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DrFoo
Administrator
Joined: 01 Mar 2000
Posts: 947
Location: Sarasota, FL
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PSU: Corsair is my new pick, partly because they aren't playing this BS marketing game of multiple rails. ONE RAIL is what you really want. There's a bit of history behind this and I'm oversimplifying, but that's the bottom line. Corsair PSU's have a well earned great rep in recent years. You do NOT need a 1000W PSU. 850W is more than plenty with the single rail design even for dual GPU setups.
HD: WD1001FALS as others have said. Hitachi isn't cheapo, but they don't tend to last as long because they run hot. That's part of their IBM heritage (IBM sold off their HD biz to Hitachi some years ago). And in this case, nothing outperforms the WD Black drives until you spend a lot more money. Green is fine for storage drives if you are okay with the shorter warranty, but you do want Black for the system drive at least.
If you really want fast load times, get two drives and use the Intel MATRIX raid on that MB to stripe your system and game partitions, and setup the remainder as mirrored storage for backups and data. That's what I did with foo2 and I'm quite happy with it.
Video: I agree with what others have said, the 275 just isn't as good a value as the 280. I also prefer BFG over EVGA, but frankly I expect you'll be happy with either one.
Memory: I'm not a big fan of OCZ memory for several reasons, but that particular set should be fine in this case. The key to this is the voltage rating. What you really want is 1.6v memory for the X58 chipset, but the 1.65v parts aren't pushing it too hard. And so far it seems like even my favorite conservative brands (Kingston and Crucial) are using 1.65v parts as well, so there's no point in quibbling about it.
My impression so far is that MB (and probably the X58 chipset in general) is not reliable when using more than a single set of memory modules, so you should pretty much just pretend those extra 3 memory slots aren't even there. If you want more memory later, get a new set, don't just add them. I actually recommended the Intel version of this MB for someone else recently for that reason, but at this point the price difference is negligible, so I'd probably go with the Asus anyway. As I recall, the difference was in the $100 range a month or so ago.
General Comments:
I strongly recommend running a full memory test on ANY new system and memory these days. The average quality of memory just isn't as good as it used to be in relative terms. You are far better off finding out if you have a bum module before you build your box. The same is true of HDs as well. I always run at least a full scan of a new HD, and beyond that I never fully trust them until they've been powered up for 30 days.
I have no real issue with onboard sound anymore. I used to, but times really have changed on that front. The fact is, more and more people are finding that using USB based sound is actually the way to go for gamers. If you want the front panel volume controls and are willing to pay for it, then I think the higher end CL kits might make sense, but I don't really see the point in just a standard sound card anymore. They really aren't any better in terms of quality, they just take up slots and generate heat.
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. I'm not getting a sound card for reasons foo stated.
