Looking to spend my tax return on a new PC.

ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
CORSAIR CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
G.SKILL Trident+Turbulence 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17066)
BFG Tech BFGEGTX275896OCE GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
SAMSUNG 2494HM Glossy Black 24" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD MonitorMicrosoft
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

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fierpup (naurhuan)

Aminsinta lova poldoralle en dagor

" A Eruchîn, ú-dano i faelas a hyn an uben tanatha le faelas! " -= quote by Aragorn Son of Arathorn LOTR =-

Okay.. Budget? I can see your over 1k obviously...

What do you plan on using it mainly for (gaming or programs?)

I would say the radeon HD 5850 is a better card than the one you have posted, and quite honestly the I5-750 is identical in gaming performance compared to the i7-860. I also feel that EVGA makes better LGA 1156 mobo's than asus.. just my opinion (also for overclocking; asus uses foxconn sockets and EVGA uses lotes)

Here's my setup.

windows 7 pro 64 bit
i7-860 @ 2.9ghz
evga p55 SLI
corsair 850TX (why do you want modular?)
g.skill ripjaw 1866 (2x2gb)
xfx radeon hd 5850
seagate barracuda 7200 500gb
samsung 2494HM 24" monitor

Both..

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fierpup (naurhuan)

Aminsinta lova poldoralle en dagor

" A Eruchîn, ú-dano i faelas a hyn an uben tanatha le faelas! " -= quote by Aragorn Son of Arathorn LOTR =-

Wondering should I stick with a socket 1156 board or go 1366..

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fierpup (naurhuan)

Aminsinta lova poldoralle en dagor

" A Eruchîn, ú-dano i faelas a hyn an uben tanatha le faelas! " -= quote by Aragorn Son of Arathorn LOTR =-

i have the 1366, Core i7 920

Has hyperthreading, and quick path instead of DMI. Also supports triple channel memory instead of dual. 6gb, 12gb, you pick

My specs are in my sig...

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McH|Inferno
Founder / Website & Forum Administration
The MaCHinE: an online gaming community
"It's a dream come true. To have a chance to score in overtime, here in Canada, it doesn't get much better than that." - Sidney Crosby on clinching the gold
Comp Specs ::: Intel Core i7 920::: Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 ::: 6gb DDR3 1333 ::: BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC 896mb ::: RAID 0 2x320gb 7200rpm, 500gb 7200rpm ::: Antec Sonata III

I have a GTX285, I was thinking if I had to do it over I would have gone with ATI. The GTX was just super huge and needed to get a full size case for it. I'd just check dimensions of whatever video card you get and go from there.

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Size of the video card is not a problem as I've own and reused my Lian Li PC-70 case just about 9 years now.

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fierpup (naurhuan)

Aminsinta lova poldoralle en dagor

" A Eruchîn, ú-dano i faelas a hyn an uben tanatha le faelas! " -= quote by Aragorn Son of Arathorn LOTR =-

debating between two motherboards.

MSI Eclipse SLI or ASUS Rampage II..

gimme some feedback

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fierpup (naurhuan)

Aminsinta lova poldoralle en dagor

" A Eruchîn, ú-dano i faelas a hyn an uben tanatha le faelas! " -= quote by Aragorn Son of Arathorn LOTR =-

I was an Asus fanboi, but my last three MB's have been MSI.

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MCH|Foo2rama
Senior Admin / Forum Admin / Ban Coordinator
The MaCHinE: an online gaming community
Comp Specs:Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz ::: MSI P55-GD65 ::: EVGA 260gtx 896mb ::: 4gb PC12800 ::: 3d Aurora Case
fnord

I too have been an Asus fan-boy, but my latest build I tried out Evga. I was really impressed with the quality of the board. Give them a look.

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Intel Core 2 Q6600 2.4Ghz
Asus P5N32-E SLI 680i
EVGA GTX-285
Corsair XMS2 4GB PC2 6400
Western Digital Velociraptor x3 - RAID-0
LIAN LI PC-A71A Full Tower
Vista x64

A few years ago I built my friend a computer and he was going cheap so some of the cheaper boards were MSI. I read the reviews and they weren't too bad so I had him buy it. I was actually expecting some crap board, but it was pretty good. Last two good computers I built were Gigabyte Mobos. I doubt you could go wrong getting any of the brands mentioned.

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my board from 2 "generations" ago was an MSI..and it was manly. never had probs. i <3 MSI

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-Fecil_MULE ^_^ HUK HUK SOJ PLZ
-e[X]ile-Rey
-"Who the fuck brings a scout to a para fight" - Box, as he gets 2 para kills.

It comes down to price/chipset IO options for me. Some of the lower priced boards no longer support IDE, call me old fashioned but I like having that option. Otherwise teh more expensive the MOBO is once you max out the chipset options comes down to how open the BIOS is. Personally I do no overclock I see no reason as my framerates are fine for any game I play, but the more expensive boards have a more unlocked BIOS allowing for better tweaking of settings.

Granted the price bump for the IDE connections is pretty much negated by the cost of new SATA optical drives. I also am swayed by the color, since all the components in my case are Blue or Black, with blue lighting. Quite by accident my keyboard (Logi g-15), case, and samsung monitor are all black with blue lights.

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MCH|Foo2rama
Senior Admin / Forum Admin / Ban Coordinator
The MaCHinE: an online gaming community
Comp Specs:Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz ::: MSI P55-GD65 ::: EVGA 260gtx 896mb ::: 4gb PC12800 ::: 3d Aurora Case
fnord

i have had asus msi gigabyte and foxconn boards only failing board i ever had was asus.

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e[X]ile-Hammack
Forum member / Server regular
The MaCHinE: an online gaming community