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Rebuild

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Approximate Purchase Date: 6 months (spending about $300 per month)

Budget Range: $1500- $2000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: Nvidia and Intel

Overclocking: Yes, but not extreme

SLI or Crossfire: maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200, but i usu play at lower settings

Existing build (Dec 2006):

Lian Li G70B modded with window & fan
Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E (1,200rpm) 120mm x 3
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (SLI) 750W Power Supply (I have an extra one on hand)
eVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR (Nvidia Nforce 680i)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1372-AR GeForce GTX 460
Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive x 2 (not RAID)
Creative SOUND BLASTER X-Fi Platinum
LITE-ON 18X DVD±R Burner Black IDE Model LH-18A1P-185
Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP Wide-Screen Black Flat Panel Monitor
Logitech Z-2300 200 watts RMS 2.1 Speaker System - Retail
Windows Vista 64 bit Media Edition

Proposed build:

EVGA Z68 FTW 160-SB-E689-K2 ($299.99)
Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz ($314.99)
CORSAIR CWCH60 Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler ($74.99)
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ($54.99)
G.SKILL FTB-3500C5-D Fans ($14.99)
Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB ($249.99)
EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB x 2 ($249.99 ea)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM ($99.99)

I am not in a big rush, but I can't buy everything at once. I'm open to any strategy that takes into account my situation and any upcoming leaps in technology. I'm also considering water cooling - especially since my case, while very roomy, doesn't have an abundance of airflow.

Should I reuse the Raptors (RAID) or just but a new 1 TB drive? Get a new case (I really like my current case)?

If I water cool, I'm considering EVGA 03G-P3-1593-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Classified Hydro Copper 3072MB and EK kit, any thoughts?

Aesthetics are important to me, looks like I'm going for a red and black theme on this build.

Thanks for any help!

More about : rebuild

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Starting off the changes you are looking to make all look good and should work well together but in 6 month everything is going to be different. There will be new video cards, motherboards, cpus etc. but watch for upcoming sales that may help you (Black Friday) and start getting the items you are looking for together.

Since you are looking to game with this I might also advise that you look at dropping down to the Intel Core i5-2500K. With games right now very few of them can take advantage of more than 3 threads. Because of this the value of the hyper-threading on the Intel Core i7-2600K is very small in a gaming environment. So you can save a $100 and get almost the same performance from the Intel Core i5-2500K.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

I agree. In 6 months the landscape is going to change. The new Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs are due out within the next month +/-. And in 6 months, who knows what else will change (motherboards, memory, video cards) and be new releases.
Right now I would suggest these changes:
--- Corsair Hydro H100 cooler (+$40 over the H60)
--- Crucial M4 series of SSD
--- Win7 Pro (+$30 over Home)
Everything else listed is pretty good for your budget. Never tried an EVGA motherboard and the one you have is pretty pricey. I have only ever used ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI. They've been pretty solid for years, for me. You might be able to save yourself about $50-$75 by selecting a different motherboard.
grafxfx
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You have $850 in the mobo, cpu, and SSD not to even mention another $75 in a cpu cooler and you have a mediocre vid card yet you say this is for a gaming build? wth?

First off the 2600K gives no real advantage over the 2500K in regards to gaming, also EVGA has priced themselves out of the game in regards to 1155 boards...they are what's called a "sucker board". Over priced and little to offer. As far as the h/s goes, you don't see any gain in regards to FPS after 4.4ghz on the o/c with these SB builds.

With what you intend on spending you should be looking at a way better vid card than that 560ti unless you plan off buying two of them from the start. And you can cut another $50 off that SSD.

It's like you went to newegg and chose the most expensive components in every category.

Intel, jt & grafx, thanks for the advice. Your recommendations areappreciated. Why_me, I did identify the 560Tix2 in my original post or water cooled 580 if I water cool. I did mention that I was looking for moderate OC.

I've noticed that a lot of people choose ASUS or ASRock mobos. I just happened to use the EVGA mobo for my first build and it has been rock solid since 2006. I'm open to a recommendation for an ASUS mobo.

Should I use my existing Raptor drives or SSD + 1 Tb drive?

Thanks again for your help!

Stinkness said:
Intel, jt & grafx, thanks for the advice. Your recommendations areappreciated. Why_me, I did identify the 560Tix2 in my original post or water cooled 580 if I water cool. I did mention that I was looking for moderate OC.

I've noticed that a lot of people choose ASUS or ASRock mobos. I just happened to use the EVGA mobo for my first build and it has been rock solid since 2006. I'm open to a recommendation for an ASUS mobo.

Should I use my existing Raptor drives or SSD + 1 Tb drive?

Thanks again for your help!

Unless your an enthusiast/hobbyist I would skip the water cooled gpu's all together. Seeing how you already have those Raptors you might as well use them and save some money. Make the SSD the very last component you decide to purchase.

EVGA put out some great boards in the day but the slipped way behind the competition the past year or so. Gigabyte, Asrock, Asus ...any of those boards are top notch with MSI boards right up there also. Atm Asrock has the edge with these 1155 boards seeing how they put out those gen3 boards already.

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/ <----- those gen3 boards are on that link. PCI-E 3.0 for the new generation vid cards due out sometime in December and will be supported by the Ivy Bridge cpu's due out in April/May. The extreme7 gen3 on there is Asrocks flagship mobo seeing how it has that NF200 Bridge allowing dual cards to run @ x16 & x16.

For a cpu cooler look at the Cooler Master hyper 212+ for around $30. That will get you to 4.4-4.5ghz.
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