Maximum PC

I have an old Core 2 Duo 2.66 that I built 4? years ago. Been awhile now. After taking 9 hours to encode a BluRay the other day I realized it's really time to get a new box. The primary focuses are slowing churning through and digitizing my BluRay and DVD library to digitized for iPad/AppleTV consumption. I also wouldn't mind playing a recent game or two like Battlefield 3 - though I don't need really high FPS (bang for the buck).

Reading through the forums, and the Best of the Best list, here's my current proposal with questions noted per part. What I'd love to do is get the same performance or better as below, but shave a few dollars off the total... which comes to $1322. Would be more palatable in the $1000-$1100 range. Again, video encoding power house without being too loud and still enough power to play the latest games. Please give me some suggestions on where to skimp and where I'm out to lunch on part selection.

CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K Sandy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623i72700K ($339 NewEgg)

Is this overkill if I'm not going to overclock it? Want to minimize sound so having louder fans to compensate for o/c'ing not desirable

CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler ($34.99 NewEgg)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS ($194.99 NewEgg)

Really unsure about the right mobo, less so than any other part I'm guessing a bit on this

Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M4X1600C7 ($149.99 NewEgg)

Always used Corsair though I don't know the specs lately on which lines of theirs are best for bang for the buck

Video Card: MSI N560GTX-Ti 448 Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 448 Cores (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP ($259.99 NewEgg)

Straight off MaxPCs midrange list

Case:Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM Mid-Tower Gaming Case ($159.99 NewEgg)
Power Supply:CORSAIR Professional Series HX650 (CMPSU-650HX) 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply ($124.99 NewEgg)
Optical Drive:ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM ($57.99 NewEgg)
Hard Drive: 3x1TB various from existing system
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (already own)

I highly recommend you wait a month until Intel launches its new CPUs which should be a decent performance upgrade and a die shrink over this gen (better overclocking).

But if you need this now:

This PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371035 or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817341047 $20 gift card, 15% off, and a $25 MIR.

This Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157271

This CPU ($10 cheaper after the promotional gift cards are taken into account) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115070 Basically the same CPU especially if you overclock it.

The case has a $10 off key and a $10 MIR, but you could get a cheaper case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119216 $20 off promo and $15 MIR, it's the same case I use.

Also nVidia is in the process of releasing their new gtx 6xx series so the GPU prices might be dropping by quite a bit.

That is a minimum of $238 off if I don't include the MIRs.

The case and power supply (either one) is a great deal though and you might not find that deal again so I would probably order that now since cases just work, and PSUs can be tested with old equipment.

Awesome - I can wait a month. Which CPU do you think I should target? (or have those details been released yet?)

They only released the gtx 680 which is the top of the line card right now and it retails for about $500. The card that you would probably be looking at is the gtx 660 which will be the replacement for the 560. But the biggest advantage of waiting is that it will lower the prices on other cards such as AMDs 7xxx series.

To answer your question of CPU, i'd target the i7-3770k for overclocking ability and it just a tad more expensive then the 2600k at only $332.......though thats all dependent on how much retailers actually want to charge for it.

I totally read GPU not CPU LOL my mistake but yeah the 3770k is probably going to be the one you want if you wanted the 2700k now, and it may be cheaper when it is released a lot of places run sales, but that depends on availability. Also if you live near a Microcenter they often sell processors for really cheap (sometimes $100 less than anywhere else).

Danthrax - no prob, the GPU opinion is good too. Is the 3770k an LGA2011 chip? The April MaxPc gave me a bit of a mixed opinion on the chipset with the side bar on Ivy Bridge potentially being more compatible with LGA1155. Not sure if I read that right?

It is supposed to be 1155 and they are releasing a new chipset along with the CPUs the z77 chipset.

I am not a huge fan of the Nvidia GTX680. Link Etcetera. The GTX685 and GTX690 will hopefully be much better if rumors are true. I would definitely wait at least a month or two for Ivy Bridge.

But that benchmark doesn't apply to what OP wants to do really. OpenCL performance is irrelevant. In every other benchmark it destroys the competition and most people think the OpenCL performance is due to them not optimizing the driver, because they only focused on gaming. In some other compute tests it actually performed really well which is why most people believe driver maturity will aid it a lot.

Thanks guys. I'm going to postpone the new build until Ivy - no reason I need to rush it and the prevailing opinion is wait a couple months. Will revisit this in... May or June.

Seismik