New Build $1,300, Advice welcome

[Xnebia]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming, Web browsing, light photoshop use, occasional use of handbrake, dual monitor one running games the other netflix.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$1300-$1400

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

4. Brand preference.
Intel, Nvidia, Crucial

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Monitors, KB&mouse, dvd drive. extra copy of windows 7.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Planning on a mild 24/7 overclock

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1680x1050:\

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
This month, waiting on black Friday / cyber Monday deals


Case:In Win Dragon Rider
Wanted a Full tower case that can hold a E-ATX mobo for future upgrade options and good air flow since I decided against water cooling for now.

PSU:CORSAIR Enthusiast Series 850TX 850W
May sli in future, overkill for now I know.
EDIT:Just got This off newegg for $94 ($84 with rebate)

Mobo:ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
I hate the blue/white color and the Asrock extreme 3 gen 3 was my first choice but it had too many complaints about usb/ram/ssd recognition for me to feel comfortable with it.

CPU:Intel Core i5-2500K

Hard Drive 1:Crucial M4 128gb
I'm not sure if I should just go with the 60GB or not. Also reliability is #1 for the boot drive so SandForce controller ssd's are not an option.

Hard drive 2:Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm

Ram:CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile
Don't really care about ram just has to be 8gb and fit under the heatsink (a70)

GPU: Evga 560ti

Heatsink:CORSAIR A70
I already bought this off newegg for $18 but will get a better one if necessary

I did a lot of reading before picking out these components but I'm open to suggestions. I tried to go with the parts that had the best reviews and companies that had good support in case things go wrong.
With the components listed I'm sitting just under $1,300, I'm thinking I can get some stuff on sale on black Friday and either get another graphics card for sli , or gtx 570, or a Higher rez monitor. Anyway thoughts and opinions welcome.

Note:this is not supposed to be a future-proof build, but I do want to have a solid base for future GPU/CPU upgrades.

Edit: bought the psu, went with a 750w

 

[DaveSimmons]

You could get the Seasonic X750 80-plus Gold modular PSU in Hot Deals instead, 2 x 56o ti in SLI with that 2500K will use < 650 watts.

(A last-generation i7 920 at 3.6 GHz OC with 2 x Twin Frozr 506 ti OC'd at HardOCP used 628 watts under full load.)

 

[mfenn]

I would get the build from this thread instead, feel free to add a cooler. That leaves you with about enough money to get two 24" 1080P screens in the same overall budget.

The rule of thumb with SLI/CFX is that you use it to exceed the performance that is possible with a single GPU, not as an upgrade path. By the time a ~$250 class card is feeling slow, a couple of generations will have gone by. At that point you will want to get a new single card.

 

[Ken g6]

Hard drive 2:Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm

$75 for a 1TB HDD?! Buy it now! I just saw a WD Caviar Black on Amazon for $200!

 

[Xnebia]

I would get the build from this thread instead, feel free to add a cooler. That leaves you with about enough money to get two 24" 1080P screens in the same overall budget.

The rule of thumb with SLI/CFX is that you use it to exceed the performance that is possible with a single GPU, not as an upgrade path. By the time a ~$250 class card is feeling slow, a couple of generations will have gone by. At that point you will want to get a new single card.

I understand the sli thing, but I figure if I have a 560 and one goes on sale in the future or a friend wants to sell one, I might get it even if i don't "need" it. I dont want to worry about having to change my psu if I decide to run sli. The thread you linked is amd GPU's, low watt psu's, mid tower case, and an asrock mobo. All things I specifically said I didn't want, so that thread is not really useful to me.

So going by the previous comments the only thing I can really save any significant money on and not lose any performance is the psu? and maybe the mobo if i go with a lower end asrock?

 

[lehtv]

I'd get this modular 750W unit for $90 AR. Wouldn't be using nearly all the cables so modularity is nice. Save a bit with 1333MHz ram, you won't notice the difference. Mushkin 8GB $33 AR

If you're planning a new monitor soon, get a 6950 2GB. I know you want NVIDIA, but I still recommend 6950 for 1080p at the moment, it's the best bang for buck. The VRAM of 560 ti is can be a limitation especially if you buy a second one, and GTX 570 is $50 more than a 6950 and also may have limited VRAM, BF3 on ultra for example can use 1.5GB. If you stick a 560 ti now, I'd recommend postponing the monitor upgrade till the GTX600 series. Could buy a better bang for buck card with more VRAM along with the new monitor.

An upgrade to EATX seems to me unlikely to be needed. Plenty of mid towers have good air flow, e.g.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147107
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119196
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119196
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811108395
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119216

Can add more fans to those if/when needed (not needed for current setup).

Do you really need the features that Asus offers over Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H? It's $150 on us.ncix atm, but "Special price ends soon". $160 on Amazon. If you do get the P8Z68-V Pro, get it from us.ncix for $200.

 

[Xnebia]

The non modular PSU has longer cables so I thought that would be better for the full tower case and didn't want to have to buy extensions to route the cables the way I wanted. (although that may not be a problem see rest of comment)

As for the asus board, the reason i chose that was the uefi bios and good customer service. Gigabyte boards seem to be lacking in the bios department and they don't respond at all to bad reviews on newegg which i don't like.

There are a lot more affordable options for a mid tower case but I had my eye on a EVGA p67 FTW e-atx mobo for a while when i settled on the in win case, but since im not getting that mobo anymore ill look into mid tower options again. I really like the fractal R3.

 

[TheAdvocate]

1680x1050 :\

I dont get why this bugs people. Way too much obsession with resolution. Now, actual screen size, that I get. But in all honesty, 1680x1050 on even a 23" monitor would look fine for gaming (not for professional design). But anyone who says they'd actually notice the difference in a game on a blind test (they didnt see if you actually switched it), is probably lying. They'd have to really look for it or else have logged lots of time on that monitor at another res to notice the difference.

 

[lehtv]

20&#37; more pixels is pretty easy to notice...

 

[mfenn]

I understand the sli thing, but I figure if I have a 560 and one goes on sale in the future or a friend wants to sell one, I might get it even if i don't "need" it. I dont want to worry about having to change my psu if I decide to run sli. The thread you linked is amd GPU's, low watt psu's, mid tower case, and an asrock mobo. All things I specifically said I didn't want, so that thread is not really useful to me.

So going by the previous comments the only thing I can really save any significant money on and not lose any performance is the psu? and maybe the mobo if i go with a lower end asrock?

No, the things that you could save money on and not lose any performance are the case, PSU, mobo, and RAM. You can also get a better performing GPU (6950 2GB) for about the same price.

I was going to do a part-by-part rundown of your build, but I realized that I was going to change pretty much everything. There is no reason to put artificial limitations on your build that significantly increase the price. You can easily get a machine that performs the same and a better monitor for what you are planning to pay for just the machine itself.