Advice would be appreciated

Budget: 1500$-1800$

Usage:
80% Gaming- WoW, SC2, Knights of the Old Republic MMO (Edit-Technically not #3 in the series)
10% Web Surfing
10% Homework which may include some basic 3d modeling.

Special Needs:
Already have a mouse (razer naga) and keyboard and monitor are things I'm going to pick up beforehand. Assume monitor would be using a 1920x1080 resolution.

Saved Ticket #: I'm looking at either 448014 vs 448016

Alright DSO, I thought I'd finally get your opinions on my rig that I'll be purchasing in December. I realize it's a little early but I've been trying to do my research and get the most bang for my buck. I'd also like to say that I looked at Cyberpower and Ibuypower for quite a while before stumbling across DSO, and I immediately felt much more at ease. Even through a lot of scouring across the internet I've yet to find a truly negative review where someone encountered an issue where it wasn't promptly and respectfully addressed, whereas reviews from some of the cheaper competitors often contain horror stories of never being able to reach tech support etc. That aside, I've never built a PC before, and only recently started to do some research into what makes them tick. My current machine is a 2008 MacBook, with an Intel Core 2 duo, 2.4 ghz, 2 gb ram, but with an integrated intel GMAx3100 graphics unit, which is an abomination for gaming. I am also discouraged from buying a mac now because of the (according to what research I've done) limited support from Nvidia/AMD, such as newer and more efficient drivers, etc, and their outrageous price tag with a lot of the money going to features that I would never use. With that said, I've looked into building a computer myself, but I can't quantify the warranty or the tech support that I would receive if I purchased a pre-built custom machine. I also have little to no real world experience with how rigs get put together, and exactly which components work with others or if they're viable. I realize that there are a multitude of guides available online to try to guide you through this process, but without speaking to a live person or seeing something in person I can't seem to understand it fully. I've also done a fair bit of research into Hardware, but not exactly what makes the hardware work, like how your Gpu's are wired to your Psu, as an example, or how you would go about putting a processor onto a motherboard. One quick question to interject here- I've never seen anything to the contrary, but I'm assuming once you put a processor onto a motherboard you couldn't take it off and put it on a different motherboard, is that correct? I'm thinking that taking a class with some hands-on aspect would do me a lot of good in furthering my knowledge.
          Now for some real questions.
The first build listed above is very similar to the Level 2 setup that is available when purchasing the HAF 932, which, from reading !ender's guide, seems to be the case of choice. The differences include upgrading to a Gtx 470, moving from the I5 655k to the 760, and upgrading the stock fan and heat sink. After reading the forums I recall seeing somewhere that getting the free DSO overclocking at 3.2-3.9 ghz is inadvisable using the stock fan and heatsink. First I'm not exactly sure what that includes. From all the pictures I've been able to find, I've noticed that the upgraded cooling fans are mounted right over your processor. Does the stock fan mean only the fans in the case? Or is there just one fan over your processor that really can't cut it? What exactly is a "heatsink"? Googling it brings up fans on cpu's, but the wikipedia page (which I'm not really making sense of) is something a little different. Right? I'm also not really sure which of the motherboards in the level 2 configuration. Any advice? From !ender's guide, he suggested that the upgrading the GPU will get you the most performance for your money, so with that in mind it seemed logical to go to the 470, with duel 470's perhaps being possible in the near future (even though !ender would recommend against it). I also have a feeling that the 750w PSU wouldn't be enough for duel 470's, but I can't quantify upgrading to the 1000w right now. !ender's guide states 1000w would be needed for duel 480's, is this also the case with 470's? Once again, is it possible to upgrade the PSU down the line, my gut tells me yes, but I'd rather ask now than be sorry later. That puts most of my questions out there, so I'll continue onto the second build. In this one, at the upper end of my price range, I went with i7 950 (the really only logical processor under level 3 with the Haf 932) 6gb of ram, which I realize is overkill for current games, but I'd like to have a little longevity, and going down to 3gb, doesn't quite seem to be enough, the Evga sli 3 mobo which seems to be the mobo of choice from the forums, but stuck with the 750 w PSU. Also upgraded to the cooling system of choice the Noctuo U12.
Wow, you're still reading this?

I opted against an SSD, as it seems to be a luxury right now, and not a real performance upgrade in gaming, and that from my understanding the intel g3 ssd's will be out by next year, which could possibly be something that I would upgrade to. Concerns with both builds are the PSU's, with the future possibility of SLI 470's.

I'm just throwing this up here before I collapse into bed. For some reason whenever I'm researching computer components, I seem to lose track of time. I'll be back later for some revision.
~Have at it~

Edited by Qwann - 14 Oct 2010 at 2:35pm

I'm assuming once you put a processor onto a motherboard you couldn't take it off and put it on a different motherboard, is that correct?

Actually !ender, I believe I fell into the trap of the configuration pages here on DSO, on the Level 2 configuration, it only allows you to use what I'm assuming, are the processors that work with the 1156 mobo's, while my second build, I used level 3, and there it doesn't allow you to get anything lower than an I7950 (with the 1366 mobo's) . I like the look of your build with just the one 480, especially because it doesn't require the upgrade in the PSU, but I don't understand your choice of the I7 860 over the I5 760, unless it was to get the most bang for my buck while staying under 1800$. Or perhaps to be able to use the noctuo U12, I'm not sure. Nice catch on the 1Tb not really being necessary, right now I most everything onto this mac which has a 160g hd, with 40g of it being partitioned to run XP.
Thanks for taking time to wade through my rather long post.

haha would be awesome if you could render vids while gaming
what games are using the extra cores?