New Build

[rokar]

) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Web Browsing, Google Sketchup
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1500 give or take
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

SE Wisconsin
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
This is what I got so far:
Mobo GIGABYTE G1.Sniper
CPU Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield
CPU Cooler CORSAIR H70
Ram CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 2 of these
Case Corsair Obsidian Series 800D or Fractal Define XL
PSU CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200
HDD1 Crucial RealSSD 64gig
HDD2 Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

Also needing a headset with mic, keyboard & mouse.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Sparkle GTX 460
6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1200 25.5" Asus
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Before Skyrim comes out or soon after
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7 64bit

 

[tiraides]

Uh, why aren't you going with Sandy Bridge?

When is the earliest time that you're planning on buying everything?

 

[rokar]

Liked the specs of this board. Plus I don't know too much about Sandy Bridge.

Middle to end of next month

 

[pug71]

Not understanding if you have the cpu or not. But Oh man, drop that thing and get a 2500k.

 

[rokar]

Not understanding if you have the cpu or not. But Oh man, drop that thing and get a 2500k.

What board would you suggest?

I don't have anything bought yet.

 

[pug71]

Oh nice, Now that's a good thing. Have you checked out the Z68 chipset boards? I like my gigabyte ud4.

Heard good things the asus,evga and Msi version. Also Asrock. There are some reviews here off the front page about the z68. But also don't sleep on the p68.

You could save yourself a nice handful of money going the p or Z - 68. If you are near a Microcenter they have great deals on them too. Also really no need for that large of a PSU. Drop it down too a 650w -760w. Corsair or Seasonic, XFX.

I'm just dropping some thoughts for you to ponder on.

 

[tiraides]

You should be looking at a setup similar to:

$215 - Intel Core i5 2500K
$26 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
$120 - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
$84 - 2 sets G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT 2x4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$215 - Crucial M4 128GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD
$140 - Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D HDS721010DLE630 (0F13180) 1TB SATA 6Gb/s HDD
$100 - Antec HCG-750 750W PSU
=====
$900 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

The above will easily meet your needs for a fraction of the parts that you were considering in your OP. Though it's honestly a bit too early to come up with alternate builds -- you should wait until a week or two before ordering in order to get some good, price-conscious recommendations -- I wanted to show you what you should be spending your money on. Speaking of which....

For 1920x1080 gaming, and with Skyrim potentially being very graphically intensive, you should seriously consider a better video card. I don't mean another GTX 460 to use in SLI mode -- seriously, what's the model number of your existing GTX 460? -- but a newer, better card to replace your existing one. We've been recommending the GTX 560 Ti (which performs about on par with the last-gen GTX 470) and the Radeon HD 6950 as the "bare minimum" for decent 1080p gaming with few compromises. However, you can sell the GTX 460 used and recoup some of your costs.

While cases are a matter of personal tastes as well as features, I have concerns about you spending over $200 of your $1500 budget on a case. (The recent HDD shortage driving prices up are another factor to consider in your budget-planning.) You should consider finding a good sub-$100 case so you can free up funds for other parts. (In other words, it's another way for me to say that you would be better off spending your "extra" money on a better video card than a better-looking case.)

 

[Forceman]

What tiraides said. And oh, man, did the price of that Hitachi drive ever go up - what is that, double what it was last week? Ouch.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

What tiraides said. And oh, man, did the price of that Hitachi drive ever go up - what is that, double what it was last week? Ouch.

Yeah I noticed that too, I'm not sure it's still worth that price honestly. Sadly the Samsung F3 is out of stock right now at newegg, but every other place is listing higher prices on it as well. I knew I should have went ahead and got a couple more.

 

[Forceman]

Yeah I noticed that too, I'm not sure it's still worth that price honestly. Sadly the Samsung F3 is out of stock right now at newegg, but every other place is listing higher prices on it as well. I knew I should have went ahead and got a couple more.

Yeah, I saw Amazon had the F3 for $139 I think. So double there also.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Wonder what the deal is? HDD prices seemed to have doubled over night. Hopefully RAM isn't next.

 

[tiraides]

Wonder what the deal is? HDD prices seemed to have doubled over night. Hopefully RAM isn't next.

There was a flood in Thailand where the majority of HDDs are created. An HDD shortage is expected -- right in time for the holiday shopping season. Retailers like NewEgg are raising prices -- in NewEgg's case, sharply -- to compensate for the pending loss in sales. SSDs shouldn't be affected, as they use flash memory rather than magnetic drive platters, but I believe that most storage prices in general are going up to create the illusion of high demand but low supply.

I personally believe that it's BS because just this past weekend, some prices for HDDs were lower (slightly, but still) than they were in previous weeks.

Uh, why aren't you going with Sandy Bridge?

When is the earliest time that you're planning on buying everything?

Liked the specs of this board. Plus I don't know too much about Sandy Bridge.

Middle to end of next month

Sandy Bridge has essentially replaced all of Intel's older lineup, including Socket 1366/X58. While (realistically) the upcoming Socket 2011/X79 chipset "officially" replaces 1366/X58, the 1155/H6x/P67/Z68 combination is what we recommend for most new builds over $1000.

Plus, based on your answers to the sticky questions, I believe that the build you posted in your OP is a bad use of your money. For starters, I believe that your build should be made around a new, high-end video card for Skyrim; while I don't know how graphically intensive it will be, I do believe that you'll benefit in the long run regardless.

However, it's too early for us to recommend anything. Let's wait a couple of weeks for Skyrim to arrive (or until we have some reviews of the game) and revisit this thread.