Thoughts on New System

[Superpyro]

Finally decided to lay down some new money to replace my 8 year old paperweight junk desktop. Budgets $1200USD + tax & shipping. Below is what I came up with just not sure if theres anywhere I could save myself some cash. Will build it myself with parts off newegg or microcenter. The goal is to be able to play WoW on ultra for now and at least moderate setting for the next few years before major upgrades are required. Only other major programs I use are Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop CS5. Any feedback is appreciated.

Processor: AMD Phenom II x6 1100T -- (Newegg: N82E16819103913)
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6970 -- (Newegg: N82E16814150517)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB -- (2x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (N82E16820233170)
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula ATX AMD -- (Newegg: N82E16813131644)
PSU: Corsair 750TX 750w -- (Newegg: N82E16817139006)
Optical Drive: Samsung Blu-Ray reader combo -- (Newegg: N82E16827151222)
HDD: Western Digital 1TB 3.5" Sata 6.0Gb/s -- (Newegg: N82E16822136284)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred -- (Newegg: N82E16811129021)


Thanks again.

[vesseblah]

Shouldn't take any Phenom based system now as AMD is supposed to introduce new processors in about two weeks and Intel's Sandy Bridges are beating x6's with wide margin for any and all desktop use.

Also motherboard is way overboard unless you want to do extreme overclocking (which isn't too easy on AMD) and PSU is just slightly overboard for single graphics card, both are easy targets to save whole lot of money that can be put on SSD for example.

[Adappy]

Yeah, if you have to build it NOW... I'd get a Sandy Bridge CPU, otherwise I'd wait to see what AMD's gonna bring to the table with Bulldozer

(and I assume the HDD is a Caviar Black, not the Blue or Green version... the Newegg number you listed doesn't work)

[Drunkenvalley]

There isn't much else to add beyond what vesseblah said. With that done, the 'godsent' processor of the moment is the Intel i5 2500k. Combine that with more or less any motherboard using p67 or z68 in the product-description and you should be kinda okay.

[Superpyro]

That is the correct HDD and I fixed the number as well. I've always been partial to AMD so I guess I should wait the two weeks to see what they come out with but self control =/= fun.

That was my other Q. I didn't spend much time looking but SSD in larger amounts seemed to get more than a little pricey. Would it be smarter long term to just get a 2TB drive for storage and a smaller SSD, maybe around 240 or 320gb to run the system off of? My brothers built more PCs than I can count and thats what he was suggesting.

I also don't know if its worth going with that little bit of extra overkill now if it means when I go to upgrade down the line its one less part I have to think about.

[vesseblah]

That is the correct HDD and I fixed the number as well. I've always been partial to AMD so I guess I should wait the two weeks to see what they come out with but self control =/= fun.

AMD is currently so far behind in techonology that buying anything from them is not recommended unless you're working with $500 budget for whole computer. Next generation that is supposed to be released in the beginning of June might change this, but early data does not look too good (they're still pushing more cores and lower clock speed which has already proven to be fail idea for home computers).

That was my other Q. I didn't spend much time looking but SSD in larger amounts seemed to get more than a little pricey. Would it be smarter long term to just get a 2TB drive for storage and a smaller SSD, maybe around 240 or 320gb to run the system off of? My brothers built more PCs than I can count and thats what he was suggesting.

The usual solution is getting 60GB SSD and 1TB HDD, and if your budget can handle it push SSD to 120GB. 60GB is the bare minimum for Win7+WoW+few other programs, but there's very little room for anything else. I checked about week ago the prices of SSDs in 'reasonable' category and would recommend Corsair Force F115 unless the prices have dramatically changed in that time. It gives best $/GB ratio currently in 60-120GB segment with Sandforce controller. And if you feel 1TB is not enough for your whole porn/warez collection, adding more discs is relatively cheap. For really large collection of media you dont want to lose RAID5 is good solution.

[Superpyro]

I do a lot of HD video and picture editing and want to be able to store the files on my main drive while editing before copying them over to my backup. For this reason I don't think I'd be comfortable with a 60GB and would just wait til the price of larger ones falls or my budget increases.

I'll play around on newegg with an i5 build and see what I happens.

[kailtas]

@ OP

In order to make links shorter in your posts, and avoid having to post product numbers.
You do this:

1. Copy the page you want linked Example: http://www.newegg.com/
2. Mark some text: Example: Newegg
3. Click on the insert link button, the icon wich a globe. Then you will get a small box popping up asking what you want linked.

Like this Newegg

On topic:
Recommend you swap the Mobo/cpu with an Intel second gen i5 setup.
OR
Wait for the AMD bulldozer CPUs.

Apart from that. Your RAM, GPU, PSU, Case, HDD and drive are nice.

As for SSDs
60GB = Windows + WOW if you are very good with keeping the size of the files down.
80-90GB = Windows + WOW + few programs.
120GB = Wow + Windows + Your most played games and programs.

Anything above that and you got some room to put whatever the hell you want on the SSDs. Unless you play like 10 different games.

[Superpyro]

Thanks for the FYI.

Any suggestions for a motherboard that would pair well with an i5 and be upgradable for a few years? Its the one part that I really have no clue what I'm doing when I look at them.

Also why an i5 over an i7? Is the price/performance better? From what I can tell they want an extra $100 for an .1 increase in speed and 2mb of L3 cache.

If you can't tell (pretty sure you can) this is my first build so trying to pickup what I can as I go.