Building my 1st Gaming Rig (need advise)

[oZ.]

This is my PC build:

Links are from newegg.ca but i'm trying to get all my parts from CanadaComputers because i can pick them all up instead of waiting and risking shipment defects.

Questions:

Power Supply

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

- I wonder if this 750Watt power supply would handle everything in my build perfectly (max 90% efficiency = 675 watts)

Water Cooling Corsair H60

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015&Tpk=h60

- Should I install the fan as intake (pull air from outside into the case) Or Exhaust (pushing hot air outside) [many reviews say that H60 intake is ~ 1 - 3°C degrees cooler)

Cooler Master 200mmMegaFlow Case Fan

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103073&cm_re=megaflow_200mm-_-35-103-073-_-Product

- It uses a 3 Pin for power, but on my EVGA P67 SLI only has 4 pins. so how does it work?

My Mobo Intro:

http://www.evga.com/articles/00604/

Mobo's Manual Guide (please go to 13/42 page for more info)

http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/130-SB-E675.pdf

NEW Case ? instead ?(Cooler Master Storm Enforcer)

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_112&item_id=038223

- same price as the one i have on my current build but which one would be better? as for the new I/O USB 3.0 it is for the FRONT of the case or where the motherboard is installed? like the blackplate might be conflicted?

- As for cooling I would say HAF 922 does a better job?

EVGA GTX 560 Ti Superclocked

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610&cm_re=evga_gtx_560_ti-_-14-130-610-_-Product

- should i keep it as Superclocked or get the original FPB one and overclock it to "superclocked version" settings myself? [Note: i don think i would go over Superclocked versions settings because of electricity bill; but i most likely would stick with Superclocked version YET i still want advises from you guys]

Brand names (to avoid any drama & stuff)

- I planned to stick with all the brand names that i have on my build, i spent over 1.5 years building this build and updating it. I know ASUS (& many other brands for other parts) would be my second choice but if i can choose EVGA it is.

Notes:

- I also planned to get my parts as soon as the EVGA P67 SLI is out on the market.

- my budget is MAX out $1600 CDN after tax. i prefer around & under $1500 - $1550 (after tax)

FEEL FREE to comment and post other products for discussion & don't forget i got the 13% Canadian tax =(

thanks!

[Atasas]

This is my PC build:

Links are from newegg.ca but i'm trying to get all my parts from CanadaComputers because i can pick them all up instead of waiting and risking shipment defects.

Questions:Power Supply

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

- I wonder if this 750Watt power supply would handle everything in my build perfectly (max 90% efficiency = 675 watts)

it will as calculations are for peak power of all components, that doesn't happen

Water Cooling Corsair H60

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015&Tpk=h60

- Should I install the fan as intake (pull air from outside into the case) Or Exhaust (pushing hot air outside) [many reviews say that H60 intake is ~ 1 - 3°C degrees cooler)

Depends on other fans and where you do position them, I personally always try to create flow as for HDD, Then Graphics, Then Mobo, Then PSU, so if build inn PSU blows, I'd fit fan near HDD to suck

Cooler Master 200mmMegaFlow Case Fan

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103073&cm_re=megaflow_200mm-_-35-103-073-_-Product

- It uses a 3 Pin for power, but on my EVGA P67 SLI only has 4 pins. so how does it work?

My Mobo Intro:

http://www.evga.com/articles/00604/

Mobo's Manual Guide (please go to 13/42 page for more info)

http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/130-SB-E675.pdf

NEW Case ? instead ?(Cooler Master Storm Enforcer)

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=6_112&item_id=038223

- same price as the one i have on my current build but which one would be better? as for the new I/O USB 3.0 it is for the FRONT of the case or where the motherboard is installed? like the blackplate might be conflicted?

If not first build read and read again- Front USB still a lot more accessible- almost must to have them there. If you read all about the jumpers- no conflicts going to happen

[DKT27]

Well, ATM I can only comment on PSU. I was having the same confusion that you're having. What these % mean? It means that it 'delivers' 750Watts at peak but 90% efficiency means it consumes (in total) 825Watts. :)

BTW, try this and this to see how much power you need.

Also I dunno if the processor has an internet GPU, but I think if you are making a gaming PC, you should use a PCI-E graphics card.

[Frosticles]

ok right with a gamimg rig like that, there is NO WAY you should be using internal graphics. and youll have to because even though the 2600K has int graphics, P67 boards can not use the int graphics. In terms of the PSU id say that that's a good PSU for that system. Also for your fan question, yes it should work the 4th pin i believe is for fan control. In terms of changes id recommend

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565&cm_re=MSI_560-_-14-127-565-_-Product

Or if you wanted to get a little better performance and/or overclocking ability

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578&cm_re=MSI_560-_-14-127-578-_-Product

And for a modern system id definitely recommend getting one of these instead of your DVD drive you have in your list at the moment

LG 10X Blu-ray Burner:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136181

P.S Check out LinusTechTips on youtube and his other chanel NCIXcom. That guy is GREAT to watch for someone like you. Id HIGHLY recommend you

It should clear up alot of confusions you may have :dance2:

[LeetPirate]

It's 750W continuous, and what DKT said. Why do you think you need 750 watts? It's too much, you will end up using around 40% of the power supply capacity. Plus that is wasting extra money for things you never need unless you plan to buy a GTX590.

Buy this power supply instead, it is better value for money considering your build including a single GTX560 will top off your power requirements at around 300 to 350 watts. Without the video card, your system will probably use around 150W.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171052

I guess you are planning to over clock and hence the K edition i7 and water cooler, if you get the water cooler then be sure the case has atleast 1 fan at the back to extract hot air and maintain a convection current within the case. I don't know how many fans the case comes with but usually they come with atleast 1 so that should be ok. You can always get another fan later if your motherboard temps are too high. Sandy bridge i7 is very cool and efficient but the motherboard and video card could probably use better cooling, I would suggest using 2 extractor fans, one at back and one at top instead of an intake fan in front. The radiator installs on top too I believe so it would receive cooler air due to the convection current. Also more fans = more noise so get the biggest possible fans to fit that use low rpm and are quiet.

As for super clocked video cards, those things are mostly novelty ideas to capture a certain niche market. In reality the super clocked card does not determine the performance as much as its architecture so you end up getting 1 or 3 fps more at the cost of burning 5 to 25 watts more and spending $40 extra for the word superclocked. Overclocking the gpu core rarely helps with performance because nvidia usually laser cuts off other parts of the gpu and reduces the bus width and so on. I suggest you take a look at this benchmark before you decide.

http://techgage.com/article/nvidia_geforce_gtx_550_ti_review/9

I would personally recommend a Radeon HD 6870 or Radeon HD 6950 which you can get for close to the same price and either will outperform the gtx560. The HD6870 will also use less power and waste less energy than the GTX560.

[RadioActive]

I did not read any of the previous posts and I probably won't, I just wanted to say that contrary to popular belief you don't NEED bleeding-edge specs to build a good gaming rig. I took a quick look at what you stated and I think that's just a waste of money. Don't be misled by FPS numbers and such, look for real world performance. I have a relatively old rig (check my signature) yet I can play almost every single game out there on 1920x1080 resolution on High graphics settings without problems. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

[Frosticles]

I would personally recommend a Radeon HD 6870 or Radeon HD 6950 which you can get for close to the same price and either will outperform the gtx560.

Well it depends if your'e an Nvidia guy (like me) or an AMD guy like you. And also i dont agree with you on the outperform bit looking at all of linus's benchmarks, id say theyre about equal. With Nvidia performing better on some titles and AMD performing better on others.

[oZ.]

It's 750W continuous, and what DKT said. Why do you think you need 750 watts? It's too much, you will end up using around 40% of the power supply capacity. Plus that is wasting extra money for things you never need unless you plan to buy a GTX590.

Buy this power supply instead, it is better value for money considering your build including a single GTX560 will top off your power requirements at around 300 to 350 watts. Without the video card, your system will probably use around 150W.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171052

Well, ATM I can only comment on PSU. I was having the same confusion that you're having. What these % mean? It means that it 'delivers' 750Watts at peak but 90% efficiency means it consumes (in total) 825Watts. :)

so you are saying 650watts @ 90% efficiency will do fine? even if i OC my GPU + CPU @ LOAD ? (i used the extreme power supply calc it shows 500 watts)

so I don get this: 650*.90 = 585watts? out of 650watts PSU?

do you think that extra big of watts would help for future upgrades? because im planning to upgrade to a newer graphics card like GTX 670 - 680, on the future

thanks for feedbacks so far :D

[LeetPirate]

The rated power is the power it delivers, in other words the 650W is the 90% already so it is not 650 * 0.90. The available power is already 650W, you can use all of it continuously. Assuming it is 90% efficient, I think that one is 85% efficient but regardless the power you have available to use is the rated power of 650W. Bear in mind, you have not looked at the load graph for the power supply but most power supplies work at max efficiency from around 50% to 100% rated capacity so oversizing is hardly necessary when considering the cost factor.

I calculated it like this: motherboard 25W + HDD 15W + Optical Drive 15W + CPU 95W + GTX 560 175W + Water Cooler 15W +Fans 5W = 345W Total.

Those values are peak levels that are rarely reached, except the gpu which reaches full power quite often. If you want to buy a GTX 690 whenever it comes out then going by nvidia's current track record a GTX690 could use about 350 to 400W and will cost around $700USD.

As for power requirements that brings your total up to 345W - GTX560 175W + GTX690 400W = 570W.

You are confusing though, on the one hand you are concerned about your electric bill but on the other you seem very unconcerned about it. Did you take into consideration the resolution of your monitor before wanting to buy a GTX690? Those cards are there only for resolutions of 1200p and higher and multiple spanned monitors. What is referred to as mid range video cards give playable results for all resolutions lower than 1200p. All you need is 60fps, sure some people go fanatical about seeing benchmarks with 200fps without understanding what it represents. Then they go on to look at the weakness of a video card that only gets 45fps at 1600p and think that the card is too weak for them when in reality they are not even using a resolution that high. Plus as I mentioned earlier, nvidia cripples their cards in a way that overclocking achieves nearly nothing at the cost of burning plenty extra power.

Well it depends if your'e an Nvidia guy (like me) or an AMD guy like you. And also i dont agree with you on the outperform bit looking at all of linus's benchmarks, id say theyre about equal. With Nvidia performing better on some titles and AMD performing better on others.

I suggested AMD Radeon cards because they are more power efficient than nvidia. I'm not an nvidia guy or an amd guy, just a guy that makes reasonable deductions based on the facts. I'm not disagreeing with what you said or anything, just explaining why I suggested AMD gpu. :)

[oZ.]

The rated power is the power it delivers, in other words the 650W is the 90% already so it is not 650 * 0.90. The available power is already 650W, you can use all of it continuously. Assuming it is 90% efficient, I think that one is 85% efficient but regardless the power you have available to use is the rated power of 650W. Bear in mind, you have not looked at the load graph for the power supply but most power supplies work at max efficiency from around 50% to 100% rated capacity so oversizing is hardly necessary when considering the cost factor.

THANK YOU! for solving my lack of knowledge on "efficiency" of a PSU

- well the SC version of GTX 560 does do better than normal version not just 1 - 3 fps.

plus EVGA is the best of the best, i ain't going for ASUS (they pushed out P67 mobo and yet some issues are left behind)

i had ati before and the drivers blows, nvidia never f up anything; it is still supporting 6 series. unlike ATI 6 - 7 year old graphics card is "no longer thier product, therefore no more driver support" :frusty:

also i do not want AMD graphics becuase i dislike AMD. for x6 1100T can only compete with i7 950...sigh...when i first saw that.

- i respect your feedback :wub:

[LeetPirate]

I too have stopped buying ASUS motherboards, I switched to Gigabyte because of their superior engineering and design. The 67 series boards initially came with some hardware bugs that were due to intel's faulty chipset, not the motherboard manufacturers. They have since been replaced with newer versions of the 67 series chipset with B3 stepping. I know you think highly of evga but I look at it differently, they offer basic engineering design without anything impressive and they have super high prices. When you buy an evga motherboard the only design feature you get is "FTW" which means nothing, compare that to the elegant electrical designs and technology of Gigabyte and you will see a massive difference in features.

Also for video cards evga, xfx, bfg all use the same nvidia reference design, they don't do anything innovative to the cards to set themselves apart other than issuing a factory OC. ASUS is one of the only companies that will actually modify the reference design to offer something innovative and superior, many times their hardware voltage mods and extra power phase designs surpass what the reference designs can offer for stability and performance etc. I know this for a fact because I often flashed my XFX nvidia cards with evga bios because the boards are identical with just a different brand name on them. In fact I'm currently using an MSI bios on my XFX video card. ;) My advice to you here is to not look at brand so much but look for the best card for the price.

The question is how much more fps will you get from a superclocked gpu, how much extra will it cost you, and the extra 25W it's going to use. Even in idle state an OC video card uses more power than the regular one. You have to get the information and weigh those parameters and see if it is really worth it. Bear in mind anything above 60fps is useless so once you can get 60fps with a regular card for the games you wish to play then it's all good. Anything less than 30fps is too poor. Be sure to look at benchmarks closest to the resolution you are using on your monitor else they will just end up being irrelevant information.

I can't recommend AMD cpu either, facts are facts and currently AMD has nothing to compete with the latest Sandy Bridge CPUs from Intel. They keep talking about Bulldozer, and while I am sure Intel is doing every nasty illegal thing they can to block AMD sales and marketing the fact is that AMD still has nothing to compete against Sandy Bridge. Intel does not mind breaking a few laws to block AMD, they keep doing it in the past, present and will continue, the reason is that they make a ton of profit more by blocking AMD's sales than the amount they have to pay AMD for lawsuits later. Right now there is another case in the EU against Intel, that's business I guess. Still AMD is late in delivering the Bulldozer desktop CPU so atleast for right now Intel i-series is the better product.

I understand your dislike for previous ATi based video cards but I promise the new Radeon AMD cards are much better and they have nvidia on their toes. This is the second time nvidia was forced to release a duct tape high end video card just to have something to compete with AMD even though their GTX580 came with some high voltage leaks in the silicon that results in the card wasting so much energy as heat and so on. Performance per watt AMD is ahead of nvidia by leaps and bounds.

Maybe you don't hear about them alot but nvidia drivers have their fair share of bugs as well, I know because I spend alot of time reading about them on guru3d. just recently there was a big screw up where nvidia drivers failed fan control and the cards were physically damaged due to the drivers. Ati catalyst drivers have their fair share of bugs as well but to be honest right now they are about equal as it gets. In the past Ati had a bad reputation and it is still stuck with them which is why 3 or 4 years ago when I had to buy a video card my only option was to get nvidia. If I had to buy one today it would definitely be an AMD card as I was waiting for them to fine tune their stream technology. Without stream technology working I would stick with nvidia because I use cuda acceleration for hd videos and CoreAVC now supports amd stream technology. If I have to buy a new video card next year the situation may change again and I may have to go back to nvidia but I am fedup of them just renaming the same gpu cores and selling them as new products without fixing the silicon problems.

I guess you will be sticking with nvidia this rounds but my advice as stated earlier is look at the best GTX560 for the price and not the brand name. As Frosticles was pointing out, MSI video cards come with some of the best coolers and at decent prices. As for motherboard, all electronics have the same chances of failure regardless of brand name so the best thing is to pick the board with the most technological superior parts and design. evga just sells reference boards, probably manufactured by ASUS for all we know because evga is just a brand name, they don't own any fabrication plants and so on.

[oZ.]

LeetPirate

so let's say i give up on EVGA P67 SLI mobo, what would u recommend me? ex. gigabyte. as for graphics card i'm ganna stick with EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS

- BUT other than that MSI what else would u recommend also?

If you are 100% or close to sure it's design is better than EVGA P67 SLI's (the one u would recommend) then im just ganna go for it and not wait for EVGA p67 sli

- GA-P67A-UD3P-B3

- GA-P67A-UD4-B3

these seems VERY similar to my EVGA p67 SLI?

- which one would it be? (or most up to date) or u got something else?

List of "all" P67 mobos for gigabytes

Choose mobo from here after u found out which ones =P.

as long as it is similar to what EVGA p67 sli got ill do fine. =D

Must have feature if you are choosing other mobo on the list =P

- Ultra Durable™ 3

thanks! :P

[Janus]

You should wait a month for the Z68 chipset based motherboards. They're supposed to come out early May. They basically combine the features of H67 and P67 and also add SSD Caching.

[Frosticles]

well me personally id say get MSI components because i love MSI XD. But id just say thank you so so so much for doing yourself a favour and getting by getting an non-reference card. And also i like Janus's suggestion of waiting for the Z68 chipset, cos you might aswell have the benefits.

[LeetPirate]

LeetPirate

so let's say i give up on EVGA P67 SLI mobo, what would u recommend me? ex. gigabyte. as for graphics card i'm ganna stick with EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS

- BUT other than that MSI what else would u recommend also?

If you are 100% or close to sure it's design is better than EVGA P67 SLI's (the one u would recommend) then im just ganna go for it and not wait for EVGA p67 sli

- GA-P67A-UD3P-B3

- GA-P67A-UD4-B3

these seems VERY similar to my EVGA p67 SLI?

- which one would it be? (or most up to date) or u got something else?

List of "all" P67 mobos for gigabytes

Choose mobo from here after u found out which ones =P.

as long as it is similar to what EVGA p67 sli got ill do fine. =D

Must have feature if you are choosing other mobo on the list =P

- Ultra Durable™ 3

thanks! :P

LOL. I really wanted you to get into the research and pick one yourself. I can suggest one but don't buy it just because I said so, ok? You have to promise to so some research on it, compare it with your current choice and be sure it offers all the features you want, check some reviews and make sure you decide for yourself. It is always most satisfying when you go through the process of deciding on your own. Check out the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3. Also remember to read user reviews, just because Gigabyte may be a good brand does not mean everything they make is great, there is always chance of error with electronics so check out user reviews and be sure.

Also what Janus said sounds like a good idea, I know you are excited but the Z68 hits the shelves on May 8th 2011. However the only advantages over the P67 is that the Z68 will allow you to use the integrated intel HD graphics gpu and it has the ssd caching feature. Those are the only 2 differences really so if neither appeals to you then no sense waiting.

according to VR-Zone. Some people mention better overclocking but that is a vague statement and there is no information about it, I think they just mean better because you can OC both GPU and CPU with Z68 whereas P67 could only OC CPU and H67 could only OC GPU (although I believe a K cpu multiplier can still be OC even on an H67 board). I think toms hardware has the best information about it right now.

Intel has also started production of their Z68 chipset this week along with other Cougar Point SKUs like H61 and Q65. All of them are based on the new B3 stepping therefore the SATA port 2-5 issue is fixed before they hit the market. Judging from the specs, it seems Intel has catered Z68 specially for enthusiasts which allows better processor overclocking, discrete graphics support and SSD caching capability. With these enhancements, Intel has priced the Z68 chipset some US$8 higher than the P67 counterpart. The launch for the Z68 chipset is slated for first week of May.

according to anandtech. There is a third member of the 6-series family that will begin shipping in Q2: Z68. Take P67, add processor graphics support and you've got Z68. It's as simple as that. Z68 is also slated to support something called SSD Caching

according to tom's hardware. The Z68 chipset enables integrated graphics and processor-based overclocking. So, you can conceivably drop in a Core i5-2500K and hook a display up to its HD Graphics 3000 output. But why would you want to do that? No self-respecting enthusiast is going to revel in a 4.5 GHz Core i5 that tops out at 1680x1050 in a basic game like World of Warcraft.

[oZ.]

LeetPirate, ya ill do research for sure :rolleyes:

& as for z68 i been doing research on that but i don do much rendering anyways nor spend $$$ on SSD =\

so p67 will do fine for me. ^_^

[oZ.]

LeetPirate

so let's say i give up on EVGA P67 SLI mobo, what would u recommend me? ex. gigabyte. as for graphics card i'm ganna stick with EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS

- BUT other than that MSI what else would u recommend also?

If you are 100% or close to sure it's design is better than EVGA P67 SLI's (the one u would recommend) then im just ganna go for it and not wait for EVGA p67 sli

- GA-P67A-UD3P-B3

- GA-P67A-UD4-B3

these seems VERY similar to my EVGA p67 SLI?

- which one would it be? (or most up to date) or u got something else?

List of "all" P67 mobos for gigabytes

Choose mobo from here after u found out which ones =P.

as long as it is similar to what EVGA p67 sli got ill do fine. =D

Must have feature if you are choosing other mobo on the list =P

- Ultra Durable™ 3

thanks! :P

LOL. I really wanted you to get into the research and pick one yourself. I can suggest one but don't buy it just because I said so, ok? You have to promise to so some research on it, compare it with your current choice and be sure it offers all the features you want, check some reviews and make sure you decide for yourself. It is always most satisfying when you go through the process of deciding on your own. Check out the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3. Also remember to read user reviews, just because Gigabyte may be a good brand does not mean everything they make is great, there is always chance of error with electronics so check out user reviews and be sure.

Also what Janus said sounds like a good idea, I know you are excited but the Z68 hits the shelves on May 8th 2011. However the only advantages over the P67 is that the Z68 will allow you to use the integrated intel HD graphics gpu and it has the ssd caching feature. Those are the only 2 differences really so if neither appeals to you then no sense waiting.

according to VR-Zone. Some people mention better overclocking but that is a vague statement and there is no information about it, I think they just mean better because you can OC both GPU and CPU with Z68 whereas P67 could only OC CPU and H67 could only OC GPU (although I believe a K cpu multiplier can still be OC even on an H67 board). I think toms hardware has the best information about it right now.

Intel has also started production of their Z68 chipset this week along with other Cougar Point SKUs like H61 and Q65. All of them are based on the new B3 stepping therefore the SATA port 2-5 issue is fixed before they hit the market. Judging from the specs, it seems Intel has catered Z68 specially for enthusiasts which allows better processor overclocking, discrete graphics support and SSD caching capability. With these enhancements, Intel has priced the Z68 chipset some US$8 higher than the P67 counterpart. The launch for the Z68 chipset is slated for first week of May.

according to anandtech. There is a third member of the 6-series family that will begin shipping in Q2: Z68. Take P67, add processor graphics support and you've got Z68. It's as simple as that. Z68 is also slated to support something called SSD Caching

according to tom's hardware. The Z68 chipset enables integrated graphics and processor-based overclocking. So, you can conceivably drop in a Core i5-2500K and hook a display up to its HD Graphics 3000 output. But why would you want to do that? No self-respecting enthusiast is going to revel in a 4.5 GHz Core i5 that tops out at 1680x1050 in a basic game like World of Warcraft.

i have read all p67 gigabyte mobo (b3) reviews, they seem to have the same BS cold boot issue... =\

[Maxhedroom]

At a glance, all lookd ok. Only change I'd for sure make is to go for an Asus or Gigabyte mobo...BUT, even more so, by ALL means, get an SSD for use as your OS/Boot drive. This will be the best $100 to $150 you can possibly spend and the difference in your overall system speeds/responsiveness will be nothing short of mind boggling. B) The ONLY other way to equal the huge difference in perf. would be to actually blow a few grand an a frickin' full blown server. Once you go SDD, you'll NEVER go back to hdds...except maybe for the massive increase in storage size available.

[oZ.]

At a glance, all lookd ok. Only change I'd for sure make is to go for an Asus or Gigabyte mobo...BUT, even more so, by ALL means, get an SSD for use as your OS/Boot drive. This will be the best $100 to $150 you can possibly spend and the difference in your overall system speeds/responsiveness will be nothing short of mind boggling. B) The ONLY other way to equal the huge difference in perf. would be to actually blow a few grand an a frickin' full blown server. Once you go SDD, you'll NEVER go back to hdds...except maybe for the massive increase in storage size available.

thanks for your input, but as i said gigabyte & asus (some at least) boards are having cold boot issues & i can't seem to find any post stating that the new BIOS released for Gigabyte fixed that issue. I'm currently just going to wait for EVGA p67 sli. and loose 1 - 3 weeks of non stop gaming :(