£1200 ($2000) High-end workstation upgrade

Budget Range: £1200 while being sensible (I do not wish to pay twice as much for 10-20% performance improvements but if it is significant then I am willing to use up all of my budget)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Video editing and encoding, music production, EXTREME MULTI-TASKING, gaming

Parts Not Required: I will be using the following in my new build and they will not be required:

Coolermaster Silent pro Gold 1000W PSU
Asus Xonar DX soundcard
Dell U2711 + Samsung SyncMaster 245B
Gigabyte GTX 560ti
Keyboard/Mouse/Speakers/Hard drives
Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Case

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: any reliable website including Ebay sellers. Ebuyer and Amazon are my favourites

Country of Origin: UK

Parts Preferences: I've had my eyes on the i7 2600K, at least 16GB RAM and adding another GTX 560ti to my computer. I also wish to invest in an SSD to run my operating system/software apps from. This is well under my budget! if I can get significant extra performance I would be happy to spend more.

Overclocking: FINE as long as it does not affect the stability.

SLI or Crossfire: I want to get a second GTX 560ti but I'm interested in other options (if there are any)

Monitor Resolution: Dual displays @2560x1440 & 1920x1200

Additional Comments: I am upgrading from the following:

Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz
4GB DDR2 RAM @800mhz
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

I had 6GB of memory but two 1GB modules become faulty, 4GB is not enough for video editing in Adobe After Effects and multi-tasking effectively. New DDR2 memory is expensive and not worth investing in. I cannot add a second 560ti to my current build as the motherboard only supports crossfire. I am interested in new technologies such as "QUICKSYNC" for video encoding.

Thanks in advance for your help

no love?

ok here's what I have my eyes on:

CPU

Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £235.65

RAM

G-Skill 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz Ripjaws Memory Module CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V £32.99 x4 - £131.96

OR

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDDR3 1600Mhz Memory Module CL9 1.5V £151.96

MOTHERBOARD

Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £108.69

OR

Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 Socket 1155 onboard 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £148.85

SSD DRIVE


OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 SSD 2.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Read 550MB/s Write 500MB/s 60k IOPS £209.99

good?

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
Is a better choice IMO.

I would pick the UD3P.

RAM:

Sadly I can't find the G.Skill X series 8gb kits available in the UK. I can search more websites though. What do these offer in comparison to the G-Skill modules or the Corsair Vengeance ones I listed?

MOTHERBOARD:

As for the UD3P: I don't understand what I would gain from "EXTREME MEMORY PROFILES" and "ITE IT8728 chipset" if there are advantages to these I'm more than happy to invest in the more expensive motherboard. I'm not sure if there are any additional benefits (please let me know if there are though)

Thanks for your help

They're about the same, memory modules. Obviously they're cheaper because they have half the memory. They have slightly faster timings.

I believe the UD3P has better VRMs, which'll allow for better overclocking. That's not to say that the other motherboard won't be able to overclock.
I'd think that the difference would be negligible if you're just going to overclock with a stock CPU cooler though.

Do you do professional music production?
If so, might wanna get a full tower for possible future sound card purchases and ProTools compatible hardware for instruments and stuff along those lines.

If you're more like me, who is just happy with his DAW, midi controller(s) and USB guitar connection, then you'll probably be just fine with what you have.

@ENDZYM3 thankfully FL studio & my sound card (Asus Xonar DX) and USB keyboard/guitar connection is all I need for the level I work at. Thanks for mentioning this though I have never even considered different form factor motherboards.

I'm happy to overclock as long as it won't affect the system stability in any way. This being said I should be looking at a good CPU cooler. I use a zalman cnps 9700 with my Q6600 build, would this be compatible with socket 1155? If not, which coolers would you recommend for maximum overclock/stability? What kind of speed do most 2600K processors operate at anyway? The 2.4-->3.0ghz Q6600 overclock has been ideal offering more performance and rock solid stability while operating around 30-60C all the time. If I can achieve the same sort of overclock I'll be very happy.