criticque my prospective Cyberpowerpc

# CAS: CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced Mid-Tower Gaming Case (Black Color)

# CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)

# CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366
# CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]

# FAN: XtremeGear Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)

# HDD: 1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)

# KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard

# MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Corsair or Major Brand)

# MOTHERBOARD: * (3-Way SLI Support) MSI X58A-GD45 Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Triple-Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 Audio, eSATA, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III, RAID, IEEE1394a, 3 Gen2 PCIe, 3 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI (All Venom OC Certified)
# MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
# MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
# NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
# NOISEREDUCE1: Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts [+9]
# OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)

# POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-750TX 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+109]

# SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

# VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+310] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

Price: $1,354 plus shipping

On the video card i was sort of torn between the above gtx 570 and the ATI 6970...still not sure.

Do you think this rig will blow me away for years to come or can i improve it without spending much more $?

look ok to me

Anything labelled "Xtremegear" worries me. It is probably low costing generic stuff that can fail on you. I'd take out the water cooling for sure if it's by that brand, and just use case fans. Those are also considerably large video cards, so make sure the case is big enough for them. Seems like a lot to spend, but I guess it costs a lot more when you special order from a computer site like that. I wonder how much it would be to buy all those components from Newegg or TD and build yourself?

Yeah as Russ said you don't need to go with a watercooled system i run air cooling on a megahalem Rev. B and my temps currently are C1: 38* C2: 34* C3: 38* C4: 32* all in Celsius and its summer here. On max load temps don't go over 57*c just get a good aftermarket heatsink and skip the watercooling and save yourself the worry/trouble.

Thanks for the feedback.

What about the motherboard and power supply? I have had some upgrade debacles in the past with Dell due to power supplies and motherboards that were not conducive to future upgrades.

Also, can i get away without having a dedicated sound card?

Lastly, is my video card choice wise?

You can definitely get away without a soundcard. Also, I would really really think about building your own at a $1,350 budget. If I were spending that money today I'd run up to Microcenter and grab a $280 2600k to build around.

Hah, check out my thread, just upgraded to a similar spec...

http://www.computerforum.com/187795-upgrading-desktop-will-work.html

and from my research id recommend the ATi for power/price ratio and power consumption!

Thanks for the replies,

Id be a little concerned with the level of effort, and possibility of problems with building my own pc.