Hey, sorry I didn't notice the link first time I read this post. I apologize and I hope you didn't think I was ignoring you.
No problem man; a lot of people miss it, but nobody gets chewed up about it (unless somebody is having a bad day haha). Glad you filled it out, because it helps us help you.
Approximate Purchase Date: None. If it would be best for me to wait than to buy now, then please tell me.
Check Newegg daily and subscribe to their email list - sometimes you'll get email-only specials as well as previews to the Daily Shell Shockers if you sign up for that as well. Be patient, look for combos, and you should be able to save a tidy sum.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts:[/b] I wouldn't know, but newegg seems legit, wouldn't mind input though.
Newegg is generally the retailer of choice, but occasionally you'll find a better deal on Tigerdirect (ok, rarely) or Amazon (GREAT place to buy a case - free shipping on most). Newegg has much better customer service than Tigerdirect (dealt with both, unfortunately).
Parts Preferences: I'm leaning towards AMD 6950 and an Intel i5-2500k processor. But I'm not sure how to choose a motherboard, and what are the cons and pros of each one. The built in sound will probably be what I'm using, so would be nice if it's good, but I'm not sure how much that matters if I'm using headphones 100% of the time.
Choosing a motherboard is sometimes a little difficult, but there are so many choices out there you can kind of tailor them to what you want. I'd recommend a P67 or Z68 board, because you can't OC with an H67 board. I don't think there are a ton of features of Z68 that would be useful to you, so you should be dandy with P67.
If you want something that looks cool aesthetically, there are boards like the Asus Sabertooth P67, but you'll pay a lot for those looks (~$200) and won't get much more than you would from a ~$130 board.
There are some boards that are overclocker/enthusiast boards, but these are often $250 and up - their consumer base is small but steady.
My personal recommendation would be the Gigabyte P67X-UD3-B3. It's a daughter board of mine (P67-UD4-B3), but it's ~$30 cheaper. I'm not sure about it's OCing capabilities (UD4 is a good OCer), but it's one of the cheapest boards that will support SLI as well as Crossfire, and has a very efficient expansion slot layout. It's almost the same as mine, and I have 2 PCI-E x1 cards, a PCI card, and a GPU (6950 2GB).
For headphones, the onboard sound will be fine. Unless you have surround sound headphones/speakers with multiple dedicated channels (like me), all a sound card would do is amplify the sound, and IMO the sound is a
bit crispier (that is, if the drivers ever work haha).
Overclocking: Maybe. Will it cause system instability? Reliability > Performance in my opinion, I wouldn't want to sacrifice it.
I'd say hold off for now, but you can always fiddle with it if you get bored. In general OCing causes some instability, but once you get the clocks and voltage tweaked properly the system will be very stable. However, OCing increases the number of calculations you CPU can perform, so you gain performance once it's OCed.
You'll need an aftermarket cooler to keep the CPU cool if you OC, so keep that in mind.
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4GB+ RAM, but I don't think that 16GB is necessary, I have 4GB right now and I rarely go above 80% usage. The SSD boot drive would be cool, but only if the cost of the system is not alot. A quiet PC and one that doesn't over heat if I leave it on with CPU and GPU hungry software. My last computer had its hardware fail one by one because of this.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6044641&CatId=4334
Does this seem like a good choice for memory?
You could probably get by with 4GB, but 8GB is really the sweet spot for pricing at the moment, and Newegg has lots of deals on 8GB G.Skill kits (good brand). Corsair is overpriced IMO; Kingston, Patriot, and G.Skill are all great brands that I've used. I would recommend a 2x4GB kit running at 1600MHz. 1333MHz - 1866MHz is the range in which cost and performance are very balanced, and the differences among them are minimal.
An SSD boot drive is an awesome thing to have in your system. To run W7 off of one, you'll need at least 64GB, but you can load more programs onto an 80-120GB. The SSDs I would look at would be the Intel 320, Intel 510, and OCZ Vertex 3.
Also, what PSU, or Case should I buy? Looking forward to your thoughts.
A 650W PSU will support 1x6950, and a 750W can support 2x6950. I would suggest a Corsair Revision 2, XFX or Antec power supply. There are some other lesser known PSUs, like PC Power and Cooling's Silencer Mk. II 750W, that are good power supplies as well.
The case is really your preference. There are simple mid towers like the Antec 300 and Cooler Master HAF 912, but you can go as far as the Cooler Master HAF X or Corsair 800D. I would suggest a full tower in the ~$150 price range, because you get A) a bigger case, B) more features and C) better looks. I personally am a fan of Silverstone's cases - their Raven, Fortress and Temjin series cases have incredibly industrial looks to them. Just take a look around and see what looks good to you.
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