows-7 and microsoft security essentials took about 13gb on mine. Also,
third generation cards using smaller nand chips are coming by year end. The cost for capacity will be coming down significantly. Be prepared for buyer's remorse.

You talk about possibly using raid-1.
The value of raid-1 and it's variants like raid-5 for protecting data is that you can recover from a hard drive failure quickly.
It is for servers that can't afford any down time.
Recovery from a hard drive failure is just moments.
Fortunately hard drives do not fail often.
Mean time to failure is claimed to be on the order of 1,000,000 hours.(100 years)
Raid-1 does not protect you from other types of losses such as viruses,
software errors,raid controller failure, operator error, or fire...etc.
For that, you need EXTERNAL backup.
If you have external backup, and can afford some recovery time, then you don't need raid-1.

+1 on the 460 ... it is said to be almost silent.

whats up guys, i looked at the 460 and it looks like a great card but my gaming priorities aren't as drastic and i like ati's eyefinity on the 5770

i'm buying parts right now but i'm second guessing the intel boxdp55kg motherboard

does anyone know of any review besides the one done here on tom's? i like the digital voltage regulator, the 7.1 channel audio, and the uefi factor, but i'm concerned about the construction, the lack of a secondary LAN port, and the ease of overclocking the i5.

does anyone have any opinions?

I would prescribe an 890FX and a 955(OC), for cost and balance.

This would also give you all that "other stuff" that you mentionned, as well as leaving your CrossFire options wide open, with a chipset by the folks who invented xFire and EyeFinity.

You will also be set to move to 6 cores (thuban) or 8 cores (dozer), once prices drop.

= Al =

+ to Alvin there! hey man! wats news with the dancing elephant  ?

@ albee - the 5770 is actually an awesome card for use in gaming as well as a HTPC card. since they run silent and are in the $150-$180 range for a standard or vapor-x respectively

if you need another lan port get another card to add on to the mobo or you'd just need to look into an x58 board..but that'll kill your budget. Get the 890FX series and crossfire later in the future.

I dunno abt the i5 as a HTPC cpu, its kinda overkill doncha think?   but for gaming its swell...my pals are all happy customers!

Well ... You should drop "Somebody007" a PM asking about the locked voltages, on the VX.

I no longer recommend "The Vapors".

= Al =

Hmmm, it slipped my mind - the 5870's vapor x we're a nuisance to game on! so were the later revised vapors...

Dunno about somebody007, i think he's caught up in some secret BOND mission