Computer build help

Ok, so I just graduated today and my main computer is on it's last legs. I have a Gateway Tablet PC that's over 4 1/2 years old and is literally falling apart. I want to build a new desktop mainly for photoshop and such. I might want to do some light video editing/gaming. I have about $700-$800 to work with, not including mouse, keyboard, or screen.

Keep in mind that I have about $550 in gift cards to Best Buy so the majority of stuff will be purchased though there.

Can you afford to wait a little while? Sandy Bridge is due very, very soon (early Jan official announcement) and from the sounds of it it's going to be worth waiting for...

Sandy Bridge? What is that?

Just looked it up. It might be worth waiting for, just so I can get some deals on the older stuff. Not sure if I'll need something like that, and it sounds like it would be expensive.

Also, forgot to mention that I'll be getting Windows 7 and Office and such through the school for free as part of my educational software that I paid for throughout the years.

If you're not going to build until January, I urge you to wait for SB as well.

It's already shipping, and the results seem very promising. http://forums.anandtec​h.com …p?p=30938439#po​st30938439

It'll probably be ~200 for a quad, 100 for an H67 mobo. Not terribly out of line with an AMD hexacore right now and with higher performance.

Do you need a monitor? That'll eat up a lot of your budget unfortunately. If IPS is too expensive you could go for an old CRT monitor if you could get one with decent resolution locally.

Monitor is not factored in the budget. I'll buy an IPS seperate for that for around $300. I'll probably be doing some research on stuff today and post up things to get opinions. There's also the possibility of taking a bit of a cut on the best buy cards and selling them from cash. That will free up money towards tigerdirect or newegg.

Sandy Bridge review - looks like it's worth waiting the 3 weeks IMHO, if only for the price drops on existing CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.c​om …iew-three-wins-in-a-row/1

tim wrote in post #11476205
Sandy Bridge review - looks like it's worth waiting the 3 weeks IMHO, if only for the price drops on existing CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.c​om …iew-three-wins-in-a-row/1

Actually, judging from past Intel CPU releases price on current chips have remained flat (see Q9550 on newegg, 4 years later).

That said, Sandy Bridge brings a whole lot to the table over a current i7 system (AVX, better clock for clock, higher OCs, better IMC, integrated graphics, hardware transcode, EFI, integrated Sata3, an actual upgrade path, lower TDP). Definitely worth waiting for.

Here's what I have so far

Intel® - Core™ i7-950 Processor - BX80601950

Western Digital - Caviar Black 1TB Internal Serial ATA Hard Drive for Desktops - WD10000LSRTL

MSI - Micro ATX Desktop X58M Intel® Core™ i7 Motherboard (Socket LGA 1366) - X58M

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6827135204

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6811119218

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6814150492

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820231422

Sound about right? Any comments on it?

The bottleneck on that machine will be the drives. Get a small SSD for the OS and programs, 40GB is plenty, or get 2-3 spinning disks. WD Black are plenty fast.

You have to wait Sandybridge, the prices will be the same for the new stuff

tim wrote in post #11477065
The bottleneck on that machine will be the drives. Get a small SSD for the OS and programs, 40GB is plenty, or get 2-3 spinning disks. WD Black are plenty fast.

So add another small hard drive for the OS? When it comes time to actually building it, I might need a step by step on how to do things with separate drives. What about 30GB or 32GB?

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6820227510

I'm not ordering anything yet since I might get some more gift cards or money for christmas. I'll probably pick up an IPS screen later from dell since my fiancee has a 20% off discount to there at any time. As far as Sandy Bridges, maybe. I would have to buy a different new motherboard since it has a different slot which will likely be more expensive as well. So hopefully the i7 950 will go down in price.

JMartel wrote in post #11478561
I'm not ordering anything yet since I might get some more gift cards or money for christmas. I'll probably pick up an IPS screen later from dell since my fiancee has a 20% off discount to there at any time. As far as Sandy Bridges, maybe. I would have to buy a different new motherboard since it has a different slot which will likely be more expensive as well. So hopefully the i7 950 will go down in price.

The only thing wrong with your component selection is the Caviar Black. It's more expensive and slower than the Samsung F3.

Realize the i7-9XX are over 2 years old now. As far as price -- Intel CPUs never drop in price. Look at the Q9550, it's dropped 25$ since its release 4 years ago.

If you wouldn't actually be constructing the system till January there's no reason not to get Sandy Bridge. The performance won't be a ton better (~10-20%), but the platform introduces an entirely new featureset (AVX, Sata3, hardware transcode, integrated GPU, faster clock per clock, higher OCs, EFI, lower TDP) and upgrade path (8-core Ivy Bridge). There's some good discussion at SPUF and Anandtech.

In fact, I would say return the i7 mobo if you could (assuming you can wait 3 weeks till January).

Sp1207 wrote in post #11478712
The only thing wrong with your component selection is the Caviar Black. It's more expensive and slower than the Samsung F3.

Realize the i7-9XX are over 2 years old now. As far as price -- Intel CPUs never drop in price. Look at the Q9550, it's dropped 25$ since its release 4 years ago.

If you wouldn't actually be constructing the system till January there's no reason not to get Sandy Bridge. The performance won't be a ton better (~10-20%), but the platform introduces an entirely new featureset (AVX, Sata3, hardware transcode, integrated GPU, faster clock per clock, higher OCs, EFI, lower TDP) and upgrade path (8-core Ivy Bridge). There's some good discussion at SPUF and Anandtech.

In fact, I would say return the i7 mobo if you could (assuming you can wait 3 weeks till January).

Good points. I have the Q9550 and can't believe how much it's still selling for. It's only been out since March 2008 though.

From what I've read I would also hold off a month or so and wait for the Sandy Bridge.

Gomboman wrote in post #11478886
Good points. I have the Q9550 and can't believe how much it's still selling for. It's only been out since March 2008 though.

From what I've read I would also hold off a month or so and wait for the Sandy Bridge.

Sorry, I had an ES Penryn in 2007 :P Never actually tracked the release.