Ordering new Hardware and need advice

[Cwbyup75]

OK, I am looking for a little advice please. I am active duty military and I deploy a lot so I upgrade every time I come back from overseas. Unfotunately this leaves me out of the loop on new hardware. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This will be my first solo build
Proposed New System:
i7-940 2.93 GHz
ASUS P6T Motherboard
6 GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1066
1 GTX 285 or 295 (I have heard the 295 is smoking but has problems?)
Power supply 700-850? (Not sure how high I need to go right now?)
500GB SATA II 3.0 GB/s
LG 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit (I have 32 bit now and no problems 64bit?)

Like I said any advice would be greatly appreciated especially in the GTX area. Thanks

 

[h3llb3nd4]

try 920 and oc it
take the 850w

 

[Cwbyup75]

Whats the best way to overclock. I have never overclocked a system just run stock. How fast can you overclock and still have system stability?

 

[farlex85]

try 920 and oc it
take the 850w

Yeah no reason to get the 940, it's not worth the money they ask for it (a few extra mhz maybe). How far you can oc depends on a number of factors, read the guides here or elsewhere online. And for your system right now as it is you'll only need 700w, well under that actually, but if you wanna grab the 850 in anticipation of future propositions (for instance 2 gtx 295s) then that may be a good choice. And as for the vc, it depends on what your going for. Are you trying to get the very best to show it off and get killer benchies, or are you just looking to play any game at any setting? If the former, of course go for the 295, if the latter then go for the 285. For the hdd get a 640gb, 1tb, or 320gb. Those use bigger platters and are quicker.

 

[Thrackan]

Whats the best way to overclock. I have never overclocked a system just run stock. How fast can you overclock and still have system stability?

Overclocking is a bit more complicated than having a set of speeds and voltages that anyone can use. Every chip is a little different (which is why stock speeds are on a level every chip can take).

I suggest you read up on reviews and tutorials about overclocking i7 procs if you want to overclock one. They are very nice processors though.

 

[Cwbyup75]

Thanks for all the advice I went with the 920, got the 320 and 1.5 TB drives, and went wtih the 850 Watt power supply. I decided on a 285 for the GPU. This is what it will have in it


Thermaltake Spedo Full Tower 420W Case w/ Side-panel Window
i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
CoolerMaster V8 Gaming CPU Cooling Fan
6 GB Corsair Dominator PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666
Sony 20X Double Layer Dual Format DVD
LG 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology
12 in 1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
OS Hard Drive: 320 GB
Data Hard Drive: 1.5TB
CoolerMaster 850 Watt Real Power Pro
NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum High Performance Fan Control, Clock, & Temperature
NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card [-136] (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA

Any ideas or comments are welcome. Is there a best guide as far as overclocking the 920. this is my first overclock and I am just looking at going a little over 3 I think. My other question would be is the V8 good enough for what I am looking to do. It had excellant reviews from what I could find.