System upgrade

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What I'm looking for is a system that is will play all the games out now at, or near, max settings, but I also want to be able to add to the system to keep my upgrade costs low. I was thinking about going with the following. Can someone tell me if the spec is good, and price is right?

• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-960 3.20 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366
• FAN: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
• MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA-III RAID w/ 7.1Audio,GbLAN,IEEE1394a,USB3.0,SATA-III RAID,3 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI
• MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1333MHz Triple Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
• VIDEO1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
• VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
• HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)
• POWERSUPPLY: 800 Watts - XtremeGear Gaming Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready
• CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
• CASE: Thermaltake V3 Black Mid-Tower Case
• MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
• WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card
• OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Ultimate (64-bit Edition)
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
• KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
• MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
• SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
• RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS

Price: $1,929.00

Sounds like a spiffy setup to me!

When it comes to games the i7 has no major advantage of the Phenom II. This way you can save a huge amount of your cash.

If you want an Nvidia graphics card, you might want to ensure the board is SLI capable and not just 2x PCI-E slots. Same with ATI cards. You can start with one and add another cheaply for a nice upgrade

That looks like total overkill to me. I've never encountered a game that wouldn't run smoothly at max settings on my Core 2 duo 8500 and single GTX 260 card (yes, that includes Crysis.) A Core i5 (not i7) and ONE gtx 460 card would be more than enough for every game in the next few years. After that you could always buy a second 460 at a discount. But hey, if you've got the cash to splurge, and you want the best system money can buy, those specs would qualify.

Whether that's overkill depends on the resolution the op plays at. I don't think a single 460 can handle even today's game at 2560x1440 with everything maxed out, not to mention multi-monitors setup. So, if that's what the op after, then why not.

Just some general observations:
1. Asetek 510LC
with this kind of setup, the video card(s) produced far more heat than the CPU, you may want to consider water cooling your PSU in addition to/instead of the CPU
2. 800 Watts - XtremeGear Gaming Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready
I will personally go for Seasonic or Enermax. Corsair and Antec are also good brands.
3. 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
since expense doesn't seem to be a major concern, you may want to consider a SSD as the boot drive in addition to the HDD
4. GTX 460
I'm not a fan of nvidia's fermi. Even though GF104 is a lot more balanced, I think it's too little too late. AMD's Southern Island is already around the corner, why not wait and see.

True, I didn't factor in resolution. My monitor is 1440x900 so not as taxing on the system as 2560x1440 would be. Still I doubt the difference would be THAT dramatic. I mean, *2* 460s compared to the single 260 in my system that runs all modern games maxed out? (Note that's 260 not 460.) And why would you water-cool a system you aren't overclocking?

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

To clarify that first list was from cyberpowerpc.com. My biggest concern with them, besides the pricing, is their lack of brand names in their configurator. I did some pricing at newegg and put together what I think is a less expensive system with rated 4-5 star components.

• CPU: $289.99 Intel Core i7-930 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
• VIDEO1: $324.99 EVGA GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 012-P3-1470-AR Video Card
• MEMORY: $144.99 G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ
• MOTHERBOARD: $239.99 ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
• HDD: $94.99 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• CASE: $39.99 Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm
• CD: $23.99 ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
• POWER SUPPLY: $129.99 CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
• WIFI: $36.85 Linksys WMP54G 32bit PCI2.2 Wireless-G Adapter
• OS: $139.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders

Sub Total: $1,465.76
Tax: $120.93
Shipping: $15.80
Grand Total: $1,602.49

With regards the motherboard. The reason I chose has to do with these reasons:

• 6-Core CPU Support Ready
• True USB 3.0
• True SATA 6Gb/s RAID Support
• True 16+2 Phase Power Design
• 3-Way SLI & Quad-GPU support (yes, 3-way SLI)... I'm only buying a single video card, but I wanted to ensure there's room for growth
• TurboV - New OC Records with Real - Time Super-precise Tunings

Basically I'm looking to create a system that I can upgraded with minimal costs over the long term.

Feel free to make any corrections to my list.

Also, the last time I owned an AMD system was in the mid-90s; I believe it was during the Athlon days. My understanding is that you can't buy AMD motherboards with nVidia support, but I don't know much about AMD these days and wouldn't even know where to begin with them. I also don't know much about ATI (the video card of choice it seems for AMD). I've always been a nVidia person (3Dfx -> nVidia). The main reason I switched back to Intel was the processor had issues running Photoshop and other apps. Don't get me wrong, it ran games great! But the moment I switched over to Photoshop or Flash everything went to hell. I think this created a huge personal taboo on AMD. I don't know if their processors have improved application handling today, and to be honest I haven't bothered to research. What's your personal experience with AMDs and applications? And do you have any suggestions for a kickass AMD build?

AMD has done fine for me after I applied the multi-core fix or whatever you want to call it. Asus has 3+ SLI motherboards for AMD on Newegg. Also, I don't know why you went up to the GTX 470. For $75 more you could have 2 460s as previously planned. 2 460s are faster than a single 480. You still are wasting a ridiculous amount on memory. An Athlon II X3 440 (3.0GHZ) costs $77 which saves you over $200 over your Intel.

Found an AMD motherboard that supports NVIDIA. What do you think?

• CPU: $295.99 AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
• VIDEO1: $249.99 EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
• MEMORY: $99.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
• MOTHERBOARD: $139.99 ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
• HDD: $89.99 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• CASE: $39.99 Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ,comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan
• CD: $23.99 ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
• POWER SUPPLY: $76.99 KINGWIN ABT-730MM 730W ATX 12V Ver.2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply
• WIFI: $36.85 Linksys WMP54G 32bit PCI2.2 Wireless-G Adapter
• OS: $139.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders

Subtotal: $1,193.76
Tax: $98.49
Shipping: $13.85
Grand Total: $1,306.10

AMD and ATI are the same company, so AMD boards generally have better ATI crossfire support, but the opposite is not necessarily true - NVIDIA SLI is generally supported well on both platforms since NVIDIA makes their own chipsets. That being said, I think the i5 line provides more bang for the buck than comparable Phenom IIs, and if money is no object the i7 is still the fastest desktop processor available.

That might be true with voxel rendering, but GPUs process scenes triangle by triangle, not pixel by pixel. The complexity of geometry, textures and lighting in a scene is a bigger factor in speed than pixel definition.