MOBO Died. Refresh Build

[fatpirate]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Internet, streaming to Xbox 360, Photoshop (heavy duty) and Video Editing

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$600ish

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA no taxes in Oregon

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Intel SSD 40gb Hard Drive
500 GB Seagate 7200.10
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB
Antec Nine Hundred

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yes.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
DEFAULT.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1980x1200 Dell 2407-WFP
Not a lot of gaming.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.
Tear me up. I want the a great build. I only build every 3-4 years and Don't overclock.

Basically what I want is MOBO/PROCESSOR/RAM + 120GB SSD and let me know if my case or power supply needs an upgrade as well.
Any good deals on WIN7?

Thanks

 

[lehtv]

Intel H67 microATX $90 or Asrock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 $120 shipped
i5-2400 $190 or i7-2600 $280
2x4GB DDR3 $35
Crucial M4 128GB $200

= $515 to $635

i7-2600 has 10% higher clock speed and hyperthreading. HT won't do a lot in photoshop, but video encoding times will improve considerably, assuming you use applications that are heavily multithreaded.

The Z68 ATX motherboard gives you some possibly useful extras:
- extra PCI or PCIe slots
- can cache your existing 40GB SSD to speed up operations on files on your HDD
- can adjust turbo boost multipliers so you can do a mild "overclock" to improve performance slightly
- compatible with Ivy Bridge CPUs (not going to be a significant upgrade over Sandy)
- with Ivy Bridge, it is PCIe 3.0 compatible and so you will be able to get the most out of a new graphics card a few years from now

Compared to the Intel board, it lacks 1 year of warranty, and Intel's NIC is better.

You can still reconsider whether you want to overclock. If you get the Z68 board anyway, it might be a good idea to pay a bit extra for an unlocked 2500K or 2600K. For the additional cost of an aftermarket cooler, you could tap into 30-40% extra performance.

I don't know if your particular photoshop and video projects use more than 8GB system RAM. You probably know that better, so add more RAM if you need it.

You will probably need a 2.5" adapter to install the SSD unless you have a spare.

let me know if my case or power supply needs an upgrade as well.

What power supply?

 

[fatpirate]

PSU CORSAIR HX 620W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3891137&SID=rewrite

 

[lehtv]

No need to upgrade that.

 

[mfenn]

You will probably need a 2.5" adapter to install the SSD unless you have a spare.

He does already have an SSD, so I suppose he could use that (unless he is planning to keep it in the system of course).