Nov 20 New build, around 1500$

Intel Core i5-760 2.8Ghz Lga 1156 - $209 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 - $180 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-131-...

Silverstone RV02 - $160 http://www.amazon.com/SILVERSTONE-RV02B-W-Steel-Tower-C...

Radeon 6870 (Sapphire) - $255 x 2 = $510 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Mushkin Enhanced Blackline (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 Cas 7 - $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

XFX Black Edition 750W - $130 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $70 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ - $30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 120mm Blue x 2 = $20 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Lite-on 24x DVD burner/reader - $20 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Windows 7 64 bit Home Edition - $100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

= $1509 before combos etc.

You're right oin the parts slection you got from reading THG but I think twin 460's gonna come up a little short with two monitors of that size. As an alternative to the above, I have cut down a $2,000 build to your budget level figuring with a few upgrades over time .... X-Mas is coming   ...... If you consider anything a luxury by all means cut it out .... bu on the other hand, if ya wanna add Blue Ray someday, that makes whatever ya buy now redundant.

Case - $180 - Antec DF-85 (Yikes was $140 few days ago)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Case Fans - Later - Antec Red 120 mm (add w/ 2nd card in SLI)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

PSU - $120 - Antec CP850 (10.0 performance rating on jonnyguri)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

MoBo / CPU Combo $480 - Asus Sabertooth X58 w/ i7-950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

Cooler - $40 - Scythe SCMG 2100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

TIM - $5 - Shin Etsu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

RAM - $110 - 3 x 2GB Mushkin DDR3-1600 CAS 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

GFX - $270 - EVGA GTX 470 SC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

GFX - Later - Get another one from Santa !

HD - $180 - Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 rpm w/ Win 7 64 Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...

SSD - Later - OCZ Vertex 2 3.5" 120GB (I'd ask Santa but let's not push it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

DVD Writer - $80 - ASUS BR Model BC-08B1LT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

$1,465 for a very responsive system.....which has room for expandability when some $$ comes into hand.

Looking at the relative performance of the 470 versus 460 versus 6870, ya might look here

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

The 460 and 6870 compete well with other as single cards, the 470 which is in the 6870's price range however is, on average, 16% faster than the 6870. Overall, twin 460's even beat twin 6870's by 9.4% Methinks the 6870 has to drop just a few bucks to find it's niche spot in an "overall sense". However, depending on what games you play, it's hard to say any of the cards is a bad choice.

Thank you very much for your replys

The parts are more expensive in Sweden because of taxes and *** so the first suggestion ended up with more like 1800$ instead of 1500$ but then as JackNay so nicely put it: Its Christmas soon so I might be able to get around that problem.

I will look into it more tomorrow, thanks again guys!

I spent a couple of hours to try to create this shoppinglist on a site from sweden or europe but I can only find a few parts from every other site so if i were to duplicate any of these shoppinglists I would have to order from 4-5 different sites.

I decided to mainly order from www.komplett.se since they have the biggest variety.

One question I have is about the case. How important is the case, I found Antec DF-85 on komplett but it sure is expensive and big, is it really worth the money? Also Does a midi tower affect the cooling alot since I want to go SLI?

About a SLI/Crossfire setup, is it basically the same plug and play installation as it is with one card or is it alot of extra work getting 2 cards to work? Also, The extra fan for the second card, where is it supposed to be installed? And since the brands you are recommending does not exist where I´m ordering from, what specifics should I look for, Diameter?, fan speed... ?

None of the power supply units you guys recommended were available on www.komplett.se so It would be alot easier if I could find another PSU, what should I look for? I suppose I need something extra because of SLI setup and how much power will my build require?

The RAM also seems to be hard to come by, could you guys mabey recommend another brand or product instead?

I any of the parts you are recommending is worth the effort of ordering from another site I will put in some extra effort but as said before. It would be cheaper and easier if I can order it all from the same site

Right now I have found:

Antec Dark Fleet DF-85 Big Tower Svart (I hope its worth the money)
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=603164#extra

2x EVGA GeForce GTX 470 1280MB PhysX CUDA
PCI-Express 2.0, "Superclocked", GDDR5, 2xDVI, native-HDMI, 625MHz
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=595079#extra

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB
7200RPM, SATA 3.0 Gbps, 3,5", 32MB Cache, 8.9ms
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=496258#extra

Samsung DVD-writer SH-S222L/BEBE (Did not find anyone of the 2 you recommended but I figured it should not matter that much about the DVD writer right?)
Dual, Lightscribe, Black, IDE, OEM
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=436591#extra

ASUS P7P55D-E PRO, Socket-1156 (Could not find the Sabertooth, but i read good stuff about this one, think it would do?)
ATX, P55, DDR3, 2xPCIe(2.0)x16, GbLAN, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=513218#extra

Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-760
Quad Core, 2.80Ghz, Socket 1156, 8MB, 95W, Boxed w/fan
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=604498#extra

I know I took the cheaper choice on moderboard and CPU, You guys think it will be worth the money to invest in a better CPU, like i7?

The stuff I can´t find and would love to get some recommendations for (what to look for, certain brands etc,) is:

PSU

Case Fan(s)

Cooler

TIM

RAM

SSD

BTW: The products I mentioned above adds up to around 1500$, I can stretch it a bit further, got my girlfriend to pay one of the Graphic cards as Xmas gift and I can probably get my parents involved also since its Christmas soon.

I really appreciate your help, sometimes I wish the stuff were as easy to come by and as cheap as it seems to be in the states.

Case - A quality full tower insures a couple pof things:

- Adequate air flow
- Easy work space
- Easy routing of cables
- Plenty of room to fit huge GFX cards, large MoBos, lotsa drives

As you to to smaller cases, each of these gets compromised a bit, the smaller you go, the bigger the compromise. A good mid tower such as the HAF-922 is a minor compromise most can live with with SLI and OC'ing

GFX - SLI is no big deal. Just forget it's there. If ua start w/ one and move to two, may want to remove and reinsall drivers if it gives you an issue.

PSU - For comparison purposes , the list below contains performance ratings (10 scale) at jonnyguru.com / prices as per newegg on 02/21/2010 and ones w/ double asterisks (**) made it onto silentpcreview.com's Editor's Choice List meaning they excelled at both electronic and acoustic performance:


Antec SG-850 - 10.0 ($220) **
Antec CP-850 - 10.0 ($110) **
XFX 850W Black Edition 10.0 ($185)
Corsair HX850 850W - 10.0 ($180)

Antec TruePower Quattro (TPQ-850) - 9.5 ($150)
Corsair TX850 - 9.5 ($140)
Seasonic M12D 850W - 9.5 (NLA) **
NorthQ Giant Connector 850W - 9.5 (NFS)
Etasis ET850 - 9.5 (NLA)
Silverstone Zeus ST85ZF - 9.5 (NLA)

Enermax Revolution 85+ 850W - 9.0 ($250)

Thermaltake Toughpower XT 850W - 8.5 ($216)
OCZ Z Series 850W - 8.5 ($200)

NorthQ Black Magic Flex 850W - 8.0 (NFS)
Coolmax CTG-850 - 8.0 (NFS)

SilverStone Decathlon DA850 - 7.5 ($230)
Enermax Galaxy DXX 850W EGX850EWL - 7.5 (NFS)

SilverStone Strider ST85F - 7.0

Silverstone Element ST85EF 850W - 6.0


NFS - Not For Sale / NLA = No Longer Available

Case Fans - Buy 'em from the case manufacturer's supplier. For the DF
Antec 761345-75026-4 120mm Red LED Case Fan .... here's the newegg link to check specs (ya only need one, all others pre-installed). As to your other questions, watch the video's and read the specs on the linked pages as wella s the manufacturer's web sites. You will see that the DF has one mounting location for an added optional fan which is on the case door window.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Cooler - work your way down this list
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

TIM - Work ya way down this list
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

RAM - Pick the OC you want and choose RAM accordingly. If it's 4.0 Ghz, the answer is DDR-1600. Using your fav vendors web site, drill down the searches to 240 pin / 2 x 2Gb / DDR3-1600. Look at CAS 6 to start and see if ya find anything your budget allows, then CAS 7, and so on. Also suggest seraching THG site as they often test numerous RAM modules and discover many higher latency modules that run quite comfortably at lower CAS settings.

SSD - The Vertex 2 and Intel SSD 's are readily available just about anywhere.

Alright, got most stuff covered now.

Corsair HX 850W PSU

Zalman CNPS10X Extreme CPU Cooler (I know the cooler recommended from http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten... was Zalman CNPS10X-Performa but I could not find it nor anyone above on the list. Give me a voice if you think its a bad trade)

In the end Im feeling a bit unsure about the whole MoBo, CPU, RAM part. Please let me know if you think there is a better solution or worth putting in some extra cash for a bigger performence.

I looked at 3 intel i5 CPUs

Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-760
Quad Core, 2.80Ghz, Socket 1156, 8MB, 95W, Boxed w/fan

Intel Core™ i5 Dual Processor i5-660
Dual Core, 3.33Ghz, Socket 1156, 4MB, 73W, Boxed w/fan

Intel Core™ i5 Dual Processor i5-661
Dual Core, 3.33Ghz, Socket 1156, 4MB, 87W, Boxed w/fan

Witch one should work better? (I am planning on doing some overclocking but It wont be to the extreme), also. What OC would I end up with with these CPUs?

As for motherboard:

ASUS P7P55D-E PRO, Socket-1156
ATX, P55, DDR3, 2xPCIe(2.0)x16, GbLAN, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0

I only checked slightly into rams yet as it seems from your previous post that RAM is decided after choosing a CPU?

Found only 2 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1600mhz 240pin. From about 200 choices only 1 had CAS6 and that was a 1gbx2 memory.

The two choices I found:

Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 4GB CL7
Kit w/2x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL7-8-7-20, for Core i5 and i7, 1.65V

Corsair Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1600MHz 4GB
Kit w/2x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL7-8-7-20, for Core i3/i5/i7, 1.65V, with Connector

Will 4gb be enough?

Examples from www.Dustin.se

OCZ DDR3 XMP EDT. 4GB PC3-12800 1600MHZ (2X2GB)
OCZ DDR3 XMP EDT. 6GB PC3-12800 1600MHZ (3X2GB) (Alot more expensive)

Considering my build now and a possible change of CPU/MoBo if you recommend it is it worth looking into 1333Mhz memorys?

Hopefully it won´t be long now until I stop asking all these questions. Thank you very much for all the help so far!

i5 760. can get Oced to 4.2 on air.

Ram well according to a review on the homepage today, THW is suggesting 8GB as minimum now.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,...

If you intend on OCing I'd get DDR3 1600 Cas 8 or 9.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... (example)

asus p7p55d-e pro is an excellent mobo.

I see several different i5 760, I posted the 3 that seemed to be the best ones, what should I look for when choosing CPU?

"Intel Core™ i5 Quad Processor i5-760
Quad Core, 2.80Ghz, Socket 1156, 8MB, 95W, Boxed w/fan


Intel Core™ i5 Dual Processor i5-660
Dual Core, 3.33Ghz, Socket 1156, 4MB, 73W, Boxed w/fan


Intel Core™ i5 Dual Processor i5-661
Dual Core, 3.33Ghz, Socket 1156, 4MB, 87W, Boxed w/fan"

only the top one is i5 760.

Uhhh, i5 760 = best value for gaming. i7 950 lga 1366 will be about the same in gaming but do better in things like video editing, photoshop, etc..

Thank you Vindictive!

So, A higher CAS is better if Im planing on OC?

There is such a huge price diffrence from memory that to me seems to be exactly the same. All these memorys looks kinda alike (I know some of them have 12gb, is it worth it?) but the price can differ with 140$

Corsair Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1600MHz 8GB
Kit w/4x 2GB XMS3 DHX+, CL8-8-8-24, for Core i3/i5/i7, w/Fan& Connector, 1.65v

Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 8GB
Kit w/2X HyperX 4GB DDR3, CL9-9-9-27, 240pin (twice the price of the other memorys)

Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 8GB
Kit w/4X HyperX 2GB DDR3, CL9-9-9-27, 240pin

Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 12GB
Kit w/6X HyperX 2GB DDR3, CL9-9-9-27, 240pin

Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 8GB
Kit med 4X HyperX 2GB DDR3, CL8-8-8-24, 240pin, 1.65v

Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600MHz 12GB CL8
Kit w/6x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL8-8-8-24, 1.65V, for Intel i7, 240pin (also expensive)

Corsair Dominator DHX DDR3 1600MHz 8GB
Kit w/2x 4GB XMS3 DHX, CL9-9-9-24, for Core i3/i5/i7, w/Connector, 1.65v

Corsair Dominator DHX DDR3 1600MHz 12GB
Kit w/3x 4GB XMS3 DHX, CL9-9-9-24, for Core i7, connector for Airflow Pro, 1.65v

Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 12GB CL9
Kit w/6x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL9-9-9-24, for Core i7, 1.65v

Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 8GB CL9
Kit w/2x 4GB XMS3 modules, CL9-19-9-27, for Core i5 and i7, 1.5V

Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 8GB CL9
Kit w/4x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL9-9-9-24, for Core i5 and i7, 1.65V, Intel XMP

I'm very sure this is my last question =)

If your going to OC you want DDR3 1600.
CL9 is fine as long as you dont want to run your memory past 1600 mhz.
for higher mhz you have to loosen your timings (cas goes up)
but lower cas is always better, but price wise its not really worth it for everyday use, its mostly seen on bencmarks.