Build advice centered around i3 530

[BoneCrusher]

Upgrading from:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz with stock heatsink
4GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
EVGA Nvidia GTX260
Western Digital 150GB Raptor
1TB Samsung hard drive
LiteOn Blu-ray SATA optical drive


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Looking to build a budget box based around the i3 530 to last me about a year or so until quad and hex cores shake out and settle down in technology and price. Want a little better multi-tasking capability (i3 530 has HyperThreading, C2D doesn't and faster read performance from Intel SSD drive) and a bit more raw single/dual thread horsepower. Typical usage involves 20-40 tabs open in Firefox or Opera (about 200-500MB of RAM), uTorrent downloading in the background, sometimes one of my games, maybe a movie ripping. Games are not hardcore leading edge- Dungeon and Dragons Online (MMORPG), Dragon Age:Origins, Neverwinter Nights II. And of course read on demand anti-virus slowing everything down. Don't do much media creation that would benefit from more cores than two at this point. Occasionally doodle around with video compression, but I usually do that in the Nvidia GPU with CUDA. The idea is OS/Applications on a new Intel X-25V for improved read access and large data sets that involve a lot of writing on an existing 1TB Samsung (movies, music, etc.). With Hyper Threading, higher raw Mhz, and splitting I/O duties between two drives I hope to have a faster more responsive system.


2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

I'm already set on the i3 530 and Intel X-25V. Looking for advice on RAM, motherboard, and any aftermarket coolers if required. The cheaper the better but still some quality would be nice. About $80-$150 on the motherboard. Still debating about the RAM. Worth it to go to 8GB with four sticks or just be happy with 4GB for now? Will four sticks affect overclocking potential? Looking at the Geil ripjaw series:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

3) Where do you live?

Western US. Near a Frys, not near a MicroCenter. Regular NewEgg shopper.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

RAM, CPU, Intel SSD, Motherboard, Aftermarket heatsink

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Nvidia GTX260, Samsung 1TB hard drive, case, optical drive, ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready

6) Will you be overclocking?

That's the goal. Hopefully 3.5-4.0Ghz on air

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

22" @ 1680x1050

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Now.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

Room for the GTX260 and one additional PCIe peripheral card, four RAM slots, maybe room for aftermarket cooler

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, covered on the OS. Windows 7 Professional 64bit

 

[defaultluser]

Well, you'll be blazing a trail, since the excitement around here is mostly centered on the Core i5 750

I can see the attraction of the Core i3, and I wish you the best. But I can't help you with choosing a motherboard for the best overclocking experience, since they're so new.

I can point you to this article on high-end cooling on SPCR:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1018-page4.html

All of the tested heatsinks did a good job with the overclocked Core i7, so your Core i3 should be a breeze

 

[Dangman]

Personally, I think the i3 530 is a total waste of money considering that you can get quad-core AMD CPUs for not that much more in price regardless of the fact that i3 530 has HT.

Anyway, buy 4GB of RAM now, see if it is enough, if not, add another 4GB.