The Glade 4.0

Ok, my turn.

I'm looking at the following:
ASRock Z68 mobo - $230
Intel 2500k - $180
Kingston 4x 4GB PC 1600 - $85
EVGA GTX 560 Ti - $210

I have the other bits I need - just looking at some brain/eye surgery. Total comes to just over $700.

Any suggestions to improve this for less $$$? Does it look right to ya'll?

TIA.

still missing case/power supply from the list.

I've got a P180 case and an 800W PS, along w/ HDs, Opticals, LCD, etc.

This is replacing my AMD X2 6000 and EVGA 880GT.

Not familiar with the specific mobo/GPU, but have the same chips in other brands' offerings, and that looks like it will be a very satisfying performance upgrade to what you've got.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well if you're looking to save a bit of money you probably don't need the 16gb RAM unless you're doing some pretty intensive stuff, and that PC should be able to rock pretty much anything out there right now. =)

As for the RAM though, I think the highest usage I've managed to see was playing Battlefield 3 in a 64 player map with all graphics settings maxed, and it peaked at 4.9gb memory usage IIRC, with other stuff running.

What are you using it for? Gaming?

Looks similar to the build I'm doing for my wife's new PC. I went with the 570 instead of the 560, and I got the MSI twin frozr III for the overclockability. I've heard good things about the ASRock mobo's (esp the Z68's) but I went with the Asus P8Z68-V Pro.

I assume you're going to overclock and that's why you got the 2500k over the 2500. Do you have a CPU cooler in mind yet? I recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO if you're going the air cooling route.

The biggest change I would make (like Coren) is go with 8GB of RAM, take the extra cash, put it into a better video card if you're going the gaming route.

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Windows 7 chokes blue goat chunks at 8 gigs.

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Thanks all for the comments - Khross, I agree w/ you.

To answer Vlad's questions: Yes, it'll be used for gaming. My old rig was doing fine for a while on BF2, but I know it's no match for current games. I've done a bit more research, and am now going with the "Superclocked" GTX 560Ti - I've been using eVGA for years, since I had some trouble w/ MSI gpus.

I'm also re-thinking the mobo selection. I'm debating between the AsRock and the Asus P8Z68 DELUXE/GEN3. Leaning towards the ASUS, because I like my current mobo options a lot.

Downside is that there's no IDE anymore, and I have 2x IDE DVD burners which aren't gonna be replaced. So I'm looking at IDE/SATA adapters.

On the cooling, the 'egg has the CoolerMaster 212+ on sale for $20, which is very similar to the EVO, but 1/2 the price. I've got really good airflow through the P-180 case, so if I find the 212+ isn't doing enuff I'll add a 2nd fan to the other side.