First Time Builder Seeking Advice

sixdble5321

Distinguished
Feb 7, 2012
2
0
18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next month.
Budget Range: $1,300-$1,500
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Graphic Design, 3D Modeling & Animation, Gaming (WoW, SWTOR, Skyrim)
Parts Not Required: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, TigerDirect, Best Buy, always open to suggestions :D
Country: USA
Parts Preferences: Intel, Nvidia, Asus
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: Yes
Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Additional Comments: I haven't decided if I want a DVD combo drive or a Blu-Ray combo drive yet, I'll probably add a 32-in-1 media card reader to it as well. I would also like this build to last at least 3 or 4 years.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parts I have in mind:

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I72600K
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 DELUXE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Graphics Card: EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Thank you in advance for your time and advice!


Edit: I realized that I left out my choices for RAM and a Hard drive:

RAM: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model PGD38G1333ELK
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
 

tlmck

Distinguished
I would double check the ASUS website to make sure that ram is compatible. Both are good, but sometimes do not play well together. You can also check into Corsair, Kingston, and Gskill. All work well with ASUS. With the 3d modeling and such, you might bump up to 16 gb ram. You should be able to find some deals on quad 4gb kits of either 1333 or 1600 speed.

You might also opt for a newer z68 based motherboard. Any ASUS or Gigabyte will do. Just get the one with the features you need.

Other than that it looks fine.

edit: Also, if you happen to live near a Microcenter, they have amazing prices on the processors, and $50 off various motherboards in a combo deal. http://www.microcenter.com/
 

sixdble5321

Distinguished
Feb 7, 2012
2
0
18,510
Thank you for your help, I actually found an Asus z68 for a few dollars cheaper than the one I was going to go with. I've found the list of supported RAM vendors for the z68 and I will be combing through that. I also found a Microcenter sort of near me, it's about 45 min. away so I can make a day trip out of it :D