The Cooler Master 850W is practically the same specs, but more headroom for other things (non-GPU/CPU).  They (theoretically) have the same 12V amps, though, so it'd really only be an issue if you wanted to, say, add a busload of drives in RAID later on.  But it'd be nice to have some room for expansion, and it's $8 less.

I don't know why anyone would get anything other than the 920, but it's your $280, so have at it.

The only differences I can find between the P6T and the P6T Deluxe are that the Deluxe has an additional GbLAN, as well as support for 4GB RAM modules, which you shouldn't need nor be able to find yet.

Spending an extra $270 for your RAM to be Kingston is honestly stupid, no offense.  They're not what they used to be, either.  Corsair or whatever they happen to throw in it will be more than sufficient.  But if you wanted to spend $150 more instead of $270 more to have 12GB of DDR3-1600 instead of 6GB of DDR3-1600, I could agree with that.

The 4870 would be my pick (actually the 4890 when it launches), but the GTX285 is a good idea as well.  But if you're going to go Nvidia, then do yourself a favor and spend the extra $5 to make it an EVGA card.  They have a step-up program that allows you to exchange your old card for a new card, within a certain timeframe that I've forgotten (3 months?), provided you pay the difference.  (Or at least they used to-I think it still exists.)  This would be very useful should you decide to upgrade to a GTX295 later on.

I think you'll be surprised at how quickly 500GB fills up, so I'd recommend at least a terabyte, for $45 more.  Alternatively, you could do 2x500GB, and RAID them.

I hope you're aware that the optical drive you've chosen is just a Blu-Ray reader-it can't write to them.  (It can however burn DVD's.)  If that's not a concern for you, then it's a good deal.  Otherwise, you're looking at about $100 more for a reader/writer.

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I don't see speakers or a monitor.  Was that intentional?  (I'm less concerned about the keyboard and mouse.)

get the coolermaster v8 cpu cooler. they have some ugly cases there, don't they?

I have used Falcon Northwest computers for more than a decade. They cost a bit more than some others, but they just plain work and are fast. You can even get a decently priced "off the shelf" Fragbox small form factor machine with the best bang for the buck parts they'd put in a custom job for around $2K. These guys invented the "custom game PC" market and they are still probably the best boutique PC assembler out there. Worth having a look.

Echoing Sole Soul's comment about monitor - if you aren't getting a new one, make sure you run the test programs from WinDVD/PowerDVD makers so you can see if your current one will suport Blu Ray playback. You need an HDCP compatible monitor or it will refuse to play. Any LCD from the past 2 years or so should be a safe bet, but you should still make sure with the app.

I wish I had three g's for a box. God, the possiblities

Forget all of that save up for a quantum computer haha! it will be able to do everything ten time faster well when we can use more than 32 qubits haha. No there is no practical use for a quantum computer, thats far in the future but its an idea.

I would go for whatever is the latest in 2010 newest motherborad with newest cpu and graphics card.....etc. I have already saved enough money a good 1500$ still saving but ya im gonna wait for the latest. Maybe i will wait when Moore's law wont apply anymore haha!

Akkan117

Price as listed is right around $2400. I already have a set of bose speakers, 24" viewsonic hdmi monitor, saitek keyboard and use a MS wireless mouse.

I'll check out falcon northwest and reread your suggestions and do some additional research. I realize that just because something costs more doesn't mean it is better.

I don't do any on-line gaming and I'm pretty sure that what I end up with is more than I need but, what the hey.

uhm, cost more, less choice and they don't take amex.

bose speakers? which ones? i have a set of companion 5's which i LOVE! everyone says the logitech 5300 and 5500 blow the bose away. i switched from logitech 5500 to the companion 5 and have never regretted it. there's also a set of comapnion 2's stting around here somewhere. they're for my daughter.

Unless I'm missing something, which is possible, the changes I've suggested bring you down to $1850ish, with an arguably better system.  (I'm not counting a change in video card, though-I left the GTX285 in my configuration.)

The CPU is debateable, of course, but the i7 series is more than powerful enough, and since you're not getting a pure prebuilt, you have a decent enough motherboard and BIOS to overclock it if you so desire.  (Sidenote: overclocking is >99% safe if you don't exceed maximum specifications for the series, so in this case that would be the 965 at 3.2.  A great many i7's as well as C2D/C2Q's have been known to hit 4.0+, but there's really no need for that.)

But, again, if you'd rather spend an extra $280 to not have to deal with that, it's your call.

I'm still looking at the data since that post and yours. I need to take some time to look at the specs and decipher their meanings. but your suggestion have made me think about what I ameventually going to do, as well as other suggestions from others. I mean this is why I posted this here to get this feedback.

IWAS (nice re-entrance by the way) companion 2's but my wife (works out of the home) makes me wear my earphones most of the time.

Mine is still better.

I have to agree with Sole Soul in reply #41. he recommended moving up to an 850W PSU.

with spec like this you'll be much safer.

A 750 should run it but not with a lot of room to spare.

the core i7 cpu is a 130W cpu and the GTX 285 is spec'd at max 183w according to nVidia, if you ever get them both running full load that is almost half your power supply right there.

read my reply to this post it will explain why Sole Soul and I recommend larger than a 750W.

Personally I would recommend just go with the basic Standard Power supply that ibuy offers, and replace it with a PC Power and Cooling 860 this page has a crossfire and an SLI edition. take your pick.

or at least the Coolermaster or Ikonic 850s that ibuy power offers. however I trust PC Power WAY MORE that I do either on of them, partly because PC Power are single +12v rail  PSU vs multirail and PC Power has proven themselves to be among the top 3 PSUs on the market. another reason I would suggest the PC Power over those that ibuy offer is the fact that it's going to cost you about $160 to upgrade to them with ibuy, I would much rather pay a little extra and get the $200-250 fro PC Power because I know the quality is worth it.

please and thank you but remember that I will be purchasing this compluter "ready made". so there are some limitations to components available.

so the question here is; why not just go with the original thought and include the 1000W PSU.

Replacing a PSU is easier than it looks (much easier), and it's very hard to mess it up.  But it's of course not quite as simple as installing RAM or a hard drive.

That said, in your circumstances I'd simply recommend getting what you want/need the first time.

The 850W Cooler Master is more than sufficient for your needs, and the 750W Corsair will work as well; I just recommended the CM because it's actually marginally cheaper and has more room for expansion.

I personally wouldn't be able to justify spending an extra $80 over what I was already spending to move up from an 850W to a 1000W, but if your plans include or may include SLI/CF in the future, particularly with the GTX285 and up, then it may not be a bad idea.  (After all, if I were building such a system, I'd only be putting a 4870 in it.)

Question for Sole: my "not that good of a deal" computer seems to have some heating/cooling issues, namely its temp readout for the system temp gets up as high as 45 degrees celsius (113 degrees farenheight) which is...well its really hot.  Part of that has to do with the environment, I'm in a dorm room and its under my desk so it naturally has some airflow issues (I'm planning on changing where it sits) but needless to say its still too hot.  It came stock with like four fans (a motherboard/cpu fan and three case fans but it seems they cant keep up.  What kind of cooling apparatus or whatever would help the situation?

That's not all that hot. Really. System temp is usually around 37 with taht setup and core temp is 43-45...in personal experience. My quad is even hotter than that, idles 46 goes up hotter.

Motherboard temp?

That's...a little high, but nothing to really be worried about.  35-40 is about the best you're going to get, in my experience.  What's the CPU temp?

And you don't need to worry about it frying your hard drive, either-most hard drives that are even close to modern work fine up until around 55C, and then only start having issues beyond 60C.

That said, replacing the stock fans, which are probably ~30CFM, might not be a bad idea.  (I can't find specs on the fans in the case, so I'm assuming the worst.)

I use one of these as my CPU fan, even though it's a case fan.  Slightly cheaper options are Scythe, Masscool, and Rosewill.  The Kingwin ~79CFM fans I have in my case aren't available anymore, apparently, or I'd recommend them, as they were $5 a piece.

And yes, all three spots your case has a fan for are 120mm, presumably 120mm x 120mm x 25mm, so don't get a 120mm x 120mm x 32mm like this one, as it may not quite fit in all of the spots.

Thats good to know, thanks.  'Nother question.  Eventually im going to upgrade the video card (I hope) to a 285 gtx, but (as I've so aptly demonstrated) I have little computer knowledge or experience.  My comp has an M3A78-CM Asus motherboard in it, can it handle that card or am I dreaming too big.  Also, I'm sure I'd have to increase the power supply or something but have no idea what that entails.  I know I just bought the silly thing but is it just better to wait a few years and buy something better or would upgrading be worthwhile?