Ok boys!
I havent upgraded for over 3 years, with my E6320 dual core 1.87 so its time to upgrade. Im indifferent to Intel vs AMD. Which ever gives the bang for the buck currently. First 2 were AMD, current Intel so im kool either way. I would prefer Intel probably because I prefer the nvidia gfx cards. I have a gt 210 superclock or something which is still ok for now, Ill see if I can sli it with another or something.
Basically need help on cpu and motherboard. I have a brand new burner and a WD 2tb 3 weeks ago.
I think its time for a new case too. been using this one over 5 years.

I would wait until April-May. The P67 Sandybridge mess should be over by then and the Z68 boards should be out also. The i7-2600K or 2500K are the way to go for CPU. The motherboards are still maturing right now (wait for B3 stepping for chipset). The ASUS P8P67 line looks promising. I like my Corsair Obsidian 800D. There are cheaper models similar to 800D.

Ehh Dont think I want to wait that long... How are the AMD options, or are the Intel still ahead at the moment?
Doesnt have to be super top of the line. Something mid to midupper.
I checked my newegg history, and my cpus are usually $150-200 when I bought them. So can you recommend anything not in this sandybridge boo boo category that would be around 150-250?
I usually upgrade the cpu/mobo every 2-3 years but its been 4 now. I can always reuse the memory most likely, hdd, etc.
Im trying to think, I have plenty of hdd space, just got a new dvd drive. friend just gave me a naga mouse cuz he just upgraded to a wireless.
I have a corsair 650 psu which should still be good. A geforce 260 superclock.
From what Im thinking a new case, mobo, cpu, memory, maybe heatsink of stock isnt that great. And depending, id like to try to SLI one day. I dont really game as often so I figure ill just find another 260 and sli them one day.

the sandybridge issue from what my intel rep told me is sata ports 3 and up are the problems, he them asked me if I pushed out many, I told him nope, but my system is fine but then again, I only have two drives in it, the os and media drive.I sent the board back and will have to wait for it to come back.

I never push out new technology I don't care who makes it.

MacGuyver is teh win. I did a quick bit of research and seems the 2500K would be right up my alley. Still always unsure on mobos but I see the issue the sandybridge chipsets had/have. Ive yet to have an asus mobo but Id like to give them a whirl.
Ill prolly just grab an antec case, my bro in law and friends have em and no problems so far.
Would you recommend an ssd for a boot drive?
I had one and left a bad taste in my mouth by randomly freezing up.

There are many new SSDs coming out in the next couple of months (controllers by Intel, Sandforce, Marvel, JMicron, Samsung, Toshiba). Most if not all will be SATA III (6Gb/s). I'm waiting until reviews are out for all of them. A preview of the new Sandforce line is out and it looks real good. Indilinx should have a new drive out sometime also (probably after all the others).

SSDs are still new and going through growing pains. I think these new drives are worth looking into. You'll at least be able to get the best drives today for less when the new ones are released soon.

Nod. I started feeling guilty seeing my cart up to 400 and still no ram, case or mobo.
I was thinking maybe a slightly cheaper processor, but jeez, everything I could find on newegg in the i5 category are all 180-220 or so, every single one.
I might as well just get a 2500k. Cuz it looks like to go down to a 130-170 budget you sacrifice a whole lot. Ill debate on ssd for now, not critical.
Thinking a regular antec 300 case or so, dont want to spend a whole lot there.
Have to wait for the p67 boards to pop back up, but hope theres one around 130-160.
Then that leaves memory.

I would wait for the Z68 chipset boards to come out. Like the P67 boards, you can overclock the K CPUs, but ALSO use the built-in GPU (if MB supports) and it will have SSD caching support.

argh, how long till those pop up?
Ungh, looks like I will continue to wait for a bit...
2nd quarter, in my experience usually ends up being mid to end of the quarter.

With the onboard vid, since ill be using stronger stuff like a geforce card anyway, that would function as a physx card then?
Or would going ati be a better route?
ive just always preferred the geforce cards but from what I can the majority of the motherboards are supporting ati, with only the higher end doing geforce. Is that because theyre aimed at budget people buying cheaper ati or that SLI is more of a hassle to implement on the board?

I read somewhere that AM3+ boards are not too far from being released?

The Z68 boards should be out in April. The P67 fiasco might push the release date a week or two. Because the built-in GPU is Intel, you can't use it along with another discrete video card. AMD chipset motherboards only do Crossfire (no SLI), unless it has one of those Lucid chips that allow mixing GPUs. Intel chipset motherboards usually do Crossfire and SLI (unless it's a low-end board).

Bulldozer is coming soon (April-June release schedule), but it could be July or August before they go on sale. No idea how Bulldozer will compare to Sandybridge, but it will probably be slower, but less expensive.

If you can wait, August will probably be the best time to build a new computer. The new stuff from Intel (except Socket 2011 (1366 replacement) and AMD should be out and even most of the new SSDs should be released.

With spring/summer coming who needs to build a new computer now. Save up the money and do it right when the time is right.

That's what I'm doing, begrudgingly at least. The new Sandybridge-based MacBooks are getting great reviews on the processor speed boosts. It's hard to wait after all this time.

Nah, I think ill just go ahead and get an asus p67. Since i hope to sli 2 cards, I dont need the onchip video.
Kinda miffed. I was checking newegg and saw they put up the asus line as open box. the pro was -50$, so I put it in the cart and was debating what might be missing.
but considering it was the whole line, figured they opened some for pictures, I dunno. I go to check out, and its out of stock. pro and evo sold out, rest are in. oh well.
thinking of this so far

i5 2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

gskill pc1600 2x4gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

coolermaster hyper n
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057

Is the case Im stuck figuring out now. I want to make sure theres damn room for those 1ft long or so video cards, and I kind of like the idea of the side loaded hdd bays. those seem to buy me those few inches to fit the card in, plus I can just slide em in and out, something i do somewhat often sadly with hdds. sucks to keep trying to slide them in once the wiring gets ugly.
I think im leaning towards the lian li pc-k62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112239

If I was going to spend $100 or more for a case, I'd go aluminum. Harder to do at that price with Lian Li though.

Watch out for that RAM, Glow. The tall heatsinks can/will interfere with CPU heatsink/fan. The CPU socket and RAM slots are close together for 155 boards. I got the Sniper version of that RAM (low profile heatsinks). Only other difference is it doesn't have XMP settings in SPD for P67.

IT looks like that case will handle long video cards (judging by MB standoffs and cable routing holes). The Antec P193 is nice (a little expensive). The Corsair Obsidian 700D is nice also (less expensive than 800D and not missing much). NewEgg has an open box 700D for a good price.

So which one you suggest?
this is what ive been using for about 6 years
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144076


Or maybe this one since I cant really make up my mind. Nice n budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233


I wanted to keep this unit intact and just kvm it for the kids.

I had my eye on the sniper as well because of that height going on. Whats that xmp stuff you speak of?

What sux ass is I have this big ass dell xps 730 aluminum case. I can sit on the damn thing and rock on it and its sturdy. but it needs a custom mobo plate to fit and no one has the part.

The Apevia looks cheesy. The included PSU is probably junk. The CM HAF is nice looking.

I prefer to buy an expensive case that has all the features I'm looking for. I'll use a case for a long time, so I don't mind spending extra. I still use my Silverstone TJ06B.

It comes down to personal preferences. I like a big case with a lot of room. Intake fans with dust filters. Good HDD cooling. Front USB ports.

Good luck.

The wife actually picked my first case , and besides the power button fiasco (thought my mobo was bad, got a new one, cpu, mem, etc. turns out button was bad haha) its been ok.
So she said she'll pick one out. takes the concept of cost out of the picture since I can blame someone else.
Last thing I was on the fence for then was the possibility of an ssd.
I wasnt sure what to use as my boot drive. i have a 500gb wd green and 2tb green, which i didnt want to use.
i haev a 250 and 400. I forgot which is the current os, but it be making whirring sounds sometimes when accessing, so I figure id use the other one, whichever it is. cant recall. make a 60-70gb partition.
My friend can get 80gb 7200s for free, I lent that to a friend and funny enough it died yesterday.
Any good ssd 60gb or so?

Any of the Sandforce based SSDs are nice. G.Skill and Mushkin both have good prices on them. I would still wait until the 2nd Gen Sandforce drives come out (prices should lower).

Some cases...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...p;SID=u00000257

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146062

I would pick the Enermax case.

Nod, I read up and saw I should wait for sandforce. If not for the sandforce itself, but for the price drops itll lead to.
Also contemplating buying one of them 80gb intels from bestbuy, and, ahem, returning the broken one I have.

Intels new 510 series was just released. It's not cheap, but performance should be nice. It probably will be slower than Sandforce's new drives, but price will be the deciding factor for me.

I just read a review on rhe Intel 510 and it uses a Marvell controller. It performs decently, but the new Sandforce is faster and should be cheaper. Looks like Intel was not ready with their own shit.

Whats the opinion on SLI? I see newegg has had some mobos for a few days now and I was looking at the asus p8p67 pro, mainly for sli. Ive never done sli and currently have an evga gtx 260 superclocked card. my bro said when he upgrades I can have his other, same model.
So would it be worth the extra 20-30 and wait for an sli board to sli 260s or just get a regular and get another card whenever necessary?
I havent been pc gaming much so i would guess the new cpu and ddr3 mem would be a bigg enough jump than what I currently have.

My opinion is if I can already play new games full frame rate on a single card setup, what would I be doing with SLI other than giving Nvidia twice the money?

I would wait take my chances on being able to get a 2nd copy of the same card later, if you actually need it.

thats my case complete with dust filters for the front fans internal hot swap internal bays which can be accessed from the front panels and a 2.5" SSD hotswap drive bay at the top with USB 3 connection etc etc.

Its a hug case as well 7 fans in total

Who makes it? Model #?

It depends on what games you play (present and future), resolution, quality settings, and how much you are willing to spend. I prefer 1 fast card over running 2 cards that are as fast (compatibility reasons, even though SLI is much better than Crossfire). But, you could get (2) GTX560 Ti for around the same price as a GTX580 and get better performance.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-135-AN

Its an antec darkfleet DF-85 as far as I know the only other case as big as this is the cooler master HFX or something like that

to build a killer rig? Turn to Antec. The DF-85 is the gaming case re-envisioned, with all the award-winning build quality that made Antec cases famous and plenty of airy, wide-open expandability with 14 total drive bays and 7 expansion slots. Fleet-Release™ front drive bays allow swift customization of front fan and drive configurations and easy access to tool-less, washable fan filters. A top-mounted hot-swappable SATA (SSD-compatible) drive bay plus Fleet-Swap™ SATA drive interfaces offer blazing fast throughput with superb convenience. With pioneering design and world-first conveniences, the Dark Fleet DF-85 is the case of choice for your next flagship.

- Three Fleet-Release™ access doors open separately for convenient entry to drives
- Three washable fan filters allow for easy cleaning
- Top 2.5” hot-swap SATA (SSD-compatible) drive bay
- Bottom-mounted power supply isolates heat
- Mounts either a standard size power supply or an Antec exclusive CP Series power supply
- Lockable access doors ensure security
- CPU cutout allows for easy installation of CPU coolers
- 14 drive bays
- Up to 9 x internal 3.5”
- 3 x external 5.25”
- 4 x external 3.5” Fleet-Swap™ drives (position changeable)
- 1 x external top 2.5” hot-swap SATA drive bay
- 1 x internal bottom-mounted 2.5” SSD drive
- Advanced cooling system
- 2 x top 140mm TwoCool™ fans
- 2 x rear 120mm TwoCool™ red LED fans
- 3 x front 120mm red LED fans with speed control knobs
- 1 x side 120mm fan to cool graphics cards (optional)
- Water cooling capable
- 7 expansion slots to support multiple graphics cards
- Maximum graphics card size: 12.5” / 318 mm
- Cable management ties help keep your case tidier
- Stylish blacked-out interior
- Windowed side panel
- Front ports
- 1 x USB 3.0
- 3 x USB 2.0
- Audio (AC’97 and HDA compatible) In and Out
- Motherboards: Mini-ITX, microATX, Standard ATX
- Power supply not included
- Weight: 26.3 lb / 11.3 kg
- Dimensions: 596mm (H) x 213mm (W) x 505mm (D)

Well I play wow n starcraft mostly, occasionaly tf2.
When Diablo3 comes out id like to play that on high settings.
I think I settle too much, I still play games often at 1280 and rarely 1600. now its the monitor I think preventing me cuz its a 4:3 samsung with vga only.
i think I might shell a few bucks for a monitor now as well.

FianlDJ,

Well, the Corsair Obsidian 800D/700D are bigger than DF-85. Corsair just released new upgrades to add USB 3.0 to front and change the internal SATA hot-swap from SATA2 -> SATA3.

I'm not an Antec fan personally. They have some nice low-mid range cases, though.


TheGlow,

A GTX560 Ti would do fine. A Radeon HD6950 is not bad either. I prefer NVIDIA though. NVIDIA's multi-card setup is better. Their drivers are better.