Help $1,500 budget in two months.

[ctnoland]

Ok so I will have approximately a 1,500 dollar budget to build a computer that I will be doing a lot of gaming and music media work on.

I want to know any feedback you guys have on the items I list even if it is a recommendation on new items or if you have knowledge of a soon to come discount on a item listed.

I really like the video card I have on here because of how cool it can stay under heavy pressure. I am looking for future proof and durability.

Here is the list I have gotten so far.

Media Drive- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" -$69.99

Motherboard- GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard-$109.99

Video card- MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Car- $199.99

Memory- G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)- $79.99 (could go up to 6gb or 2000 if talked into it lol)

CPU- Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor-$294.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS-$99.99

System Drive- OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)-$144.99

Total : $999.93


As of this moment I have no need for any other parts just the ones listed. I know that the total is lower but I also need recommendations on cooling systems and maybe even a good case. Eventually I am also getting a new monitor as well.

I will be playing SC2, WoW, Diablo 3, etc. so just any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[etk]

In less than two months, Sandy Bridge will be out to replace the 1156 socket. While I would guess a 2600k would be what you are looking for in your price range, I would wait until a couple weeks out from when you want to buy, when actual pricing, benchmarks, etc will be out.

 

[mortonww]

I want to second etk's recommendation. Here are some preliminary sandy bridge benchmarks (sandy chips don't even have turbo enabled in these benchmarks)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

Observations on your current build: The i7 950 is an intel 1366 socket CPU and cannot be fitted into an AMD AM3 socket motherboard. Suggested motherboard would be the ASUS Sabertooth X58.

 

[geofelt]

I want to second etk's recommendation. Here are some preliminary sandy bridge benchmarks (sandy chips don't even have turbo enabled in these benchmarks)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

Observations on your current build: The i7 950 is an intel 1366 socket CPU and cannot be fitted into an AMD AM3 socket motherboard. Suggested motherboard would be the ASUS Sabertooth X58.

I agree.

Best intelligence I have is a sandy bridge launch about Jan 9. Around that time, the 25nm SSD products might show up also. The potential is much lower costs per gb. I think it pays to wait now, unless your need is urgent.

Also, I like the direct exhaust type coolers for the GTX460 better. The cyclone shows up well in an open air test bed. But in a case, it dumps the hot vga air back into the case heating up both the air used to cool the graphics card AND the cpu. In an older system, changing to direct exhaust lowered my vga and cpu temps by 5c.

 

[jobz000]

Yeah, if there weren't so many new stuff to look forward in 2 months time, I'd upgrade now. Even RAM prices are coming down. All the stars are lining up nicely!

I'm still using AMD Athlon XP 2500+ w/ 1.2GB of DDR RAM.

 

[ctnoland]

I agree.

Best intelligence I have is a sandy bridge launch about Jan 9. Around that time, the 25nm SSD products might show up also. The potential is much lower costs per gb. I think it pays to wait now, unless your need is urgent.

Also, I like the direct exhaust type coolers for the GTX460 better. The cyclone shows up well in an open air test bed. But in a case, it dumps the hot vga air back into the case heating up both the air used to cool the graphics card AND the cpu. In an older system, changing to direct exhaust lowered my vga and cpu temps by 5c.

Thats extremely helpful. I have been wondering if something like that would happen.