Looking for opinions on a new computer build

[eden]

Hey CP, looking for some of the computer experts on here to lend me a little advice about a new computer I'm hoping to have put together soon. I consider myself decently versed with computers so I'm hoping the basis of what I put together isn't completely horrible or impractical. The new rig is going to be used primarily for gaming and photoshopping around. Here's what I came up with at work today :

Computer Case

Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced Tower ($110)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX27631
and 2x Scythe S-Flex S-FDB 120mm Fans ($5 each)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX21149

Processor

Intel i7-2600k 3.40GHz w/ 8mb cache ($310)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX31558

Motherboard

Asus Maximus Gene-Z Gen3 w/ DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio... ($189)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX37080

Memory

Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit (2x 8GB) ($130)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36931

Hard Drive

Seagate 1TB Barracude SATA III w/ 64MB Cache ($100)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36523

Video Card

Asus EAH6870 DirectCU Radeon HD 6870 1GB ($200)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX32215

Power Supply

Corsair Gaming Series GS600 ($100)
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX29784

Including OS and having it all put together it's around $1550 and I'm hopeful I won't have to go much or any higher than that. As far as the fans go I'm fairly clueless. I would love to have some comments, tips, or suggestions for what I've come up with so far. Thanks CP!

[freedogger]

Nice start. I think you will want to consider an SSD for the OS drive. Also, an air cooler instead of the stock intel processor fan.

2600k is an awesome chip. I was waiting for ivy bridge but based on early reports, it looks difficult to overclock on air, or at least the results aren't much better than what you can do with the 2600k. Not sure if I will do something like you are considering or just wait a few more months...

[Vulcan]

I'd look on the sales page of Memory Express for possible alternative parts at cheaper prices. Also look at NCIX sales page for parts and their forum to see what others think about builds.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...c&promoid=1058

Newegg is another alternative.

Another tool is shopbot or other price matching engines as ME will price match your parts.

http://www.shopbot.ca/

wrong NCIX link

http://ncix.com/promo/promosale.php?...sktop%20Memory

[eden]

Thanks for the tips guys.

@freedogger: Ya I forgot to list the CPU cooler with this, I was looking at a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX25192 hopefully that'll do that trick.

@Vulcan: Thank you for the links! With memory express' price match that looks like I can save a couple hundred to invest in a couple more fans.

Anyone have any experience with 16GB memory, 2x8GB or 4x4GB? Not quite sure which way I should go on that.

[Rathji]

Unless the cost is significantly higher, go with 2X8GB to allow for further upgrades.

Although, that's not clear cut because such factors as what your actual memory usage will be right now, the life of the machine, the probable use of the machine during that time? Then you need to weigh the extra cost vs the likelihood of you upgrading.

If 16GB is severe overkill for you now (and it very well could be) then go with what is cheapest.

edit: Just to clarify, I can't imagine what use would justify more than 16GB for a normal user. Even Photoshop can't physically use more than 4GB ( I think 3.2 GB actually), but that information might be a version or 2 old (or not factor in 64 bit installs). If you were doing lots of virtualization or something, then maybe, but if that were the case then you probably wouldn't be asking the question, because you would already know the answer.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Rathji

If 16GB is severe overkill for you now (and it very well could be) then go with what is cheapest.

$130 is a ridiculous amount of money to pay for 16GB of 1600MHz ram. I got 16GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600Mhz for $40 last Memory Express sale.

You can save tons of money by doing price matching, waiting for door crasher sales, or simply shopping from the MemEx clearance center (one of my Sandy Bridge boards was $65 from there)

Also, if you are going to put down that amount of dough for a computer, not cutting corners on the areas you can and using the extra money to buy an SSD is a total waste of a computer in my opinion. An SSD moreso than any other upgrade you could get is the one thing that will totally change your computing experience to something you can actually feel on a daily basis in terms of speed and time-saving and just overall snappiness of any OS or application on it like you wouldn't believe.

[FanIn80]

Whatever final build you settle on, if you're not mounting your system volume on an SSD, you've already lost.

[Vulcan]

If you are going to install Windows 7 home premium, it is limited to 16
GB of memory anyways so it would make sense to use the cheaper 4 sticks.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_wind ows_7

Also I'd look at the Corsair cases. This one is on sale although you may not like the white colour.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...r&promoid=1058

[Rathji]

^ What he said.

[freedogger]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

If you are going to install Windows 7 home premium, it is limited to 16
GB of memory anyways so it would make sense to use the cheaper 4 sticks.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_wind ows_7

Also I'd look at the Corsair cases. This one is on sale although you may not like the white colour.

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...r&promoid=1058

Use grub4dos mount a ram disk and boot the vhd off of that. Then the amount of ram is a mute point. Wait though, I think you need win 7 pro to boot off of vhd and if you are really serious about this, you would want at least 32gb of ram. Now your plan to bypass the ssd makes sense...

[FanIn80]

I've been wanting to build one using the Silverstone TJ08B-E mATX Case for a while now, so I figured I'd see what I could throw together quickly on MemEx. You can price beat most of the items to get the cost pretty close to what you have in your OP, but with a better processor, video card, hard drives, blu-ray, power supply, etc. All in a wicked case!

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I've been wanting to build one using the Silverstone TJ08B-E mATX Case for a while now, so I figured I'd see what I could throw together quickly on MemEx. You can price beat most of the items to get the cost pretty close to what you have in your OP, but with a better processor, video card, hard drives, blu-ray, power supply, etc. All in a wicked case!

The good news is that you can get nearly twice that performance for 2/3 the price if you are willing to wait for sales, check out the clearance center, price match, buy second hand, buy last gen (makes a huge difference especially with the CPU, chipset, and videocard), and do some overclocking. It is a lot of extra work though but it can be worth it.