Anton P. Nym said:
I'm not familiar with the i7 860... my brand-new system is based around an i7 920, and I can vouch for its performance. I used an MSI X58 board as I wanted the 6 DIMM slots; Gigabyte's entry-level X58 board was tempting but it only had room for 3 DDR3 sticks and I want this thing to be reasonably future-proof.
I'd recommend getting the 6GB of DDR3 RAM; it makes a big difference, and the cost savings in going down to 4GB DDR2 aren't that big. Keep in mind that motherboards right now don't support RAM faster than 1333MHz without serious overclocking... it might be worthwhile to stick with the "slower" RAM and shave a few bucks off that way than going with the top. (I'm running 6GB of DDR3 1333MHz Corsair RAM, FYI, and have no complaints.)
I ended up with an 850W PSU but that's due to weirdness and not a real need; I'd planned on getting a 700W (300W for the CPU/mobo, 150W each for two HD4850 GPUs in CrossfireX, 100W "just in case" power) but the model I wanted was back-ordered for at least a month so the store bumped me up a rung and ate half the price difference. Oddly enough, I think it makes a difference for cooling as it's always operating well within its "80%" efficiency rating.
You can save a ton of money by cutting the SSD for now and adding it later; my experience with the 1TB 7200 HDD makes me think the SSD won't really show much performance benefit right now. You might also consider stepping down to Win7 Home Premium unless you really, really need disc encryption and network security and the WinXP back-compat mode.
You might also save some money by looking a rung down on ATI and nVidia's ladder and using Crossfire/SLI; two moderate-performance cards in synch can outperform a high-performance card right now for the same total price. Then again, if you're determined to get DX11 support that might not work for you.
A cheap case is a good idea, but make certain it has ample cooling and ventillation; if you're overclocking at all you run the risk of heat problems, especially with 800W or so of available power.
-- Steve
