New Build Advice/Review

[phoofboy]

I was looking for compatability and advice from more experienced builders, my experience currently is limited to upgrading a Dell I've been supremely dissatisfied with. So I'm looking for a mid/high grade computer that's mainly used in gaming and some programming and will have Linux(Arch Distro) and Windows 7 installed.

CPU: Intel i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66ghz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
Model: BX80501920
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Price: $279.99 - $288.99

Motherboard: EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model: 132-BL-E758-A1
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Price: $289.00 - $299.99

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model: Twelve Hundred
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Price: $159.99

SSD(for OSs and select games): Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - OEM
Model: SSDSA2MH080G1
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Price: $259.00

Hard Drives:2X Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Model: WD6500AAKS
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Price: $119.98 (for two)

Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc Black that lists every conceivable speed you could possibly want to know in the title.
Model: AD-7240S-0B
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Price: $31.99

2nd Optical Drive: See Above

RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 998675 - Retail
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Price: $179.99

Video Card: EVGA 017-P3-1175-AR GeForce GTX 275 1792MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Model: 017-P3-1175-AR
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Price: $289.99

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
Model: CMPSU-750TX
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Price: $109.99

Audio Card: Likely using Onboard Mobo audio since 99% of the time I'm using a very nice headset I own.

OS: Linux/Win7

Main Concerns:

I'm at least mostly certain that everything listed will connect and most likely work well with each other. If there is a better manufacturer of a particular compenent within a comprable price range to the one listed that will be more reliable(or at least less-likely to catastrophically fail) I'd be extremely grateful for any advice. I linked exclusively from Newegg, but before purchasing I plan to do price comparison between local computer parts retailers, tiger direct, and tom's hardware price comparisons.

CPU - I'm uncertain as to whether the i7-920 or the seemingly slightly faster [html=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214]i7-860[/html] is a better buy, they are different socket types, and the price point both at the system level and processor level seems nearly identical, any advice as to which is the better overall processor is greatly appreciated.

Motherboard - There were a few reviews that mentioned the RAM only reading at 1066mhz, comments indicate that this is because of either A) The Motherboard or B) Intel's memory handling on the i7-920. Both seem rather questionable as I believe that particular fact, were it true, would be much more prevalent in other users reviews.

Case - Seems rather aesthetically pleasing(not terribly important, but I'll be seeing it a lot) and, more importantly, it has a LOT of fans stock, and room for another. Looks like it'd keep my investment reasonably cool as I'm not one for cutting-edge overclocking(though I'll likely tune things up a bit after I've got the build stable and running well) and I'm far too paranoid to even consider water-cooling in a first build.

SSD - Intrigued with these, to be sure, with the introduction of Windows 7 TRIM support(I believe the newest linux kernels already had support) what I've read indicated a fair lifespan for this type of drive, at least comprable to the median lifespan of a spinning disk. From what I can tell the motherboard has a fast enough interface to at least mostly utilize the speed of one of these bad boys. More of a splurge than a necessity.

Hard Drives - Undecided if I'll run these in Raid 0 for performance of non-ssd games or Raid 1, price for performance the 10,000 rpm drives seem a bit wasteful as it stands currently. But perhaps if the SSD proves to be a bad idea I can forgo the solid state for two slightly smaller 300 gig 10k velociraptors.

Optical Drives - This particular model is noted for being quiet, and they're extremely affordable. I burn music CDs more than anything and I have a lot of freetime(as if this post isn't indication enough) so extreme speed isn't a concern.

RAM - This a bit of a stall point, since the i7 memory controls aren't really meant to register speeds over 1066mhz I searched out RAM with the fastest timings I could, I believe this is the best bang for my buck in DDR3 from what I've read.

Video Card - Does comparing ATI/nVidia cards give anyone else a headache? Much love for tomshardware, still not sure if this is the best for the money.

PSU - 750w seems like I'll have plenty of juice for my build with some room to grow, out of everything on this list this is the last thing I want to catastrophically fail, followed closely by the mobo.

Audio Card - Willing to entertain compelling arguments for/against a seperate card.


Many thanks to anyone taking time to review/critique my choices, I put a good bit of effort into making this as readable as possible I hope I've succeeded.

[glc]

I would recommend the i7-860 and an Asus P7P55D motherboard. This will take dual channel ram, not triple channel. Your choice whether to use one or two pairs for 4gb or 8gb. If you use over 4gb, you WILL need 64 bit operating systems. Make SURE the ram is on the Asus QVL for that board. For your info, you CAN use DDR3-1600 and it will help a bit if you are tweaking.

I would not even consider RAID - keep it simple, and use WD Caviar Black drives.

[phoofboy]

Thank you for the quick response, based on your information and a bit of digging around I've updated the following components in my selection:

CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
Model: BX80605I7860
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Price: $289.99

Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model: P7P55D
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Price: $144.99

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - Retail
Model: CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
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Price: $90.99

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Model: WD6401AALS
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Price: $74.99

Good call on all changes, it brought the system price down almost $278.00

Any suggestions in regards to the video card?

[Masaki 7-11]

Regarding video card, for your price range the HD5850 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103085) would be better than the GTX275, however it is quite hard to find right now since most places are out of stock. If you can't find the HD5850 in stock, the GTX275 is also pretty good, but it's not worth $280 and the additional ram won't help much; this would work fine and doesn't cost too much: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133268.