Nah. SATA2 is fine for all of that.

g-bebe:

It'll work. I think you're probably a better candidate for an i3-2100 if you're not overclocking though based on what you described, but probably splitting hairs. The AMD setup will give you a future upgrade path if later you want a new/better CPU.

Vid card, just see Tom's monthly guide.

Below is my new list. For Canadian shoppers: Using www.bestdirect.ca let me shave a bunch of money off. I heard about it from my brother in law and was really surprised by some of the price differences.

My questions:

- Will the 30" monitor run with what I've selected, or do I need a seperate video card?

- New power supply. Did I do it right?

- How can I be sure it all "fits?" I looked for obvious stuff but I'm still not sure.

- How can I tell if I need adapter pieces or not?

- Pretty sure I made a solid choice on the SSD. Thoughts?

Here's the build:

Monitor ($1153):
Dell Ultrasharp U3011 30IN Widescreen LCD Monitor
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...ll%20Computer/

Computer case ($96):

http://www.bestdirect.ca/productrevi...I%20500/ANTEC/
Antec Sonata III Black ATX 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case

Processor ($209):
Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core Unlocked Processor LGA1155 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...I52500K/Intel/

Operating System ($94): Windows 7 Home Premium 64

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/?s...icrosoft%20win

Solid State Drive ($100):

Crucial M4 SSD Micron C400 64GB 2.5IN Solid State Disk Flash Drive SATA3 6Gbps
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...%20TECHNOLOGY/

Power Supply ($70):

Antec Earthwatts Green 650W Power Supply ATX12V V2.2 EPS12V Active PFC 80PLUS 120MM Fan
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...50Green/ANTEC/

Hard Drive ($50):
Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 7200.12 1TB SATA 32MB Cache 3.5IN Internal Hard Drive OEM
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...524AS/Seagate/

Motherboard ($102):
ASUS P8H67-M LE REV3.0 mATX LGA1155 PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI DVI HDMI VGA Sandy Bridge B3 Motherboard
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...EV%203.0/ASUS/

DVD Drive ($18):
LG GH24LS70 24X SATA Lightscribe Internal DVD Writer Burner DVDRW Optical Drive Black OEM
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...20Electronics/

CPU cooler ($25):
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/?s...er%20hyper%202

Memory ($47):
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 Memory
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/23...8GBXL/G.SKILL/


* * *

Let me know what you think. I need to place the order in the next day or two!

Edit: Just noticed that by looking for the best deals and trimming out the nonessentials, I shaved $400 off the original build price. Did I forget something? :P

I paid less for most of these parts using NCIX, because they let you price match any part. Ie: I5-2500K was 199, and windows 7 was 89.99 etc.. I used pricecanada dot com and put in parts there to price match quickly.

Thinking about buying a new laptop, one thing I want to make sure is it can support an external monitor- Dell 30" - at its maximum resolution of 2560x whatever. How do I find out whether the graphics card bundled can support that?

For example, in a machine I customized on Dell, the graphics card is the Geforce 525M, but when I go to the Nvidia page for that card, it doesn't tell me what the maximum resolution it can give on an external is

I know MacBook pro's can support that resolution, so maybe they are the way to go..

Thanks

Starvingwriter: You don't need the PSU, a reasonably decent one is included with the Sonata III case.

If it were me I think I'd feel a lot better with a discrete card for a monitor of that resolution. If you're not gaming, even a cheap 5570 would do nicely. Oh and Tom's just put their Sept 2011 guide up.

Praetor: The current MBPs are running the same integrated HD3000 graphics. It looks like they have a mini-DisplayPort, and require an adapter (lol $99) to convert that to dual-DVI and run that resolution.

So the short answer is: yes, but you need DisplayPort. Starving you can find motherboards that have it, or just get a video card. Notebooks have what they have.

Outside of MBP's though, how do I know which graphics cards on which laptops can run that resolution?

Thanks

I have successfully installed the new RAM and the SSD, thanks for the help Gonso (and others).

So far so good, at least. Hope I don't have problems since my key didn't work somehow so I had to get my brother's windows key.

You end up getting an OCZ Force 3, or the Kingston? Performance wise, you pleased? No firmware issues?

Virtually any modern discrete video card in a notebook should be capable if it has dual-link DVI, HDMI 1.3 or DisplayPort. If you're sticking with integrated, HD3000 would need a DisplayPort connection. If you start looking at older integrated solutions your results will vary.

But if you're looking to go with a Dell 30" just save yourself the trouble and buy something new that comes with HD3000 and DisplayPort or mini DisplayPort. They're common enough. Or step up and add some kind of card.

Need a grafics card. I don't do any gaming or anything. What is the standard for "general use" grafics cards?

Well, it's done. Order sent. In the end I went with a fairly potent video card, I figured if I needed to buy one I may as well indulge in a game occasionally.

When I build I'll try and take pictures, etc.

Thank you so much for the help, this computer is way better than if I'd gone to a big box retail and grabbed something off the shelf.

Depends on your display(s). With a single, standard monitor in a typical setup, you don't need a discrete graphics card at all.

The force 3, no problems with it at all except that the SATA cable doesn't click into it unlike in regular HDDs, so if I open my machine now I may bump the cable loose if I am doing other stuff in the machine.

After some more usage, I don't notice the SSD at all. My games don't load faster, my computer does not start up faster.

It is installed in AHCI mode or whatever it was called, did I forget anything?