Klrlierl would probably refer him to:

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-UltraSharp-U2410-Performance-DisplayPort/dp/B00302DNZ4

(Which I also recommend)

Nope. Kllrnohj directed me to the monitor I linked to. It's one I've been set to get since he recommended it.

I like how you put (almost) "liar" in the middle of Kllrnohj. Very clever. And ComicIDIOT, I scorn you immensely for even considering $700 on a case. My tablet PC cose $699 plus $5 shipping roughly two years ago, for reference. >_<

My laptop was even less than that x.x $500 plus whatever Best Buy decides to charge you for. And it's been O.K. (Especially recently, since we cleaned out the vents for the first time in the 5+ years I've had it). I also saw the "liar" in his name

Bottom line, why waste money on a case? If you want something amazing, casemod it, and you'll both save money and get a sense of accomplishment.

That case is ugly. Too flashy, not functional. This case is the one to get if you're going to splurge: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001&Tpk=800d An absolutely *AMAZING* case - easily one of, if not the, best case on the market. Extremely well designed and has tons of cool features (including 4 hot swappable hard drive bays on the front)

As for your components, you picked a motherboard that isn't compatible with the CPU - two different sockets. This would be the board you'll probably want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131682&cm_re=P8P67_Pro-_-13-131-682-_-Product

You'll notice, however, that it is listed as out of stock - that is because Intel's P67 chipset had a bug, and they are currently in the process of exchanging all the buggy chipsets for fixed ones. So you have to wait a little longer (for details, see here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4143/the-source-of-intels-cougar-point-sata-bug )

The RAM you have is wrong - the Core i5 is dual channel, not triple channel (including sandy bridge).

And finally, switch to this CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 It only costs a bit more, but is is a -K model, which means it has an unlocked multiplier. This means very easy overclocking (actually, with Sandybridge it is the *only* way to overclock since Intel locked the FSB).

Let me get this straight. You, as a wanna-be digital photographer, want to spend twice as much on a case as you do on a monitor? Something is very, very wrong with this picture.

I don't want to spend twice as much on a case as a "wanna-be" digital photographer. I want to spend twice as much on a case because it looks cool and supposedly keeps everything cooler than using fans. I'm still reading about it though. Also, I'm assuming little to no dust gets in this.

According to a review on the case you linked, it doesn't support USB3.0, but there will be a kit available from Corsair. I wanted USB3.0 originally but cut it out to reduce cost. Is USB3.0 I should include anyways?

Is Triple Channel worth the i7 upgrade? I downgraded because I concluded I don't need hyper-threading in anything I'll be doing.

A cardboard box with lots of fans and foam dust filters would cool a computer just as well as a $600 case in my opinion, just to put things in perspective. It just wouldn't look cool.

The Level 10 uses fans, what are you talking about? All they did was put everything into its own air-cooled box (so lots of fans instead of just a few big ones). There is no technical reason to buy the Level 10, it isn't better objectively over any other case. If you like the looks and have way too much money, buy it. Otherwise, save a boatload of money and buy a different case. Heck, from the looks of it it looks even harder to put together than most cases.



Who cares if the case supports USB3.0? It just means the single USB3.0 device you eventually get in a couple of years that actually benefits from the speed you plug in the back.



Sandybridge is what you want, just switch to a dual-channel kit.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/03/intel_sandy_bridge_2600k_2500k_processors_review/3


So no, triple channel i7 isn't worth it in terms of memory bandwidth

No. At the moment, only one company (Renesas) is producing USB 3.0 compliant controllers and very few people are actually using it in their devices. Further, not many devices will actually benefit from the extra speed. To be honest, I'm not even sure why they came up with the standard given how few devices that really need a transfer protocol with 4.8Gbps theoretical transfer rate will be used over USB. This is of course unless you like dumping terabyte drives over USB. If I were you, I'd ignore it as a feature you had to choose between two otherwise identical boards.

This is interesting information for me as well; I might invest in a mobo upgrade with Sandy Bridge, perhaps rid myself of my P5Q Deluxe's nonstop BSODs.

I don't have a case. Everything is just sitting on the floor with a large $29.99 fan (on sale!) cooling it.

I used to run my computer like that, too. Turns out the box they ship the motherboard in makes a great open-air case

@Kerm: If you want to run Sandy Bridge, you *must* upgrade your motherboard. It uses a different socket. The numbers are close, but not the same. The outgoing socket is LGA 1156, the new Sandy Bridge one is 1155. I'm waiting for the high end Sandy Bridge chips before considering an upgrade. Intel is launching the mid-range first, with the high end on yet another new socket (LGA 2011 to replace LGA 1366). That will have the i7 9xx replacements.

Hm. I'll swap out the motherboard and processor for the linked. I'll still try to find a USB2.0 one though, I'm thinking I can save a few bucks by dropping USB3.0.

Also, Backup Power Supplies. Recommended? The BPS's I'm looking at don't give an estimated run time based on the amount of volts/joules it's outputting. This would likely run my TV, Computer, Console & Sound System in time of a black out. But just enough time for me to save things and shut down and it's unlikely I'd be running all four at the same time, so I'd expect anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes from one of these.

Does anyone here use these?

I use an APC 600watt UPS and it gives me a max of 15min without any monitors plugged in, though I do have two machines on it atm so you'd probably get more.

You want 30 minutes of battery power? Dang.

New York City power is reliable enough that I've never bothered with a UPS. My alma mater has some beefy UPSes on the critical servers to let them shut down cleanly, but nothing else is on a UPS. Personally I don't feel like it's worth it unless you often lose power for brief periods, or have noisy/unreliable power.

As it is here, but I'd like to be safe then sorry here. Esp if I'll be working on photos that were paid for. If anything I'm working on get's corrupted from a power surge or outage...

I was hoping but I've never used one, read up on how long they last and the like. So if 30 minutes is too long, and one is going to get 15 minutes, then I'll hope for 15 minutes.

You don't need more than a couple minutes. Just enough to shut the machine down cleanly. If you don't have any monitors connected to the battery and your UPS supports reporting its status, you'll be fine.

I have a consumer-grade APC UPS similar to Jonimus', and it performs fine in the occasional situation when power dips for a bit. Outages are basically unheard of around here, but it keeps going long enough for my machine to shut down cleanly when breakers get tripped, even running one monitor off it.