Mainly concerned with CPU/mobo combo. Want a good i7 in the $300 range.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211
(Is this the top i7 in the price range? Would I be better off with LGA 1155 or 1156 and getting a different motherboard?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333
(Just one for now....)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423
(Too much motherboard? Perhaps some money to be saved here to put towards a monitor?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145262
....ram.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227551
(Windows on one of these and install programs to larger drive..)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371012
(I would think this is enough power supply...)

Still gonna need a case, HD etc but you don't care about that.

1. Do you really need an i7?
2. Do you really need triple DDR?
3. I would suggest an HD6950 for video, but ATi is just my personal preference.

Sandy Bridge 1155 cpu/chipset will provide the best performance. It's probably safe to buy a 1155 motherboard now, if you go thru a major retailer like newegg or tigerdirect. (Make sure to get a K series cpu + P67 chipset if you want the option of overclocking)

About 1366 vs 1156, there are significant cost savings when choosing 1156 cpu/motherboard. Performance is approximately equal.

Apparently Sandy Bridge is the only way to go, and Microcenter has some good deals on it. I got my i7 1366 chip there for only $200.

Get an i5 or wait for Sandy Bridge-EN and get quad-channel.

Looks like you've got some nice hardware there man. As everyone else has stated you should go with Sandy Bridge LGA 1155 CPU's. Cost dosen't seem to be too much of an issue based on your other components, so get a good LGA 1155 mobo with SATA 3, USB 3, etc.

That power supply is pretty sweet.

At the moment, the fastest Intel sandy bridge chip is selling for $329:

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

If overclocking is important wait for the enthusiast editions of sandy bridge chips to be released as Jon`C said.

How exactly does a processor have turbo boost? Does it have a compressor mounted to the exhaust and force air into it's intake?

It uses 2 cores instead of 4, and increases the clock speed of the 2, during turbo-boost.

Overclocking is not important.


My only concern is about the Intel chipsets - is this recall business fixed? How do I know I'm getting a good board?

The 'fixed' chipsets are out now, the major retailers like Newegg and Tigerdirect sent back their supplies of affected motherboards and stopped selling 1155 chipsets until the new ones came in. It's not always easy to tell but many of the manufacturers changed the model name to include B3 (The new chipset revision number).

Since you dont care about overclocking, I would pick:

i5-2300, i5-2400, i5-2500 (quad no hyperthreading) $185-$210

or

i7-2600 (quad with hyperthreading) $300

based on how important hyperthreading is to you. The i7 does have 2MB more L3 cache as well.