Thread: New System Configuration - Feedback Appreciated

What case are you getting? I got my Antec 1200 on sale from Newegg for $140 with free shipping... normally it's like a $200 case. Seriously, you can almost always get free shipping online, and you don't have to pay sales tax (depending on seller) so it is almost always CHEAPER to buy online, even for a big case.

I am pretty happy with my EVGA x58 mobo, but I've heard the P6T is good too.

Do you plan on overclocking at all? If so definitely consider getting a D0 stepping 920. I have mine overclocked at 3.8GHz (about 40% OC) with NO VOLTAGE CHANGES (the extreme 965 sells for $1k+ and only is at 3.2GHz). There are no C0 chips that can do this. They require high voltages just to get to 3.5 or 3.6. The D0 is a bit hard to get right now and most places won't even know what you're talking about if you ask for one. I got mine from a guy on eBay named pao_revolt, I think... he's really reputable on the xtremesystems.org forums. He was selling it for $300 I think (most people charge a much higher premium for D0) and I used 14% Live cashback eBay option for a total of $257! That's right I paid less than C0 retail and got the hard-to-get D0! Microcenter also probably still sells the 920 for ultra-low loss-leader $230, but after TX tax it comes to $250 anyway, and it is hit or miss whether your local MC will have a D0 chip.

If you plan on OC you should get the Prolimatech Megahalems for your HSF... read the reviews, it's very new but is kicking all the other HSF's asses right now. They call it the TRUE killer (TRUE reigned supreme for years) although really it barely edges the TRUE so the TRUE is still a good choice as well. My megahalems keeps my cores idling in the 30's and loading in the 60's even with my huge overclock. I have speedstep enabled so when idling my speed drops way down not to tax the CPU, I often idle around 2GHz.

Regarding your comment about PCMark benchmarks... go by the real gaming benches! CPU choice it is a no brainer right now to go Intel. GPU is a bit harder choice... I went ATI 4890 because of the awesome deal I got ($185) but there are some badass NVIDIA cards out now for sure... you can't go wrong with either.

You can get 6GB of good RAM for much cheaper, my OCZ 1600MHz was $80 or so. I have always bought Corsair in the past but the OCZ deal was too good to pass up and it's working great for me so far...

I also got a SSD and am happy with it, but it will drive your price tag way up, and you can read the other thread on here about the current debates about that.