Approximate Purchase Date: 1-2 months from now, unless large price drops are expected in the fall (does anyone know if this is the case?).
Budget Range: $800-$900
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photo/Video Editing, CAD, gaming, movies, internet. I also like to leave many intensive apps open at once.
Parts Not Required: Everything outside of tower. I have monitors, keyboard, mouse, etc.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg or Amazon. Amazon if it is the same price.
Country of Origin: USA
Parts Preferences: None really, as long as it works great . I've only been looking at AMD, but that is for budget reasons.
Overclocking: Probably. I have not done it before, but would like to experiment. Most likely would not be pushing it to the edge.
SLI or Crossfire: Highly doubtful, unless I can get more power at same price of 1 higher end card.
Monitor Resolution: (2x) 1920x1080 Viewsonic VA2431wm
Additional Comments: I will almost definitely be getting an SSD later this year. Right now they are too expensive for me. Not sure if this makes a difference for the setup.
EDIT: Updated list with the suggested Intel setup posted below.
Case:Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$100. Best case I have found for this price. Not interested in a full tower.
PSU:CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
$105 (w/rebate). Not sure if this is enough power? I really like modular PSUs, but if I can get a considerably nicer non-modular one for same/less money I will consider it.
MB:ASRock 880G PRO3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$100. This is (as far as I can tell) the same as newegg's highest rated AMD board with SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3, except for the integrated graphics. I imagine the UEFI would also be nice to have.
CPU:AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
$190. I know most apps will not run on six cores, but I am hoping CAD/Video/Photo programs will? Will there be more adoption of the additional cores in the future? This is one component I am not completely sold on, I am not sure it is worth $40-$50 over the quad core Phenom, especially if I was going to overclock. I will probably get this Zalman fan if I overclock.
GPU:MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$230 (w/rebate). This seems a little overkill for my purposes, but it seems the price/performance ratio is very hard to beat. Definitely willing to downgrade this if there is not a huge drop in performance.
RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$95. Is 1600 worth the extra $10 over 1333? I really have no idea here.
HDD:Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$60. Plenty big enough for my primary drive, and SATA 6Gb/s. I don't think this can be beat. As mentioned, I am planning on upgrading to an SSD at some point.
Total: $880.
Thanks for looking at this!
Budget Range: $800-$900
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Photo/Video Editing, CAD, gaming, movies, internet. I also like to leave many intensive apps open at once.
Parts Not Required: Everything outside of tower. I have monitors, keyboard, mouse, etc.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg or Amazon. Amazon if it is the same price.
Country of Origin: USA
Parts Preferences: None really, as long as it works great . I've only been looking at AMD, but that is for budget reasons.
Overclocking: Probably. I have not done it before, but would like to experiment. Most likely would not be pushing it to the edge.
SLI or Crossfire: Highly doubtful, unless I can get more power at same price of 1 higher end card.
Monitor Resolution: (2x) 1920x1080 Viewsonic VA2431wm
Additional Comments: I will almost definitely be getting an SSD later this year. Right now they are too expensive for me. Not sure if this makes a difference for the setup.
EDIT: Updated list with the suggested Intel setup posted below.
Case:Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$100. Best case I have found for this price. Not interested in a full tower.
PSU:CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
$105 (w/rebate). Not sure if this is enough power? I really like modular PSUs, but if I can get a considerably nicer non-modular one for same/less money I will consider it.
MB:ASRock 880G PRO3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$100. This is (as far as I can tell) the same as newegg's highest rated AMD board with SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3, except for the integrated graphics. I imagine the UEFI would also be nice to have.
CPU:AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
$190. I know most apps will not run on six cores, but I am hoping CAD/Video/Photo programs will? Will there be more adoption of the additional cores in the future? This is one component I am not completely sold on, I am not sure it is worth $40-$50 over the quad core Phenom, especially if I was going to overclock. I will probably get this Zalman fan if I overclock.
GPU:MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$230 (w/rebate). This seems a little overkill for my purposes, but it seems the price/performance ratio is very hard to beat. Definitely willing to downgrade this if there is not a huge drop in performance.
RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$95. Is 1600 worth the extra $10 over 1333? I really have no idea here.
HDD:Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$60. Plenty big enough for my primary drive, and SATA 6Gb/s. I don't think this can be beat. As mentioned, I am planning on upgrading to an SSD at some point.
Total: $880.
Thanks for looking at this!