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Suggestions for a $800-$900 tower

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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!

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Looks good, But I would switch to the i5-2500k. It beats the 1090t, even in programs that utilize 6 cores: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=146 (pay attention to the higher is better/lower is better)
With that in mind, I suggest switching to the ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67
and the Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

Also, the Samsung Desktop Class Spinpoint F3 1 TB is a better deal at $60 and double capacity. Everything else looks good!

EDIT: noticed I am over budget, the Antec 300 Illusion might help lessen the sting.

Yeah I noticed the budget too :) 

The Intel is certainly a better chip, but I don't know if it is almost $100 better? (given the motherboard cost as well)

According to the 1090T reviews, many people have gotten 3.9 to 4 GHz on air cooling.

How would a 1090T at 3.8GHz compare to a stock 2500K?

I know it is silly to compare a overclocked processor to a stock one, but $100 is a lot out of a $850 budget... and I really like the case I selected :D 

Well, the 2500k gets to 4.0GHz on STOCK cooling, and around 5GHz on aftermarket air cooler. I would say that yes, it's worth the extra money.
Also, I would switch to this ram, save some money as it's $70 after coupon: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Also, that PSU is a bit pricey, but you like modular. Might I recommend this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Very, cheap, and OCZ is a pretty good brand. It's also semi modular!
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I take it since the ram you selected is 1333 that the speed (vs 1600) doesn't make a huge difference? I don't really know anything about ram speeds. It certainly is a lot cheaper than what I had. EDIT: actually, I just found a combo deal with the 1600/i5 on Newegg for the same price. Unless there is actually a reason NOT to get the 1600?

That PSU definitely looks better for the price. There really is no reason it has to be "completely" modular, I just don't want tons of wires hanging around. And I am happy with my current OCZ. Is 600W enough? I don't know why, it just seems like I needed more, but I didn't really have a reason I guess...

Ok, here is an updated list:

PSU:OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
$65, assuming the deal isn't extended or another deal offered.

MB:ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$160

CPU:Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
$297 combo.

Same as above:
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).

HDD:Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$60. (Or maybe the Samsung mentioned earlier.)

Case:Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$100

Total: $912.

Barely higher than before! Thanks for your help!

I personally think OCZ PSU's are fine. Have you ever experienced an issue? Do you know someone who has? it has plenty good reviews. Corsair is admittedly better, but OCZ makes good power supplies. I agree with bear on the mobo, but I personally prefer ASRock. (no reason to, just preference)

I have an OCZ now and have had no problems. I can certainly understand that Corsair might be better, but the whole issue with building computers is price/performance.

If there is a comparably priced similar Corsair one, I will consider it. If its really "that much" better, I would consider losing the modular.

I have to disagree with the Samsung recommendation. I have never had any problems with WD, and the reviews on the Samsung are less than stellar. (especially compared to the WD) I do not need the extra space, so that is not a selling point for me.

The Gigabyte board was another I was looking at, so that is good to have it confirmed as well.

THANK YOU for the microcenter recommendation! They have the 2500K at $180 and the GA-P67X-UD3-B3 at $140 after rebate. That drops the system down to $860.

EDIT: I did want to ask though; what is the return policy at microcenter? Are they reasonable?

To be honest i like the original 1090T build for CAD/Editing but obviously the i5-2500k is an awesome chip for gaming. Also i have the Antec Nine Hundred Two and youre right to like it, it's awesome :) 

The 2500k will perform better than the 1090t in rendering/editing. It's all about the architecture man. Damn, AMD needs to come up with something! It pains me to recommend Intel all the time =p

Thanks again bear! You have saved me a lot of money!

And sadly I am forced to admit the 2500k is better than the 1090t. I have always used and recommended AMD, but all of the testing shows that the 2500 is better in pretty much every way and has lower power consumption, all for the same price. To top it off it seems like I will easily be able to overclock it to 4.2-4.4 with little worries.

striker410 said:
The 2500k will perform better than the 1090t in rendering/editing. It's all about the architecture man. Damn, AMD needs to come up with something! It pains me to recommend Intel all the time =p


Oh wow. My bad.

Ok, here are my (hopefully) final selections with where I plan to purchase:

Case:Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$100. Amazon

PSU:OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
$65.Amazon

MB:GIGABYTE GA-P67X-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU:Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
$300 combo. Microcenter

GPU:EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$235. Amazon. Switched to the EVGA as it has a better reviews than the MSI. Seems worth $5 to have an EVGA.

RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
$85. Newegg

HDD:Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$60. Amazon

Total: $845

Ok, it is actually the exact same price now so I guess I will try it. I just know I like WD so it is hard to switch :) 

And do you think that EVGA is a better brand? I haven't had an MSI before, so I don't know how they compare.

wd and samsung make great products go with the better buy. also go with msi especially since it has the aftermarket cooler you can push it up to around 1ghz and that gets you up to gtx 570 preformance
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