Thoughts and Opinions please

[craZy C]

It has been a rather long time since my last upgrade so I may be out of the loop here, opinions and or suggestions on the below parts for an upgrade.

Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4GHz (Sandy Bridge)(3.8GHz Turbo), Quad Core with HyperThreading, unlocked multiplier, Intel HD3000 Graphics at 850MHz (1350MHz Turbo), 8MB L3 Cache
$325.00
ASUS Sabertooth P67 Motherboard B3
$255.00
Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3
$229.00
ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II Overclocked 1GB
$269
Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB
$139.00 or OCZ Vertex 2 3.5in 120GB SSD $199 or OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD $299
Total Cost $1217 or Total Cost $1277 or Total Cost $1377
Hmmm Decisions

[mepm]

would probly pay the extra for an ssd, momentus is good - almost as good as a raptor but true ssd still trumps them both
u can pick up cheap sata2 ssd's now that the new gen is out. use the mommentus as a second drive for storage.

[Tachi]

If you need to save money to get an SSD get the i5 2500k CPU.

[OverDrive]

I have that CPU (i7-2600K). Get it.

Def get an SSD.

With my mobo (Gigabyte P67A-UD7) the above CPU is so easy to overclock.

[craZy C]

Any particular brands of SSD to look out for

[rec]

Vertex II or III is what you want.

[grandinferno]

I'd go a Gigabyte motherboard, but that's just me. What's powering all this?

[craZy C]

Have been an Asus Fanboy for many years. Have not looked into the power side as of yet. Have a good quality XFX 650w in my current rig (recent replacement for an 800 that died), unsure if that will be sufficient

[Joshuayu101]

I'd go a Gigabyte motherboard, but that's just me. What's powering all this?

I assume electricity. =P

[grandinferno]

Great Dad joke.

[rec]

650w will be fine for that rig. People too often over-compensate with wattage. You would need a 750-800w if you buy another GTX 560 and run them in SLI at some stage, however (or if you have a lot of peripheral components such as a heap optical drives, hard drives, additional PCI cards etc).

I'd say that bang-for-buck, go the Vertex II. While the Vertex III is twice as fast, in real world desktop computing, you probably won't really notice the difference. It's still ridiculously quick. While it's not quite this simple, here are the comparative speeds: Vertex 150mb/sec, Vertex II 300mb/sec (requires SATA II), Vertex III 600mb/sec (requires SATA III).

Also, I agree with Nick/Dan; Gigabyte boards are where it's at right now.

[Aegis]

yeah i wouldnt touch asus after my last 3 died in quick succession - such a shame, i liked their logo

[rec]

yeah i wouldnt touch asus after my last 3 died in quick succession - such a shame, i liked their logo

The graphic designer in me approves of this comment.

[Aegis]

The graphic designer in me approves of this comment.

won't Elle get upset with him being in you? :o

[craZy C]

Cheers Guys.
All seems good, cheers for the advice, still tossing up with the Gigabyte or Asus. I have had only 1 Asus board go bad on me in 10yrs....my current one the P5B Deluxe Wifi is still going strong after 4yrs and besides the Sabertooth looks sweet