New Build $1585-$1850

[Balrog]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, light office work & web, photo editing. Eventually would like to add a digital tuner & make a HTPC. Looking to future-proof
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $1850 max, shooting for $1500
3) Where do you live? Florida
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? See Below
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Keyboard & Mouse
6) Will you be overclocking? Unlikely
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have? Considering 22" or 24"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? In the next week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0, potential for Crossfire, RAID for potential future upgrade
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? No, I'm including Windows7 Pro 64Bit OEM in budget

I'm getting a general purpose PC, with possible expansion to home theater later. I have 2 kids under 2 1/2, so I need a sturdy case that can take wandering hands, since it will be on the floor in a loft office without a door. I'm also looking for as quiet a setup as possible, but haven't used liquid cooling and this is my first build. I don't play a lot of first person shooters, so I'm considering scrimping on the video card. I want it to fly for enormous maps on Civ5. I need the most help with the case and monitor.

$210 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58-UD3R
$290 CPU: Intel i7 930
Video Card:
$160 XFX ATI HD5770
$295 XFX ATI HD5850
$170 Memory: Corsair (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 or GSkill at same price
$118 SSD: Quantity or Quality? Intel X25-V 40GB or Kingston SNV425 64GB for $19 more?
$80 SATA Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
$90 Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX
$50 CPU Fan: Cooler Master V8
$23 DVD/CD Burner: ASUS
$135 OS: Windows 7 Pro 64Bit OEM- I need remote desktop and to join work network occasionally
$10 Arctic Silver 5
$100 Budgeted for Case: thinking about Antec 900 or NZXT Guardian 921
Monitor: Is it worth the $$ to step to 24"? I'm considering
$150 22" ASUS VW224U
$180 21.5" Samsung P2250
$250 24" LG W2453-V
$260 24" Samsung P2450H

Grand Total: $1585 to $1850

This would be my first build, and I'm not enamored with the idea for it's own sake. It's more about performance for $$.

Alternately, I can save some time by just buying this custom rig from iBuypower for $1550 and adding a monitor.

Thoughts?

 

[Shadowssong]

I would go with the 5850, G.skill ram (rebates are gay), Intel SSD, downgrade the heatsink to a Hyper 212+ and consider a different case like the CM 690 II or the CM 690 II Advanced.

 

[lt_shiro]

I would suggest either Dell U2311H or NEC EA231WMI as photo editing needs colour accuracy. Both are about the $300-$350 with the Dell being cheaper at $300.

HIS iCooler V H583FN1GD Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/Eyefinity $220

5830 is nice between point of 5850 and 5770.
x25-v is a solid SSD for the money.

case wise I suggest getting a Coolermaster CM690 2.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $80

Heatsink wise take a look at this Thermaltake Frio Overclocking-Ready Intel Core i7 (six-core ready) & i5 Compatible Five 8mm Heatpipes Dual 120mm Fans Intel & AMD Universal CPU Cooler CLP0564 $60