Backstory
This is the second time I am writing this since the first time I hit a button on the keyboard by accident and it closed the page. I blame poor webmaster skills.

So the backstory is that I currently have a ASUS gaming laptop. It works fine and plays all my games. I’m a little limited on storage and I cant run most FPS at max settings. Generally I have to turn everything down but it works great. It just that its not a "PC" its a "laptop" and I want more power! So my wife agreed to let me use tax refund money to build a new pc, no limitations. Well, we found out that our tax refund is going to be pretty huge and my eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store. All of a sudden I get slapped with a $2000 spending limit, which is reasonable. Plus I am working overtime this Saturday night, which I can use those funds to add to my $2000 limit.

Goals
I really want a smooth running pc that can run all the games I play and plan to play at max settings without a hiccup (don’t we all?). Wanting SSD hard drives for fast boot times and quick game load times. I currently have a very nice 22' Samsung 2ms 1680x1050 LCD that looks great but plan on upgrading to a bigger 24+ monitor in the future. I could care less about power consumption but noise is a big issue for me. I would like to water cool it but that might wait.

Learnings
After doing some research I have learn a couple of things that has help steer some of my decisions.

#1 Windows 7 now handles Trim for SSD’s. Intels trim firmware currently is having some issues so new version of firmware for Intels has been pulled and put on hold. Most SDD firmware seem to be fairly “beta” and tend to be hit and miss although people report excellent performance without it. Some SSD companies have little programs or command line utilities to run trim like once a month. Overall people report this to be the best upgrade they did.

#2 Running 2 video cards in SLI or Crossfire greatly improves performance in FPS on higher resolutions 1680x1050 and up.

#3 When looking at benchmarks running ATI 4870/4890 in crossfire or Ati 5770 in crossfire outperforms almost all single cards and are far less expensive. (2) 5770 is better and cheaper than (1) 5870 or 5850. 48070’s/4890 are more expensive and harder to find than 5770. Tomshardware recommends a 5770 over a 5800 series card based on price versus performance.

#4 A lot of people report having driver issues with 5770 but not the 5800 series. Seems like ATI has been updating drivers for 5800 first before 5770.

#6 Intel icore 7 series has more pipes connected to pci express versus a icore 5 therefore i7 should be used for peak performance when running 2 cards and defiently when running 3 or more.

#7 with i7 and ati cards air overclocking can easily be achieved.

#8 Some people report having their Sapphire ATI 5770 card die after 3 months, 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 6 months.


The Parts

So this is what I came up with so far. No check yet from IRS but soon. All prices are from Newegg. Once I finalize my decision I’ll shop around for better prices. Im am thinking of upgrading this to dual 5850 or 5870’s due to the driver issues with 5770’s.

Case $99 COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119196

MB $209
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128423

2 Video cards $339.98
SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102858

PS $119
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139006

CPU $288
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115202

RAM $279
Kingston HyperX T1 Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820104122

SSD $365
Crucial CT128M225 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148319


$1,693.93

Cool...looks like you're well on your way.

Not so hot on your case, but I'm actually eyeballing the same motherboard. USB 3.0 ftw, plus a decent price for a 1366 motherboard... and good reviews. Hard to beat. I was originally going to get an Intel 160GB SSD, but I think you've convinced me to go for the Crucial SSD as well. I'll also be going for the 920. So three stars for you.

Hopefully my check hits this Friday (yours too). Then we can start. I'm so looking forward to a new box.

BTW, you don't mention it, but are you planning on a secondary, regular hard drive to compliment your SSD?

Yea looks nice.

The thing is though that the I5 750 and I7 deliver nearly same performance at stock speeds in games and unless you plan to tri or quadfire then theres really no need for the i7. I suggest doing more research on that. Ill find some links.

EDIT: Oh i forgot, my aim is not to second guess you, my aim is to help save money. Heres the link[s]:

1) http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/20 ... .html?prod[2884]=on&prod[2617]=on
2) http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sh ... i=3724&p=2
3) http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17545/6
4) http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ew-17.html
5) http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ew-19.html

Most of these show the I5 750 outperforming the i7 920 in games. The two processors put out nearly identical or humanly nearly indistinguishable performance but pack a 100$ price difference.

@ Satis
I already had a Seagate drive I "plan" on using. I may buy like a raptor drive. I plan on putting windows plus steam and games(only the ones I play alot) on the SDD. I even thought about getting just 2 raptor drives and raid 0 but I read all those performance reviews of SSD's. I also dont have a optical drive listed. Originally I thought about getting Blueray but said f it, I got a big screen tv lcd 1080i for that. The case, I could care less about the case. What I look for in a case is how the inside is and I like the inside. Plus it has a handle so I can pick it up and move it next hurricane that rolls through. What case did you have in mind?

@Peltz
I read the same thing about the i5's and i7's. I'd rather get the i7 for the sole purpose that I "may" end up getting a 3 card setup. Whos to say nivida's new card wont require an i7 for full potential? I like to build my pc to be forward compatible.

Thanks for the answers. I haven't actually made my mind up on a case yet... I've found the case choice isn't really all that important in the long run. I'll get something in the midtower range with decent reviews, I think. We'll see how that turns out.

I didn't even notice the lack of an optical drive, but those things are like $30 new unless you're getting blueray. I'm with you that blueray is pointless. I also hate Sony, so I may be a little jaded there.

We've had the i5/i7 discussion... I'm into i7 as well, but I do 3d graphics and programming, so more cores and more memory bandwidth makes sense for me.

Yea i guess we have different logic to building the pcs. Be sure to read the topic i posted about LCD input lag before you go out and buy one. And keep in mind that other than Crysis 2, there hasn't been any games announced that could possibly challenge your pc unless you go above the 19x12 resolution. Crysis 2 will probably less demanding than Crysis due to additional optimization since it is being prepped for a console debut.

You might be wondering why I want all that horsepower well its pretty simple.

UNLIMITED POWER!!!!!!!!!!!

lol. More power!

Dont worry about FC2. That game is very well optimized and i noticed very little FPS fluctuation. Its the other games that have the FPS go up and down like a rollercoster.

AvP (the new one) actually is beating my system up pretty severely. Granted I'm just using an 8800gt with core2duo e6300. I'm running the system at 1680x1050 with settings at default. I get obvious frame slowdowns and occasional hitching when the game engine is loading a new visible area. I'm certain it's killing my box... and this is in dx9 mode since the 8800gt doesn't support dx11.

My point being, if AvP is something you may be interested in, you may want to find some info on how that works with your current (projected) setup. Since the 5870 supports dx11, you'd also have the additional load of tessellation that AvP uses for some of the models.

Switching to this case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119137

I read in the reviews for the other case that a 5870 wont fit in it. The above case is said to have lots of room.

I have this one for the PC at my summer apartment. Newegg: It also costs $100.