Would you waste your money on this computer?

I am still dealing with picking up a desktop, I recently had the chance to pick up the following machine with monitor. I can flex a bit on some options but I wanted to see what others thought.

Specs:

PROCESSORSIntel® Core™ i7-870 processor(8MB Cache, 2.93GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
WARRANTY AND SERVICE2 Year Basic Service Plan
MEMORY16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs
MONITOR20" Dell ST2010 HD Widescreen Monitor
VIDEO CARDnVidia GeForce GTX260 1792MB GDDR3
HARD DRIVE1.5TB Data Security RAID 1 (2 x 1.5TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
OPTICAL DRIVE16X CD/DVD Burner + Roxio Creator 10 Premier - Ultimate Burn/Authoring
SPEAKERSDell AX210 Stereo Speakers
KEYBOARDDell Wireless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse
MOUSEMouse included with Keyboard purchase
OFFICE SOFTWAREMicrosoft® Office Starter 2010
SECURITY SOFTWAREMcAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUPDell Online Backup 5GB for 1 year
SOUND CARDTHX® TruStudio PC™ Studio XPS 8100Studio XPS 8100
Adobe SoftwareAdobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

Price: 2400. w/ the monitor.

What do you all think?

I'd spend less on ram and video card and more on the display.

And less on soundcard...

That is one pricey rig.

Tony-S wrote in post #10741076
I'd spend less on ram and video card and more on the display.

I have several displays to choose from, that is just the one that was included in the price.

Look for an IPS, PVA or MVA panel in the display, 22" or larger.

Looks like overkill to me, in terms of RAM, video card, sound card, and RAID. You don't need Mcaffe either. I'd go for am i7 930, 12GB RAM, and a slightly lesser video card. Software is starting to use video cards a bit more, so don't cheap out too much on it.

What about this? Total price: 3.3k

PROCESSORS Intel® Core™i7-980X processor Extreme(8MB L2 Cache, 3.33GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1 Year Basic Service Plan
MEMORY 12GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 6 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 1TB Data Security RAID 1 (2 x 1TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
ADDITIONAL HARD DRIVE 2TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 1.56MB Cache
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
MONITOR 21.5" Dell ST2210 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
SPEAKERS Dell AX510PA 10W Attached Speaker for Dell Flat Panel Monitors
SOUND CARD THX® TruStudio PC™
KEYBOARD Dell Studio Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSE Dell Studio Optical Mouse
MODEM No Modem Option
Studio XPS 9100 Studio XPS 9100
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

Wow, that's way past the 27" i7 iMac. Do you think you could assemble parts for a new computer? They're pretty easy and it'll be custom tailored to your needs.

yeah i could.. Step dad works for IBM.. lol

Still overkill, unless you happen to be loaded. i7 980 is a waste of money, 930 is good value and performs very well. RAID is still a waste, just keep good backups, RAID isn't a backup - stupid users are the highest risk to data, not hard drive failure. You can even go with 6GB to start with, and bump to 12GB later if you need it.

Seems weird it comes with a VGA cable, not a DVI (or whatever) cable.

All true, I just figured i should go ahead and do a heavy build and go ahead and make it last.

The 980 cpu might not last as long as the 930, since it's probably being run faster and hotter.

canonnoob wrote in post #10741158
What about this? Total price: 3.3k

PROCESSORS Intel® Core™i7-980X processor Extreme(8MB L2 Cache, 3.33GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1 Year Basic Service Plan
MEMORY 12GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 6 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 1TB Data Security RAID 1 (2 x 1TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
ADDITIONAL HARD DRIVE 2TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 1.56MB Cache
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
MONITOR 21.5" Dell ST2210 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
SPEAKERS Dell AX510PA 10W Attached Speaker for Dell Flat Panel Monitors
SOUND CARD THX® TruStudio PC™
KEYBOARD Dell Studio Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSE Dell Studio Optical Mouse
MODEM No Modem Option
Studio XPS 9100 Studio XPS 9100
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

why is it so expensive? I mean if you want a photo editing monitor I think you need either a 24" or a 27" ips monitor

then a fast processor, plenty of ram and a decent video card. everything else is uhhmm well not really important

monk3y wrote in post #10741349
why is it so expensive? I mean if you want a photo editing monitor I think you need either a 24" or a 27" ips monitor

then a fast processor, plenty of ram and a decent video card. everything else is uhhmm well not really important

I use a 19" consumer Samsung monitor to edit my images, and i'm a pro. It works fine, calibrated. Also RAM can be added later, and video cards can be upgraded.

monk3y wrote in post #10741349
why is it so expensive? I mean if you want a photo editing monitor I think you need either a 24" or a 27" ips monitor

then a fast processor, plenty of ram and a decent video card. everything else is uhhmm well not really important

sorry but I cant stand huge monitors. 24- 27 seems like it would be a bit too big for what I am used to or really want.