Looking for some advice..

[Souljah]

Hi All, I'm new to the board, so I apologize if I'm posting this wrong.

I need some advice on upgrading my current Q8300 setup to an I7-920. I'm pretty much trying to get the biggest bang for my buck since i'm on a tight budget. Here is what I was thinking, but I'm open and appreciative to any suggestions/idea's you may have.

Scenario 1:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
GSkill 6GB DDR3 PC3 16000
Corsair Hydro H50
$640.00

Pros: Nice board, Nice Memory, Nice cooler, Should be good for Overclocking
Cons: Stuck with my single GTX260 and SATA HD's

Scenario 2:
ASRock X58 Extreme
OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3 PC3 12800
Nvidia GTX 260
60GB OCZ SSD
$660.00

Pros: SLI, SSD Drive
Cons: Not as good Board and Memory, Stock Cooler


1. What YOUR PC will be used for.

GAMING, Running multiple Virtual Machines

2. What YOUR budget is.

$600-650 US

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US

4. IF YOU have a brand preference.

Intel-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Nvidia GTX 260, 2 640GB WD Black, ThermalTake 750W PS

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Would like to overclock if within budget

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
7-10 days

9. What resolution do you use?
Dual Monitors at 1920x1080

Thanks in advance, for your idea's/suggestions.

[Souljah]

Bump.. Please, I'm looking for any input in this.. may just do a coin flip.

Scenario 1 definitely. SSD prices will get better and your 260 is still a very good GPU.

[AkG]

Scenario 1....BUT yank the H50 and go with something "better". Be it better value like a CM Hyper 212+, better cooler like a Prolimatech or a better blend of value and cooling efficiency like the Zalman CNPS10X "flex" get a Flex, drop two CM R4 fans on it and stick the extra money in somewhere else...like towards an OCZ Agility 60GB SSD ;)

[Raserei408]

I'd say go with Scenario 1 + a different cooler (as above) but I'd suggest the Titan Fenrir (pretty much the best cooler available, often beats the D14, though it's got a 2200RPM fan). The main reason is that with GT400 coming out soon, it's not worth it to invest another $200 into aging hardware that you'll feel compelled to replace in several months anyway. Not to mention the motherboard is unbelievable (if likely overkill).

As for platter-base HDDs, while SSDs are nice, they're by no means essential. Not to mention they're quite expensive. I'd wait a bit until you can afford a good one to complement your SOLID core system, rather than sacrifice general performance for "quickness". It's like having a car that goes 300mph but can only move 100 kilos. It's fast, but the moment you need to move some real weight...well...you're shafted.

[Souljah]

Wow, thanks for the input you guys.. you posted right on time before I purchased scenario 2.

How about the Tuniq Tower? It seems a bit cheaper and it comes with the fan..

Is this the CM R4 you were referring to?

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AB-GP 200mm Blue LED Case Fan - Case Fans

[Raserei408]

I'm pretty sure these are the R4s he's talking about:
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER R4-BMBS-20PK-R0 Blade Master 120mm Case Fan - Case Fans

With all due respect you were going to go with an H50...nitpicking the price probably isn't the best idea. Anyway, I'd say go with either the Hyper 212 Plus (and maybe get 1 R4 to go with it) or get a Titan Fenrir. That said, the Zalman Flex with a couple good fans is also really good, or the Megahalems, if you can afford it.

[Souljah]

Your 100% right. I'm going to go with the Megahalems with 2 fans for push/pull.

Thanks for all your help everyone! Hope it fits my 4 year old thermaltake case...

[Raserei408]

That's a really solid cooling setup. End of story.