First build/ $2,000-ish budget

[bluTaz]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Between now and Mid-September.

BUDGET RANGE: $1700.OK-$2200.MAX ... would like to get the best bang possible without spending too much.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Dual-boot(Linux/Windows), Internet Browsing, Virtualization in Linux, Watching movies, Playing Music, Word Processing; many times a mixture of all

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com, tigerdirect.com

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: I would like to use an i7 CPU & asus mobo with a 22-24" HD LCD and full tower/ or mid tower case ... like cooler-master HAF cases ... nvidia gpu preferred, 1TB HDD- may add more later.

OVERCLOCKING: More than likely although it'll be a first.

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: SLI

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Want it to be one that'll last and have room for upgrades later on. Would like it to be nice looking, and a window would be awesome. I prefer blue leds over red with case. Shouldn't be too loud and usb 3.0 support would be great.

What I've come up with:

CPU:Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz
HSF:Noctua NH-D14
RAM:CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB)
MOBO:ASUS P6X58D
CASE:COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Blue
GPU:GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi)
PSU:CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W
DVD:LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner
HDD:SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB
MONITOR:ASUS VH242H
OS(s): Dual-boot; Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit & Ubuntu or Fedora flavor

Price: ~1925

Any alternatives, additions, subtractions? This will be my first time building a PC, and I have not tried overclocking but do intend to do so. I hope to get the most for my money but keep it reasonable. Would be nice to have a good solid computer that looks and performs great. I may upgrade or make additions to gpu, hdd, and ram in future. All suggestions are welcome and needed, thanks all.

 

[sp12]

I don't see why this should be on an i7 platform. The i5-760 beats the i7-930 in all games.

Swap the CPU for an i5-760 -70$
Ram for a G.skill 1.5 volt, 1600 speed dual channel kit -50$
Swap mobo for P55 sli mobo -130$
Swap Corsair PSU for XFX black edition 750w. It's the same OEM (same PSU with a different sticker), but the XFX is 20$ cheaper.

And with that 260$ saved consider either an SSD or a Dell U series IPS monitor (or both).

 

[CrossStealth]

I am no expert but

I just bought very similar products to what you were looking at

GFX - Galaxy GeForce GTX 470
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB)
PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB
Case - COOLER MASTER HAF 922
Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R
Cooler - Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme
CPU - Intel Core i7-930
Final Price - $1476.67

This is without the optical drives but they are inexpensive

From what I understand the i5 is a LGA 1156 socket which is more limited. Not just to a gaming perspective. the ram can run triple channel instead of dual channel on the i7 930 unlike the i5 and the i7s socket lga 1366 can be upgradable down the line to a hex core processor over the quad cores. The i5 will only go quad cores since that is the best that can fit the socket. Right now the best cpu on the market in my opinion is an i7 980x but thats crazy expensive. Maybe down the line the price will drop as they make new sockets which will be not too far into 2011. You could potentially go for that processor in the future making a huge upgrade possible. Also your ram is not limited to 16gb like on the old mobos. you can reach 24gb(which is crazy, most people dont need more then 6gb)

Like I said i am no expert and these other guys know a lot more then me but thats what ive come to learn building my machine

hope I helped

P.S. You can also go triple SLI eventually if youd like. You wont need to but Its cool to know haha

Oh and since you had a larger Budget then I did you may want to consider the GTX 480 over the 470 as it is the best video card available. Or so I understand

Dont know if these will help you.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

 

[Silvune]

I think you will have some trouble with that heatsink and RAM with massive heatspreaders (which Dominators have). Chances are you won't be able to have a fan on the side which overhangs the DIMM slots. If you're going to keep the RAM with heatspreaders then this is a better set: G.SKILL PI 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) F3-12800CL6T-6GBPI $200 it's faster due to the lower latency, and cooler with more OCing headroom due to the lower voltage and you don't have to deal with the rebate.

No point getting the Asus P6X58D Premium, it only has a small number of minor extra features over the -E, and you won't notice the difference in overclockability until you start extreme water cooling. If you know what those extra features are and actually do need them then fair enough.

I was also going to mention the PSU. This might not be 80 Silver, but it is still really high quality and is a bit cheaper: Antec Truepower New TP750 80Plus Silver Modular $115. If you're going to be OCing your GPUs, then I'd suggest thinking about an 850W PSU.

Btw sp12, the Corsair HX750 is made by CWT, the XFX 750 is made by Seasonic (a relabed M12D), so they're not the same OEM.

 

[sp12]

Sorry about that, that's the gold PSU I'm thinking about.

 

[Silvune]

What? The only Corsairs that are made by Seasonic are the HX 520 and 620. Everything else is either CWT or Flextronics.