What Should I do?

[JJThomp]

Okay so I was anticipating bulldozer to come out sometime in the summer. Since I don't have time to play games in the summer anyways I was going to wait until the end and pick up an 8 core bulldozer. Now that people are talking that I won't be able to get my hands on one until november I think I'm going to get a 1155 build. I'm using the build for gaming getting all my parts from NCIX and my budget is $1250. However I only have a Vista license which I want to upgrade to windows 7 and I need a monitor.

Also I think the HAF 912 cases are ugly as sin and I really don't want one. I was thinking of getting a gtx 560 ti with a raven rv03 or a gtx 570 with a zalman z9+. I will be overclocking however I will only mildly overclock until I really need more performance. So I probably won't go with aftermarket cooling until christmas when I get some money.

I love the looks of the RV03 and would really like to fit it in with my budget but I also want to do better than a 560 ti. I also won't be going sli or crossfire at any point because I see it as a bigger pain in the ass than anything.

I might be doing some recording of my games too, me and some friends were looking at getting into some LoL tournaments so I want to record and analyse my games.

Also I will be folding so I'm probably going to get an nvidia card unless I can get a sweet deal on an amd which are pretty much constantly out of stock anyways.

[hal314]

Check out my specs:

Motherboard
MSI P67a G43 (B3)

Processor
Intel i5 2500K

Memory
G. Skill 2x4GB 1600

Video Card(s)
XFX Radeon HD 6870 dual fan

Hard Drive(s)
WD 500 GB

Optical Drive(s)
Samsung DVD burner

Case
Cooler Master HAF 912

Power Supply
Corsair Gaming Series 600W

Monitor
Samsung SyncMaster EX2220

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

This cost me about $1200 after taxes and shipping. I think I overpaid for the monitor (from Wal-Mart, the rest was from NCIX), I paid $200 for it.

I price matched everything, and you'll notice my video card is maybe as good as the 560ti, but probably not.

Point being, I think you may have difficulty getting what you want for that budget, unless you can find deals better than I did.

I would go to NCIX, set up a shopping cart on stuff, and start price matching to see how you can do.

[JJThomp]

That is my budget before taxes sorry... So basically I have like 13% on top of that. So what I'm looking at is

2500k $210

Gigabyte d2h $100

or

gigabyte ds3 $100

mushkin blackline advanced 8gb 1600 cl9 ram 1.5v $40

corsair cx 600 $50

Raven RV03 $134

giga windforce gtx 570 $300

Windows 7 $100

Asus vh242h $185

WD Black 500gb $55

Cheapest optical drive I can find $20

This equals $1194.

Unfortunately I was looking for a bit better mobo and psu but in order to fit the rv03 and gtx 570 on there I needed to make cut backs. So I dunno are those cutbacks worth it. I know the PSU is good enough but it is non-modular and I don't know if it will be enough for overclocking which I'm not going to go crazy on anyways.

Some of those are on MIR but I can afford to have that money gone as long as I do get it back.

Edit: I could also step down to a smaller monitor for less money if it would be worth it.

[hal314]

ITFactory

should save you $15 on Windows anyway, got that one by checking PriceCanada.com: Search. Compare. Buy. - Canadian Online Shopping Search and Comparison!.

Check it out, shopbot and any other price comparison sites you can find, should be able to save more cash on other parts hopefully, then you might be able to spend more on a good PSU.

(I assume you are price matching on NCIX, I wouldn't actually buy it from ITFactory)

[JJThomp]

Originally Posted by hal314

ITFactory

should save you $15 on Windows anyway, got that one by checking PriceCanada.com: Search. Compare. Buy. - Canadian Online Shopping Search and Comparison!.

Check it out, shopbot and any other price comparison sites you can find, should be able to save more cash on other parts hopefully, then you might be able to spend more on a good PSU.

(I assume you are price matching on NCIX, I wouldn't actually buy it from ITFactory)

Yeah the only problem I am finding is im either spending $50 or $100 on the psu... I used shopbot but not price canada thanks for the tip though.

[PerryC]

The Raven3 is $128 and change on Direct Canada Silverstone RV03B-W Raven 3 Black ATX Gaming Case 7X5.25 4X3.5INT 2X2.5INT No PS - DirectCanada That will help free up a bit for other parts.

[JJThomp]

Awesome guys if you see nay other deals let my know so far I have another $25 for my psu

[JJThomp]

Okay ordering tomorrow... Any last words of advice?

Also changed the PSU to an Antec HCG 620w (rebranded seasonic S12II) for $70 because it offers an extra 8 amp on the 12v rail and is bronze certified

[excalibur55]

Originally Posted by hal314

ITFactory

should save you $15 on Windows anyway, got that one by checking PriceCanada.com: Search. Compare. Buy. - Canadian Online Shopping Search and Comparison!.

Check it out, shopbot and any other price comparison sites you can find, should be able to save more cash on other parts hopefully, then you might be able to spend more on a good PSU.

(I assume you are price matching on NCIX, I wouldn't actually buy it from ITFactory)

Don't want to be off-topic here but I've never heard of that site (ITFactory); is it safe to buy Win 7 there ?

[NI3]

Originally Posted by excalibur55

Don't want to be off-topic here but I've never heard of that site (ITFactory); is it safe to buy Win 7 there ?

Generally people just buy through NCIX, and pricematch.

If you really don't want to pricematch, for $4 more Direct Canada is having a sale:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM - DirectCanada

To OP, If you really want to go with a 570, I suggest you look at a cheaper case. Antec, and lian li have some pretty good cases in the $70 (+/- $10) range.

Newegg.ca