First Time Builder - Help me spend my money

[_dangtx_]

try the sabertoorh, not many have the mil grade under their hood around here. should be fun :)

[rapmaster]

Originally Posted by 3.0charlie

You want to build a rig using an X58 board, an i7Quad core and a 5850 for "Mostly internet, internet gaming, and basic MS office stuff."? And you have a 1.2k-1.5k$ budget? Damn...

Seriously. I'll go the opposite and save you some hard-earned doe.

Case: LIAN LI PC-A05NB. Clean looks, small ATX form factor, Lian-li quality.
PSU: SeaSonic M12II Bronze 620W Modular. Great PSU, modular cabling will help with the case size.
Board: GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3. Great board, USB3.
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz. More than enough for a long time.
HSF: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus. Best HSF out there, price/performance.
Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL. 4Gb plenty, with oc headroom.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM. OS, Apps and personal documents storage, speed is there too for gaming.
GPU: SAPPHIRE 100283-3L HD 5770 1GB. All you need for the time being, and Crossfire is feasible with board/psu combo.
DVD: LITE-ON Black SATA CD/DVD Burner. Cheapest I could find.
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Need an OS to play, right?

Total using Newegg.com: USD 975$. Add taxes and shipping.

Want more speed? Add an SSD (SDD: OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G 60GB as an example) for ~140$.

Exactly, you will be wasting money going LGA1336 (i.e. X58, i9x0). You won't notice a difference, get something basic and get yourself a good SSD like a OCZ Vertex 2 or Agility 2.

[JohnHenery]

I will also agree with 3.0charlie & rapmaster. The SSD will give you a big speed boost and even down the road you start gaming all you would need to do is throw in a better GPU.

[bonanza2000]

Gosh what kind of builders push for slower computers . . . .

I see what you are saying but I like that the new boards have USB 3.0 and are at the begining of the chip cycle. If I go with what ya'll are saying I can just go get a Dell or HP and be done with it.

[stoanee]

Originally Posted by bonanza2000

If I go with what ya'll are saying I can just go get a Dell or HP and be done with it.

I7 950 ...because they are cheap right now
Asus P6X58D-E mobo ...because I have had good luck with Asus
Mushkin ram is good, try to get low voltage sticks 1.5v or so, it gives more headroom for overclocking the I7 chips. Plus it's......an 'merican company
Coolermaster case, Haf 922/932/X/Cm690 II
Corsair or Seasonic 750 watt modular
Noctua NHD14 cpu cooler for when you want to overclock your cpu, if that is not good enough it is water time baby!

[rapmaster]

There is no point to get power you won't even use. All you get is increase power consumption, increase of heat and more money spent. But it's just a suggestion, it's your money after all.

Also, USB 3.0 isn't exclusive to lga1336 platform.

[3.0charlie]

Originally Posted by bonanza2000

Gosh what kind of builders push for slower computers . . . .

I see what you are saying but I like that the new boards have USB 3.0 and are at the begining of the chip cycle. If I go with what ya'll are saying I can just go get a Dell or HP and be done with it.

Really? Read again what I wrote. The board IS USB3, and LGA1156 IS newer than LGA1366.
Slower rig? You won't feel a difference between an i5 and an i7 in 99% of the applications.

Do whatever you want and shell out the big bucks if it suits you.

[stoanee]

Originally Posted by 3.0charlie

Really? Read again what I wrote. The board IS USB3, and LGA1156 IS newer than LGA1366.
Slower rig? You won't feel a difference between an i5 and an i7 in 99% of the applications.

Do whatever you want and shell out the big bucks if it suits you.

Sshh! we will get him to join the folding team!

[bonanza2000]

OK 3.0Charlie and the rest of you guys. I took a look at what you are saying (did my wife get to you guys?) and it looks like at a rough guess I could save $330 or more taking your advice. I will do some more research and number crunching. I really do appreciate all the advice. Been crazy at the office and I haven't had time to work on this.

[3.0charlie]

Not your Wife, but mine sure is on my case weekly when I come Home with new parts... same goes for my customers. I always offer what I think is best for their requirements... unless they absolutely want to spend a budget on the best parts. Then I show them how much they'll have to spend - a lot more - which in your case would be 300-400$.