New Rig

[Groovechild]

I see Newegg's 'Make Public' option to its wishlist is working as stellar as it was before. Here is a snapshot of what I am thinking. Essentially it has to cost less than what I sell the laptop for (which should be about $1K)

WDYT? I have the case, DVD ROM, an SSD drive (for the OS) and an Areca raid card for a storage array, which will round out the build.

[butt]

Save $60 on the ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220558
who needs 16G anyway?

And save $100 on GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353

And for all the money i just saved you (sound familuar?) you can send me the free copy of Deus ex

That, and we can be bopsie twins.

[tarsier]

Feels like a lot for that air cooler.

Might want to try a standard 120mm cooler like the thermalight ultra 120 extreme (TRUE) if you can fit it.  I always had good oc'ing luck with that cooler.

Here's a comparison of a few good ones.  http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/05/31/spring_heat_sink_roundup_done/7

Also, to save a couple bucks, you might even want to do the stock intel cooler until you get the itch to bump the speed up?

Hi BTW.

Glad to see you guys (you and Butt so far) getting into the big-boy video cards.  That's where it's at with te newer games...

[Groovechild]

What's up Tarsier?? Long time no see, how's the gov job going? Pickup yer shiny new WRX yet?
I miss your tech OCD and attention to detail here, plus your 30-day upgrade path for the latest gear, so now I have to do all the work myself   
I think yer right about the air cooler, gonna stick with stick until the need arises, I hear the i5-2500K will play anything stock unless you try to go IGP with it.
The only dilemma I have is between the Radeon 6950 and GTX 570. The GTX is about $50 more, but I know Cuda gets a lot of love from transcoding engines, and when it comes to Bluray, that's a handy amount of work the 570 can offset, when I am not gaming.
Going to order pieces a la carte as they are on sale.
Just picked up the ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460 for $55) and PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011 for $148).
Hopefully either the mobo or CPU will go on sale, or one of the 6950 cards (although I really like the 3-fan model as I read it's very quiet), once I get one of those I'll likely put the rest of the rig in the cart.
Since I'll be on vaca, just gonna let the Newegg boxes stockpile at work til I get back.

[tarsier]

Hey Groove.  Sorry I didn't have a good answer tonight on voice.  I honestly don't know enough about the new cards to give a recommendation.  Sorry man.  Out of the game too long.

New job is going well.  And I got a GTI instead of the rex.  Wife already has AWD on her impreza.  So I went european.  Stage 2 APR GTI.  It's a blast.

If the GPU market is still the way it was when I was in the mix...  You'll be fine with the $50 cheaper of the two.  The difference is probably like, what, 2 fps in Crysis 8?   My last two or so cards were ATI, at the cost savings of probably $50 or so over the equivalent nvidia offering.

The rest of your build looks really solid.  Should give you a good two months of top-level gaming, LOL.  j/k.

[Groovechild]

Ya, I kinda got the same vibe. The CUDA factor was nice with nVidia, but I only transcode videos periodically for the kids, not really a decision maker.
All the parts are now in the air (well, on the ground with UPS)!
Everything should arrive at work before I get home from vacation. I bought a used Lian-Li PC70 full tower on eBay for $40 (the guy just listed it as aluminum server case), that's going to be the last piece and hopefully should arrive early next week (I have a mid-tower Silverstone case, my last one, but figure go full size for the next one). I don't think it will be here by Labor Day, but that is my fantasy football draft anyway, so need to focus for that day!
Hoping I should be back in the mix at the end of next week. I should be able to 'help' people's k/d ratio in BadCo2 once I get back in...