Requesting advice on new gaming build

[phantom_sword]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming (80%), watching movies (20%)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$2000-$2500

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

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.
Anything reputable

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

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yes, on this site and others

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

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1920x1200

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within 2 weeks preferably, 1 month at the outside. I'd like to begin buying this weekend to take advantage of some sales.

Here's what I have so far:

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 - $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202

Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 - $290
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131365

Memory: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333(PC310666) - $165
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145220

GPU: 5870, when I can find one (any brands I should look for or stay away from?)
$410

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850W - $180[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...orsair%20850HX

Storage: Seageate Barracude 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5 TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

Display: ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor[FONT=&quot]- $300
[/FONT]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=ASUS%20VW266H

Optical Drive: LG UH08LS10K BD-ROM/DVD Burner - $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...LG%20UH08LS10K

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-043-_-Product

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - $105

Not on the above list: cooling components. Once I verify that all components are not defective, I plan to move to watercooling to OC. The money for that is set aside separate from the above budget.

By my math, that brings me to $2000. If anyone could give me an indication if any of my components would seriously bottleneck the others, or I could adjust it to get better bang for my buck with similar performance, I'd be very grateful.

 

[AtomicDumpling]

That looks like a very solid build. Well done.

I could suggest a couple of minor tweaks. The power supply is probably overkill. I would use a Western Digital Caviar Black or Samsung Spinpoint F3 hard drive because you will get better performance and reliability and possible power savings too.

Have you considered adding an SSD drive? It would give you a noticeable speed boost when opening programs, booting up and when running large programs like games. You can put your Windows OS and your most commonly used games on the SSD. Use the standard hard drive for storage of documents and media files.

 

[Bolas]

Power supply is fine, it'll give you room to add additional stuff long term, and as an 80+ silver with a single rail, it's very solid.

If you want to go with a Corsair 750 instead to save a bit of money, it would probably power your current setup adequately, but the 850 gives you room to grow and some flexibility down the road, plus would position the most efficient part of the power curve close to where your usage rate would be, I would think.

 

[Agnostos Insania]

It's a tad silly to buy the high end products you mentioned and and yet use a 7200 RPM "storage" drive as your sole disk.
I've heard amazing things about the relatively new SSD (solid state drive) products, and if you're going to be gaming it'd be nice to have more tolerable load screens and etc.

I'm not a PC expert however, but I'm upgrading soon as well and that was my reasoning.

 

[Corsairs]

I'm going to echo AtomicDumpling's sentiments. You've got a very solid build going there, phantom. As far as tweaks, I'd also suggest that a 750W supply may be enough for you, especially since you're only using one GPU. I just picked up the 750W version of the PSU you're looking at (the 750HX). One way or another, Corsair makes an excellent PSU.

As far as a SSD goes, that probably depends on what you're doing. If you're really going to be spending 80% of your time gaming, you may be able to get away with skipping on the SSD. My understanding is that an SSD is more impactful when dealing with programs that access lots of little files, less so for modern games which are mostly loading large textures into memory.

Your rig looks pretty similar to the build I'm working on. I see you've gone with the 920. I had been looking at an 860. At least one member here is suggesting I switch to the 920 for its better OC potential. I'm still mulling that over. If I do go with the 920, the ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 is one of the top mobos I'd be looking at, so thumbs up for that selection.

 

[Agnostos Insania]

As far as a SSD goes, that probably depends on what you're doing. If you're really going to be spending 80% of your time gaming, you may be able to get away with skipping on the SSD. My understanding is that an SSD is more impactful when dealing with programs that access lots of little files, less so for modern games which are mostly loading large textures into memory.

Ah yeah, that's true. I believe I once read somewhere that SSD is more noticeable in MMORPGs? I can't say I play lots of FPS games, but I can see how a MMO with lots of players with varying levels/equipment/etc would benefit from SSD.
This is just conjecture however, I have no personal evidence.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

that i7 920 u linked to is $289, not $200.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

that i7 920 u linked to is $289, not $200.

It's still $200 at Microcenter, I assumed that's the price he was referring to.

I'd echo the same sentiments on the hard drive. That drive would work for storage (though I'd go with Western Digital personally) but you're going to want something different as an OS/app drive. A WD Caviar Black would work nicely, or a 300 gb Velociraptor if you can squeeze it into your budget. Other than that, I'm jealous =). Looks like a great build.