$1500 - $1700 USD Gaming Rig Advice

[Arxos50]

So I'm going to build a gaming rig sometime in late December / early January. My budget is around $1500 - $1700.

ATI 6970 is coming out within that time frame. Should I get that? What's the expected price? And if it's competitive enough, the GTX 580 price will be dropped to compete. Should I get that instead?

Processor: i7 870 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819115213 - $280

RAM: Corsair Dominator 6gb DDR3-1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820145224 - $180

Power Supply: Corsair HX 850 watt http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139011 - $160
or ABS MJ900 watt http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817814018 - $160

Mobo: ASUS P7P55D-E Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131621 - $180

Case: NZXT Phantom White http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811146067 - $140

HD: WD Black Caviar 1TB SATA 6Gb/s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136533 - $90

SSD: If I can budget one in. As a boot drive perhaps.

Video Card: XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 (x2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814150506 - $520 (Assuming the 6970 will be much cheaper, this will save me money).

Total so far: $1710


Any advice/opinions will be much appreciated! And I would prefer the price to be closer to $1600 or so. Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse I already have. - I will be playing on a 23" 1920x1080 samsung led monitor. My keyboard is a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate which I've already preordered, and isn't part of the pc budget.

Thanks!

 

[mosox]

A lot of stuff depends on the 6xxx series, I think you'll be able to drop the crossfire mobo for a cheaper one, the same with the PSU, a good 550-650W will be plenty for a single card.

 

[Twoboxer]

- You can substitute an i5 750 for the 870 and save $100 without losing $100 worth of performance.

- You can buy one 6870, and actually see if you need/want the second.

- I'd leave the psu (Though a 750W would work) and mobo where they are; this way crossfire is always an option.

- The Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is faster than the Black - a few bucks cheaper as well.

- You have the wrong memory kit - you need 2 x 2GB, 2 x 4GB, or 4 x 2GB. Memory is another place where speed plays almost no role in gaming performance. A good 2x2GB kit at around $60 (G.Skill, Mushkin, or even Kingston) with 1333 CL9 is fine. For a few bucks more, 1333 CL7 would be the next logical step (same vendors). More is not needed unless you OC.

If you are gaming MMOs, using addons, Vent, other stuff, 8GB might hep, otherwise 4GB is fine.

Enjoy the build.

 

[aznshinobi]

Well, I will reiterate most of what Twoboxer said, but some of my own opinions.

- The i5 750 is a great chip for a cheaper price plus it OCs easily past i7's performance with a great bang for the buck aside from AMD's 955.

- Well this is my opinion, ith the 69xx I also suggest you wait like your original thought. The 6950 (if it follows the pricing of the old 5850 2009 launch) should be 300$ (since the 6950 is the same level [High-performance/Enthusiast] as the 5850).
Anyways my 2 cents on the situation is getting a 6950 or 6970.

- The PSU is a bit pricey, I think (like Twoboxer) go with a 750 watt option. CF doesn't really require a lot of power, but we'll need to see some reviews and such for the 69xx to see whether it uses energy like the 480. =P Umm... However I stick to the 750w which is cheaper. I instead recommend the XFX 750w Black Edition Modular. It's 80+ Silver cert. so no disappointment from efficiency. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003&Tpk=xfx%20750 It's only 130$.

-@Twoboxer I agree the Spinpoint is a better option, but just to correct you on that, the Black he chose is the 6 gb/s version, basically the WD updated Black drive. It's faster than the old Black drive and on par with the F3 now. Since it fixed all the platter sizes and such to match the F3. However still for budget concerns the F3 is a better option.

-1156 can only run dual-channel so... That's a bad decision. I also don't think Dominator ram is really necessary. I myself think it's a waste of money. Mushkin makes great quality memory for the price. There Blackline and Ridgeback are great series for a somewhat budget. CL7 is faster like twoboxer said. And 4gigs is fine, I don't understand when some people get 8 gigs when it's not even needed =P Oh well.

As for EVERYTHING all together. I don't think that you should build that size of a budget build now. Especially since most companies are unraveling their new products now. Sandy bridge is about to release and that shows profound OC and stock performance much better than the i7's. Plus 69xx is releasing soon as well. So, my opinion. Wait.

SB Preview i5 2400S: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row/8

 

[Twoboxer]

^ Concur, and thanks for correcting my error.