suggestions/improvements for my first build

[chronictoker]

OK so I'm about to build my first PC. I'll be using this PC mostly for gaming, but i will be doing a wide variety of other things on my PC as well(alot of photoshop stuff, some video editing, etc..), so I'm trying to find a build that is very powerful for all situations. My main concern however is to be able to run the newest games at their highest potential without any trouble. i'll also most likely be o/c'ing

Here is what i've come up with so far:

case-AZZA Solano 1000 Black/Black Japanese SECC Steel/Metal mesh in front ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811517004
cpu- Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115225
motherboard- ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131614
graphics card- XFX HD-587X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150490
hard drive- SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
cd/dvd- LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106335
power supply- CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006
fan/heatsink- COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm "heatpipe direct contact" Long life sleeve CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065
memory- CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145222
and windows 7 64bit home premium edition
the subtotal for this is $1655.90

Is all of this compatible? Is it a solid build? What sort of suggestions/improvements do you guys have for me? I'd also like to get this under $1500 dollars, but i do not want to sacrifice any performance for price, so any suggestions of things i can change around that might help lower the price a bit, without sacrificing much would be appreciated.

I'll be using a HP 25" HD monitor.

thanks for the help

[Doom]

I'd suggest being wary of the XFX. Check out this post (Video Card Rating) for a good listing of brands to consider. Most people here (including myself) recommend WD Black hard drives.

Other components look good for quality and compatability (pretty much anything Corsair is good). If you need to make trade-offs for gaming performance, put money in the graphics processor...even if that means dropping to a high speed i5 processor. For gaming applications, the GPU is more important for the CPU. If you want to put a lot more money into a GPU, your mobo is one place you can probably drop price for about $100 while still getting a good deal. If you change you chip types and go with an ASUS P7 mobo, you're dropping your prices a ton and could potentially move your GPU up to a 59XX series.

That's the route I'd personally take give your budget and current goals. Cheers.

Cheers.

[orbrit]

The professionals here will advise you to avoid the 1366 chipset and stick with the 1156 for now - due to stability issues.

Originally Posted by Khalil The platform to go with is the 1156 and I stand by that. Out of about 300 1366 builds only less than 10 did not give us a lot of trouble and we use Asus, best of the best.

Entire thread here:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...highlight=1366

You won't suffer any performance in games with a super fast dual core over the i7-930. If you use apps that can harness the hyperthreading and 4 cores, go for the i7-860 on a P55 board.
Most games won't use more than 2-3 Gb RAM, but if you have other apps than can use it, go for two sets of 2x2Gb RAM.
As stated above WD Caviar black series hard drives deliver best performance and reliability.

ASUS, HIS and Diamond provide best support for video cards to end users. HD 5870 should be plenty good enough.

PSU, Cooler, Optical - all good choices.

[Nikon]

def go with the 1156 socket.

you have all of those really nice usb 3.0 and sata 6gb/s but you get a sata 3gb/s HD? come on man =D

only way i would do that is if i was getting a caviar black, which dont come in sata 6 afaik.

go with an asus version of that card. the couple extra bucks would prolly be spent RMA shipping that XFX card anyways. (ive got 2 DOA xfx cards)

double lifetime warranty sounds nice, except what the hell is double lifetime? forever and a half? ehh... whatever... bad idea.

[chronictoker]

ok so i think i'm going to go with this HD instead:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136533

also i keep seeing on this forum, people saying the 1366 causes problems, but no one describes what sort of trouble it brings. Could some one give me examples of the problems the 1366 brings?

[quartet-man]

From what I hear, it is finicky and takes a lot of adjusting and TLC to get it right. This would be hard enough for experts let alone novices.

[Nikon]

there have been numerous problems with stable system operation due to issues with how the x58 chipset that goes with the 1366 socket handles memory. it seems hit or miss to be honest.