New PC Guidance

[Fastin]

Hello Anandtech long time reader first time poster. Hoping to get some advice for this new PC build that I'm looking at constructing in the next week. First some background on the idea. I will be giving my current E6600/8800 GTX to my better half. This "gift" allows me to build a new PC for around $1200-1400(max). The catch this PC must include a monitor and OS, be as "futureproof" as possible (Sata 6.0, USB 3.0, Crossfire/SLI mobo, etc). The GPU isn't in the calculations due to a spare GTS 250 laying around and the fact I will be buying a new GPU around Christmas.

Monitor-ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Case-Antec P183 Black Aluminum / Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
HD-Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
Optical-ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor
PSU-CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI
Ram-CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) MB-GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
CPU-Intel i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
OS-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

How does this look? Any critiques? Should I be going i7 or perhaps AMD?

Thanks a ton.

 

[mv2devnull]

• Reformat of the list would improve readability.
• Some other cases do have USB3 connectors on front.
• Samsung F3 are often mentioned.
• Stock cooler on CPU?

 

[Fastin]

Stock cooler for the time being.

In terms of cases I'm open to suggestions. With that said I have found that the Antech P180's etc are very user friendly and offer quite a bit of room to work with.

Other than the complaints/suggestions listed does the part list look solid?

 

[MyLeftNut]

If you're thinking of building something that you'll keep for a while, Sandy Bridge should be available in January for around the same price as the lynnfield processor you picked out. It's pretty much the end for lga 1156 as they won't be making anything for that anymore once things shift over to sandy bridge.

 

[wpcoe]

I recently bought an i5-760 for the same price as the i5-750. Slightly faster, but other than multiplier, basically same processor.