Help with new build

[tazz85]

Approximate Purchase Date: after 1-2 months


Budget Range: about 1000$ if I buy them from newegg


System Usage from Most to Least Important: education - virtual machines with Windows 2008, performing backups from time to time on these VM with enterprise software, VMWare ESX, watching movies - 1080p, Blu-Ray, gaming - Starcraft 2 - possibly, no RPG.


Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, 1 HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.12

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, iskampc.com - bulgarian


Country of Origin: Bulgaria


Parts Preferences: Motherboard to be ASUS or Gigabyte, Video Card to have support D-Sub and to be NVIDIA, because of Linux

Overclocking: Maybe


SLI or Crossfire: No


Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I want this PC to be durable, I can wait more and save more money, but to have very durable PC - 4-5 years, case with good airflow and to have good acess to components, I’ll use 1 disk for system, and the other - for storage of virtual machines. After 1-2 years I may buy big LCD to connect it to PC with multimedia player or some other, so preferrably mobo to have 2 LAN ports. Someone recommended me Chieftec midi-tower cases, this is good investment because there’s a plenty of room in there, and I will use it in the next 10 years possibly.
Already Chosen Parts:

CPU - Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge , Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge
2500K doesn’t have VT-d, but I didn’t understand good this technology.

RAM - Kingston 2x2GB HyperX Blu DDR3-1600, Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3

HDD: WD Blue/Black - 1 for system and another for storage of VM’s and other things, but don’t know what combination to use
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

PSU - Seasonic SS-560KM Active PFC F3, SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W

Case: COOLER MASTER Gladiator 600, Chieftec cases - I can’t understand how the airflow is going in them. Don’t know which series to choose -

Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-N450OC-1GI GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5

Thank you

 

[rvilkman]

Case: Antec 300 Illusion - Good amount of space, Great airflow $64.99 ($44.99 with CC until the end of the month). I have 3 of these, great cases.
And at that price it is a steal.
If you want something bigger: Cooler Master HAF 932/942 would then have that at a reasonable pricepoint with great airflow.
But that does mean $130-160.

HDD: I would go with Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB's. $49.99 atm at newegg.

PSU: You can't go wrong with Seasonic X- series like the SS560KM, pretty much the best money can buy.

Ram: with the virtualization and all go with 2x4GB CAS9 1600Mhz 1.5V kit Corsair, Gskill, Kingston or Mushkin whichever strikes your fancy

CPU: if the money doesn't become and issue, grab the 2500k, while overclocking is probably not a major issue, with these CPU's it is easy, just needs an aftermarket HSF.
Generally nice to have that option with the 4-5 year timeframe in question. Maybe grab the HSF down the road for OC.

Mobo: With dual lan it goes to the high high end of things pretty much, but some 'cheap' options still exists:
Asrock P67 Extreme 6 $189.99
Asus P8P67 Evo $199.99
Asus P867 Deluxe $219.99

If you have room for some more in the overall budget then there are a few options in the $250 range as well. But the above should work fine.

Bluray: I would say that get a separate bluray player or a PS3 and use that for watching bluray movies, cheaper than getting a bluray drive and the SW needed to play stuff from the PC. However if you do get a bluray burner for backups then you can get a bluray player SW. PowerDVD 10 Ultra (~$60)or PowerDVD 11 Ultra (~$90) would be the way to go then.

Video card: very much a budget thing. I would say go with Radeon 6790/6850/6870 depending on the price point.
Or possibly Nvidia GTX460/560/560Ti.

 

[tazz85]

Actually VT-d satisfies me, because I can use real hardware for my Virtual Machines - like real partitions, video card. I won't be playing RPG's. I will watch movies - 1080p from time to time only and after year I could spend some money on LCD TV and to launch them there through LAN or some Media Player. 2500K on reviews I think showed about 30% more performance when overclocked.

 

[tazz85]

I'm sorry for replying again, but I forgot to write that this is my first build. Also managed to choose case. This is my brother's case
CH-01-B-B-SL. So he recommended me some of these medium towers. I think the quality is good.
CHIEFTEC LCX-01B-B-SL

CHIEFTEC LBX-02B-B-B