New Rig

[rabbit]

Okay, this fits into at least 3 different categories (entertainment, gaming, hardware), so I opted for here.  Someone move it if you think there's a better fit.

I'm not too experienced in building my own systems, so this is taking quite a bit of time on my part, mostly looking up comparisons and reviews for every part.

I am trying to build a new computer that will last quite a while.  My budget is $2,000.  I have a few requirements:
1. Around $1,700.  The cheaper, the better, but only if it's not a huge impact on performance.  $2,000 is the absolute max including shipping and tax, for which you can use 08090 and 19130 for calculating.
2. Dual monitors output.  Having the option of 4 would be nice, and 20 would be insane and awesome, but I really only need 2.
3. As a benchmark (and assume my internet connection can handle it), streaming StarCraft 2 at 60fps on all Ultra settings is required (and is, in fact, one of the primary goals of the computer).
4. Do not include: keyboard, mouse, monitors, sound system
5. Include: Motherboard, CPU, disc drive, HDD, RAM, video card(s), sound card (which only needs to support 2.1), Windows 7 Ultimate (yes I know it's $300....which sucks), other essentials I may have left out

I've been wading through Newegg looking at various parts, wish list builds, and other things, as well as asking around on other forums, but I know there are people here who probably know more about this stuff than most of the people elsewhere (damn random people!).

[edit]
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=15062086
Thoughts?

[deadly7]

5. Windows 7 Ultimate (yes I know it's $300....which sucks), other essentials I may have left out

Wrong. As a student, you are eligible to get Ultimate for <$100. As an MSDN subscriber you get Win7 Ultimate, Office 2010, etc etc. for free.

[rabbit]

I'm not a student nor am I a MSDN subscriber.

[Newby]

5. Windows 7 Ultimate (yes I know it's $300....which sucks), other essentials I may have left out

Wrong. As a student, you are eligible to get Ultimate for <$100. As an MSDN subscriber you get Win7 Ultimate, Office 2010, etc etc. for free.

No you don't. You pay $2000/yr or whatever the cost for an MSDN account is to get those products. =P

[while1]

5. Windows 7 Ultimate (yes I know it's $300....which sucks), other essentials I may have left out

Wrong. As a student, you are eligible to get Ultimate for <$100. As an MSDN subscriber you get Win7 Ultimate, Office 2010, etc etc. for free.

No you don't. You pay $2000/yr or whatever the cost for an MSDN account is to get those products. =P

Nope!  My company pays the mass volume discounted subscription fee for each dev on my project!!!  Wooot.

Of course according to a co-worker, even though I get virtually unlimited product keys and downloads to all MS products old and new... supposedly only I can use it.  So if I install Win7 on my own personal machine using a product key obtained from my MSDN subscription, then only I can technically boot up that installation of Win7 and use that copy of Win7.  Not sure this is completely true, it's just hearsay from a co-worker, I haven't read the MSDN terms of service or legal stuff myself.

I'm sure Johns Hopkins has some discounted MS software program for students or w/e, so now that I'm a technically a grad student, I can also get it that way.

Anyways Mr. Rabbit, once you build your machine, we can talk, I'm sure I can come up with some way to get you a 100% legit copy of Win7.

[rabbit]

Okay, then I can discount Win7 from the cost, meaning about 1700 for hardware!  Yay!  Okay, time to get cracking...

[Newby]

Of course according to a co-worker, even though I get virtually unlimited product keys and downloads to all MS products old and new... supposedly only I can use it.  So if I install Win7 on my own personal machine using a product key obtained from my MSDN subscription, then only I can technically boot up that installation of Win7 and use that copy of Win7.  Not sure this is completely true, it's just hearsay from a co-worker, I haven't read the MSDN terms of service or legal stuff myself.

That's bullshit. I use my dad's keys all the time for various products. They're stuffing lies down your throat. You're not supposed to do that, but hey, whatever.

[rabbit]

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=15062086
!
Tentative rig

[deadly7]

Your video card doesn't support HDMI inputs. This means you can't ever hook up your computer to a TV or make use of HDMI monitors..
Also, are you an ATI/AMD avid supporter, or are you looking for the best rig for your price range?


Also, I would go with a name brand (Antec comes to mind) for your PSU. I personally have never heard of SeaSonic.

[rabbit]

I'm not an AVID supporter, though I do like them, and the 5970 is the best card on the market, so there's not too much to be said about changing to nVidia.  As for the Phenom II, it's 6 cores and a higher clock speed, which is great for video encoding, and like I said, I'm going to be streaming quite a bit of gaming stuff.  That's the primary appeal, at least.  Comparable Intel CPUs only have 4 cores and cost nearly twice as much, and price is my other big factor.

As for the power supply...I'm still looking :|

[warz]

Corsair is the only brand of PSU that I would ever recommend. They're the best, imo. Their 12v rails are always rated well.

[rabbit]

If I ship it all to my ex roommate in Philly, it'll save me ~$120 in tax, and the total will be $1,745.44.  I'm thinking that it's pretty close to final, atm.

[nslay]

Don't get ATi or AMD!  The Intel core i7s use less power (130W max), they have QPI and turbo boost.  You're also getting a 6Gb/s motherboard with a 3Gb/s disk.  Why not spend an extra $40 on the 1TB WD with 6 Gb/s transfer rate (See list)?  You can also get an nVidia Fermi card for $350 that will play SC II with all settings turned up to maximum just fine.  Not to mention, the Fermi cards support both hardware DirectX 11 and OpenGL 3.x (The ATi one you listed shows only DirectX 11).

Here's my setup:

• Case
• Hard disk
• DVD burner
• RAM
• CPU (Burns stupid hot, hence the case ... stock fan is fine)
• Motherboard (Awesome!)
• Power supply
• VGA - Bought this especially for CUDA, but OpenCL will work with ATi or nVidia
• Keyboard

Price: ~ $1700 (with rebates and specials)

Picture ... too big to include in post.

[nslay]

I just saw your tentative rig.  I didn't realize the newer AMD processors were better with power.  They have a bunch of Istanbul nodes (6 core) at the HPC center here that apparently use 300 Watts of power.

[rabbit]

The reasoning behind my card is that I will be playing on Ultra while on-the-fly encoding and streaming the games.  If it was just a matter of playing, I'd get something cheaper.

Thanks for the tip about the HDD, though, I hadn't noticed that.  Switched out the drive for another, and in the end it only cost another $5.