I too am about to begin the building of my first self-constructed machine

its so close i figure that its a fai r build design

im still pretty new but id lower the ram to 8gb and try and go for a newer fx processor also that 1000w is way t much change that and get a better gpu

graphics card . 650 would be fine and 8gb is for sure enough also you wont need that soundcard and unless you want to oc the stock cooler will work just fine as is . ive never used them myself but newegg has do it yourself kits that have all the parts in a bundle that could work .i can try and make a list of parts in your budget though ive only done it for myself so dunno what you prefur

hmm well since you dont need a big hard drive a ssd would be really good upgrade and i didnt see the editing part so 16gb would prolly be best lol also do you have an os?

I have built several computers including one for my sister who is a professional photographer who spends a lot of time using Wacom products and Adobe Photoshop. She does not game at all. The chip would be okay but a 965 is now quite old - I built my kid a computer using this chip and it games okay with a single GTX460GTX but that is at 1280 x 1028 - not 1080p!

I will give you two options - the first uses most of what you already have with few changes suggested that will save money and get you better gaming

Option 1: Your power supply is way too much - cut it back to around 500-600W maximum - go with a Seasonic or Corsair modular PSU. RAM - 8 GB should be enough - its something that't relatively cheap and easy to add more later if you really want to. Loose the sound card - most motherboards have on-board sound that is good enough. Spend the money you saved on the above to improve the graphics - read Tom's articles on Best Graphics Cards for the money and you won't go far wrong - you are porbably looking at a GTX650Ti or GTX660. You will likely need a DVD-R drive ~$25 and don't forget the operating system ~$100 for Win 7 X64 Home. Cooling - quite honestly $60 water coolers are not much better than air coolers and good water cooling only makes a difference if you want to overclock. The following air cooler gets good write-ups and is good value for $. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099. Yes there are better but they cost 2-3 times as much.

Option 2 - superfast. For photoshop applications I would personally go with a core i5-3750K which also overclocks like crazy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 - its a much faster chip than the 965 and the heat output is also a lot less so less power supply and less cooling required.

Motherboard - I would go with ASUS or Gigabyte. ECS are lass well known and in reviews generally lag behind the well known names. This MB is good but quite pricey . . . . http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131830 and unless you plant to overclock something in the sub-$150 range would be fine like the following http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131833 for $139. Don't go too cheap on the MB as parts like the voltage regulators tend to be where manufacturers save money.

RAM - what you have selected is fine - quite honestly it doesn't have a huge effect on performance compered to the other components. I would simply go with 8GB - you can always add more later very easily if you want. This RAM is good http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148661

Power Supply. Here's where you can save money. You really don't need 1000W - unless you plan on adding a second and third GPU or you're planning on heating your room with it . For a single graphics card system with an efficient graphics card and CPU all you really need is around 450-550W. I would go with Seasonic or Corsair - they are the best out there. This is a good deal right now http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119

Case - what you are thinking of is fine - it won't affect performance. I have a Silverstone TJ07 case but I'm a big fan of Lian Li cases. Note its worth looking on eBay for cases - you can get good deals - just watch out for shipping charges

HDD - I've used and have both WD and Seagate in my computer and right now for the money I would go with Seagate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

DVD-R - LG, Lite-On, Samsung will work - read reviews on whatever takes your fancy.

Graphics - this will be better than what you have originally selected http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130910

Operating System - Windows 7 X64 Home

Budget
CPU - i5-3750K $220
Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 $33
MB ASUS P8Z77-M PRO $139
RAM - 8GB $67
PSU - Seasonic 550W $80
Graphics - GTX650Ti Boost $170
Case - Antec $99
Operating System Win 7 X64 Home $100
DVD-R $25
HDD $69
TOTAL $1002
p.s. don't forget to buy some thermal paste ($7)

I was trying to keep the budget to $1000 including the OS. The selections you have in the list will build you a very good computer. It possible to spend a lot more money but only get incremental performance increases.

If you have room in your budget to go up to $1200 then here are a couple of suggestions

Your 850W PSU would be fine - quite honestly its twice the wattage needed. You note that you don't want to use it but quite honestly I'd stick with it for now - it should be good for a couple of years. Replace it later when you have saved up some cash. Its easy to change a PSU . . . although your choice.

You have saved $100 by using your existing OS and $80 by sticking with your existing PSU.

Cases - I like Lian Li because although they are "plain" they are very well put together and light because they are made of Aluminum. Their hard drive mounting system is excellent for isolating vibration. Make sure whatever model you get has a large - 1 x 140 mm exhaust fan or 2 x 120 mm exhaust fans. This is the one I used for my sisters build - I liked it a lot - roomy and quiet! http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=52432&vpn=PC-8FIB&manufacture=LIAN-LI


For video encoding and Adobe Photoshop IF YOU ARE DOING THIS EXTENSIVELY then an i7-3770K - is better for those kind of applications. It won't give you anything extra for gaming but it will help with encoding and adobe. I used an i7-2600K for my sisters computer which at the time was the best available desktop CPU and it worked great for what she was doing with photos and images - she was amazed at how much faster it ran than her older computer. All this being said the i5-3570K I suggested is still good - it will be a huge improvement over what you have now and its very overclockable so you can get some gains without spending anymore $.

An SSD would definitely be a good investment. Right now I would go with a ~265GB OCZ Vertex 3 or Samsung 840/840Pro. Mushkin Chronos Deluxe are also good - irrespective of the small performance differences between these models they will have a huge impact on the performance of the system - buy whichever of these 3 give you the lowest $/GB. Plug into your SATA 6GB/s MB interface. I see you actually picked a 128 GB Samsung 840 - that will work well also - just keep your gaming and datafiles on the HDD. I use a 128 GB SSD but I bought it when they were $350 each - these days you can get 256 GB for $200-250! I'm waiting until the prices of the 512GB units drop below $400

That's it - as I say - what you have in your latest list will work well and you won't be disappointed - good luck!