Build my gaming rig please.

What kinda games do you play?

Will the cpu be overclocked?

second thought, just having something to get over 50 fps would be cool, im not really sure what people are getting now-adays. Some tell me 60, others have told me well over 150. If need be I could probably spend some more money to get the better graphics, say up to 1200 on the computer in place of 900.

Optical drive: Samsung SATA DVD-Burner $28
Any sata dvd-burner will do.

Case: Antec Three Hundred $60
Very inexpensive while still good quality case. Also has decent air flow. The CM RC690 would be a good substitute though.

Hard drive: WD 640gb $85
Fastest 7200rpm HD on the market. Lots of storage for a reasonable price.

Graphics card: Palit 4850 $170 (-$30 MIR)
Good graphics card, especially for the price.

PSU: Corsair 650TX $110 (-$20 MIR)
High quality psu. It is more than enough for this setup.

Ram: G.Skill DDR2 1000mhz $73
This should guarantee a decent OC

Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro $140 (-$20 MIR)
High quality and good OCer.

CPU: Intel E8400 3.0ghz ($170)
Good OCer for a low price. Should be great in games for a while. You could pick up a Q6600 if you think you might need a quad but for a gaming only rig right now a faster clocked dual core will yield better performance.

HSFU: Xigmatek whatever (~$40 w/ retention bracket)
I don't remember the name since I don't care about air cooling but this seems to be what most people recommend.

Price: $876 (-$70 MIR)

This should give you some room to play around with. I didn't include MIR in the $900 limit since the MIR is money you won't see for a month or so.

EDIT: Ok I started typing this post since before your posts so let me modify say some things.

The general order of gpu performance goes like this: 4850<GTX260<4870<GTX280<4870X2
Mind you all of those card are great and the lower 3/5 give great price/performance.

A GTX260 will run you about $250 but I have seen some for around $220 after MIR.

I think on the WOW front you will probably be more internet limited than anything. In TF2 online I get around 60fps max settings, where as if I am playing on a LAN I get well above that. Crysis is one of those games that no one can play as well as they would like to. My 9800GTX (heavy OC) can play High and some Very high @ 1680x1050 with a decent frame rate that doesn't get noticeably bad.

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151171

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136218

GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128336

mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146731

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115036

Antec Three Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006

POWERCOLOR AX4870 1GBD5-PPH Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131120

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003

XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233019

ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835186020

This setup comes to $1,244.84 + $60 MIR = $1,184.84

This is at the upper end of your budget, but would be awesome!

If you need to save some money you could downgrade to a P45 chipset motherboard. I put the X48 board on there for full 16x crossfire support in the future.

I like shortstuff's build. It gives you the upper market price that you can just substitute cheaper parts one by one to get the price down to where you want.

I'd go with an E8400 or E7200 CPU with a 650W psu instead that should drop the price somewhat

AnandTech has a good review of the 4870 1Gb model. It really shines at higher resolutions. Check it out if you want:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415

That's the reason I recommended that card since you're going to be gaming on your TV.

Great build, absolutely. Now, how do we cut $300 from it and not hurt it too much... Some ideas here. Try to use as few of them as possible, of course. I sorted them with the ones that hurt least first.

1. dump the Xigmatek cooler, the retention bracket and the thermal compound. That saves you about $50 in total. Just use the CPU at stock, or mildly overclocked on the stock cooler. Add the aftermarket cooler when/if you have more money and want a big overclock.

2. get the 750TX from a cheaper place, save $26.
http://www.buy.com/retail/usersear [...] isplay=col

3. Replace the E8500 with an E8400, save $20

4. Replace the GA-X48-DS4 with a GA-EP45-DS3R, save $100. It will be less good for Crossfire, but still OK IMO. This won't hurt while you have a single card. It will cost you 10% of the fps or so when/if you add a second video card.

5. get a Visiontek HD 4870 with only 512MB instead of the PowerColor with 1GB. Save $25. Do this last, only if absolutely necessary. At your resolution the extra RAM does help.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814129113

thank you guys so much. this is a really awesome forum, one of the best I've seen in a while. everyone is very helpful and in one day I got more information then i think I would have scrounging through internet articles and reviews.

If you can find cheaper stuff somewhere else, then be my guest, however 'usually' newegg has the better deals.

I second everything that aevm said, I was about to post the exact same changes until I read his post.

the powercolor card is currently out, I could either wait for that (should be in soon) or get one made by sapphire, what would you guys recommend?

Last time I checked, it is supposed to come back in on 09/30. I linked to that card even though it currently out of stock because of the aftermarket cooler and MIR. If those things aren't important, or if you are itching to get it before Tuesday, go with the Visiontek or Sapphire cards like aevm said.