I am planning to buy parts and have a local computer store put together a computer for me. Not including OS and peripherals I would prefer to spend between, say, $2000 and $2500 although that is not a fixed limit. Gaming right now is primarily WoW but want to have options to do other things. I always use two monitors usually with WoW on one and the other have multiple browser windows open, plus maybe Word and Excel and maybe Photoshop Elements. I also often stream video while playing WoW. I am sometimes have two copies of WoW open at a time and would like to be able to run 3 on occasion.
I want a computer that will work well for 2 to 3 years. I am not looking to save money where I could easily get better performance now. However, I don't want to waste money for things that will have no benefit for me. It is important that I have some future expandability.
Case - Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition (VN10006W2N) White and Black SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case with Four Fans-1x 200mm Colorshift side fan, 1x 200mm Colorshift top fan, 1x 200mm Colorshift front fan and 1x 140mm rear fan - $289.99
Cooler - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler - $75.87
Motherboard -Case has front usb 3.0 20 pin header for 2 USB ports 3.0 on the top so need motherboard to support that.
Possibly:
ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Processor - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K - $314.99
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9 - $57.99 - Is 8GB enough looking ahead a couple of years or should I get 16 now?
EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - $589.99 -- Is this enough? I don't think my usage justifies dual cards now.
Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $276.99 - I want to be able to have the OS, WoW, Photoshop Elements and a few other programs on it with room to add more. I could go larger on this but don't want to go smaller. Another option would be get this now but have the potential to add another later and run as RAID 0.
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $89.99
Power Supply - CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Want something that you use if I went to dual video cards later.
Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - OEM - $19.99
SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-/+R 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Combo Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support - $64.99 (Yes, I want 2 optical drives)
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card - $73.99 - I debated getting no sound card or getting a better sound card and went with this as sort of in between. I do mostly use a headset which is a Sennheiser.
AFT PRO-55U All-in-one USB 2.0 Card Reader - $51.99 - This is mostly for transferring photos. This was attractive due to speed in transferring but is more expensive than most. Open to alternatives. Must be able to transfer from compact flash cards.
Network -- While I usually will run wired I want to have a WiFi card in it just in case I need to temporarily move the computer to another place in the house.
Sabrent 802.11n Wireless PCI Controller Card - 802.11n/g/b, 300Mbps, 40/64/128-bit WEP encryption