Ok, so I'm wanting to build a new tower. I must admit, for a geek, I've never built one from the ground up. I need some help. I'm not going to be doing high-end gaming. I might run some AOE2 or Monopoly Casino, but that's about it. I would like it to be able to handle up to 4 monitors though. When I do development work at home, the more monitors the better. I also don't want it to go obsolete too quickly, so I'm thinking at least Quad-core. Here's a general idea: Processor: Quad-core RAM: As much as possible/Max out the Mobo. Hard-drive: at least 2 TB with RAID (another thing I could use help on. Which is the best?) Tower: Whatever works. Mobo: Whatever fits in the box and will handle the proc. Video: Whatever it takes to run up to 4 monitors. Power Supply: Whatever it takes and is fairly quiet. Card Reader: I'm tired of using my SD jump drive. Firewire: Would love it to be on the front, but just need one port, at least. USB: Plenty. Optical Drives: DVD burner for sure. Insanely good deal on a BR burner is a bonus. If DVDR, then DVD-ROM 2nd. If BRR, then BR drive 2nd. Other things to know: Speakers don't matter. I'll probably just use the keyboard and mouse I have now. This will be Windows, but I'm thinking about doing a dual or triple boot (Maybe WinServer 2003/2008 and/or some Linux distro just to see what it's like because I'm a Linux virgin). Get creative. This will probably be a project I attack over 10-12 months so I don't have to finance anything, but at least get me looking in the right direction. I'm not wanting to spend $10k on it, but I don't want to go insanely cheap, either.
Love the dealnews.com ads. What about this Mobo? http://dealnews.com/Gigabyte-Socket-1366-ATX-Motherboard-for-Intel-6-GB-RAM-for-210-after-rebate-15-s-h/279624.html
Code (Text): (1x) COOLER MASTER HAF 932 (1x) ASUS P6T Deluxe/OC Palm LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard (2x) SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card (1x)Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 (1x) Silverstone FP35B USB 2.0 Card Reader with extra silver front panel (2x) Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996601 (2x) Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (1x) SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F Sub total: $2,420.89 Heres something i have cooking. Im planning on building this as my second Corei7 build :-D