Final thoughts on my Sandy Bridge build...

Just to save some money, you should check out my guide for some saving money things.

As for RAID setups, they do increase the performance and the cost of a faster death for your HDDs. But also even if you RAID 0 they may bench high than the SSDs but in the real world stand point their speed will never seem like it is. Meaning RAID 0 F3 1tb can pull higher reads and writes than a single Vertex 2. But the Vertex 2 will always boot faster than the RAID F3's.

So a single SSD and a single HDD would be fine. I think WD Caviar Blacks are stujpid especially since they're not worth the price/gig.

I don't think the i7-2600K is necessary if you're just gaming. I'd go with the i5-2500K and save ~$100.

Also, if you get 2x560s now, you won't have any upgrade room in the near future. I would consider a 580 or maybe even 2x570s with room for a 3rd at some point down the road.

I feel like your RAM is a bit pricey for what it is. Shop around and see what you can find for a decent price. Remember that Cas Latency should take priority over frequency for the most part.

I agree with aznshinobi on the SSD/HDD. Get an OCZ Vertex 2 or Crucial C300 SATA III SSD and a Samsung F3 1TB. You'll be pairing the fastest SSD with the (practically) fastest HDD.


Also, if you're in no hurry, I would wait for the LGA 2011 socket CPUs to come out later this year. They'll replace the previous i7-900 performance line and will most likely blow the i5s out of the water. Your budget is plenty big enough to handle the price (pretty sure the price point will be where the i7-900s are now).

^ +1

Don't forget to get the old 34nm Vertex 2's, the new 25nm ones, although cheaper, are slower and well... just not as good as good as the 34nm ones.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ocz-vertex-2-25nm-s...