Upgrading later this year

[Afti]

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

Gaming, 3D rendering, video compression, and web browsing.

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

$1100 for now, not including tax/shipping. Aiming for less once things drop in price.

3) Where do you live?

Mid-eastern United States

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

CPU, RAM, motherboard, PSU, second Radeon HD 5770, fans/CPU cooler

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

Case (Raidmax Hurricane; not bothering with make and model, it's a case. Good airflow.)

HDD (HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415))

DVD burner (LG GH22NS50)

Card reader (Some el cheapo internal USB multiformat reader. No info on it, don't have the box anymore.)

Primary graphics card (HIS H577FN1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB) (No, I cannot replace this with a 5850; I haven't the room for a fulltower)

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes.

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

3x ASUS MS238H (2ms response time, 1920x1080, 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio)

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

Later this year, after Fermi and Gulftown are out and thus the quad-core i7s and the 5000-series cards get cheaper.

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

CrossFire, IDE port (I have an old WD IDE drive I use for guinea pig OS installs)

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

I use Kubuntu for a primary OS, Win7 HP for gaming; it's reusable.



And here's what I have lined up:

CPU: Core i7 920, currently $289 at Newegg.

Secondary graphics card: HIS H577FN1GD Radeon HD 5770 1GB, currently $170 at Newegg.

RAM: A-DATA Gaming series 2x2GB DDR3 1600 :AX3U1600GB2G9-AG (x2), currently $192 total at Newegg.

Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme, currently $170 at Newegg.

PSU: SeaSonic X650 Gold, currently $160 at Newegg.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12DX 1366 120mm fan/heatsink, currently $77 at Newegg.

Case Fans: Scythe DFS123812-3000 120mm case fan (x2), currently $20 total at Newegg, and VANTEC TD8038H 80mm case fan, currently $12 at Newegg.

Total: $1089.90 before tax or shipping; should go sub-$1000 later this year.

Thoughts? I'm pretty sure the build is sound, but I wanted a second opinion.

 

[450]

I'd say... Make a thread for when you're ready to buy, and consider just buying a cheap used SATA HDD and ditching IDE. You can get a small one for $30.

 

[Dangman]

That build is ok if you're buying within a month or so. But by your "later this year" it's gonna be pretty bad for the money.

 

[Afti]

I'm counting on it NOT costing nearly so much. Current prices aren't even really all that relevant.

 

[engiNURD]

Intel tends to just upgrade the different pricepoints, offering your more for the same amount of money. I'm not sayin they won't lower prices, I'm just sayin you might be looking at a different model for that lower price you were looking for.

 

[Afti]

Ah. Fair enough. I don't plan on buying a Gulftown because I don't see myself needing it, but a higher-end quad core should be available for that price or cheaper.

 

[450]

You could just build an i5 rig now and save money.

 

[Afti]

I don't have the money I'm going to do the build with yet. Can't buy much of anything right now.

 

[Dangman]

I don't have the money I'm going to do the build with yet. Can't buy much of anything right now.

Then please make a new thread when you actually have the money to afford a new build. Sorry, but it is a bit of a misappropriation of resources discussing a future PC build that will be completely different within 3 months.