Gaming PC Help

[Nictendo]

Hello Tom's Hardware I am a newcomer here, and was wanting your help on deciding components, etc. for a gaming rig. I have narrowed down to a few types of price ranges and components. My budget maximum is CA $1300 after shipping & handling, taxes, etc.
Template from sticky:
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Next few weeks

BUDGET RANGE: CA $500-1300

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, internet, movies, photoshop

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.ca, NCIX.com (Canada)

PARTS PREFERENCES: By price range: AMD Dual Core, DDR2-800, Radeon HD 4850 or lower/equivalent Nvidia card, Phenom II 940-965, DDR2/DDR3, Radeon HD 4850 or higher/Nvidia equivalent, Intel Core i7 920, DDR3, Radeon HD 4870 or higher/Nvidia equivalent.

OVERCLOCKING: Possibly, it would be my first time doing it, as it would be my first time building a computer.

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Preferred no, as I don't really have the budget for it, and would like a better single card as opposed to lesser dual cards.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1366x768, fairly high details prefered.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
- I intend on getting a few years use out of this computer, preferably without need for changing components.
- The less I spend, the more I have towards the next build/parts, so keep that in mind.
- I was thinking that I could use the Windows 7 RC for now until such time as it arrives, when I will pick it up.
- Prices before rebates are preferred.
- I live close to NCIX's store so I can get fairly cheap shipping from them.
- Thanks for reading and I appreciate any help offered.

 

[blackhawk1928]

-Well you can get a pretty good i7 build, but it will be over 1k, most likely be close to your budget limit, but its worth it IMO.
-Newegg is really good but also consider tiger-direct, its very good also, and competes with new egg's prices a lot and sometimes has a bigger selection.
-So basically you are playing at a 720p resolution therefore you wont need a super expensive card to get.
-Here is basic outline for your build that I would recommend but its open for tweaking, editing, and improving under your customs at your descresion
-Processor: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem
-Motherboard: I recommend either a Gigabyte or Asus motherboard, it should be LGA1366 socket type and support at least 1066mhz triple channel memory.
-Ram: Corsair, OCZ, kingston are all pretty good brands, if you want to go super high quality busniss grade ram...micron is your answer but its way more expensive. You want to have triple channel ram, its what your processor needs to work to its full capacity either wise it will be bottlenecked. 3GB,6GB,12GB are pretty much your choices for triple channel. Oh and DDR3 of-course.
-PowerSupply: Coolermaster,OCZ,Corsair are good brands, many others are good. I think a 600watt should do, depending on how you tweak your build.
-Videocard: A Nvidia Geforce gts250 should do really well for your resolution. maxing out most games you play, maybe go for a GTX260 if you want extra juice.
-Case: A well cooled mid/full tower case should do, there are many good brands (antec,thermaltake,coolermaster, and others)
-Any old 7200rpm drive should do, if you want Xtreme performance get an SSD.
-This build may not be exactly what you want, but as I said other posters can help you tweak it and change it to your needs.
-Best of Luck.

 

[Nictendo]

-Well you can get a pretty good i7 build, but it will be over 1k, most likely be close to your budget limit, but its worth it IMO.

Thanks for your suggestion. Having taken your guideline I have found parts on Newegg, and TigerDirect that add up to CA $1140.20, and CA $1110.85 respectively using the same parts. The parts are as follows.

Processor: Intel Core i7 920

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240166&sku=CP1-I7-920 http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Motherboard: MSI X58M

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4914663&sku=M452-6055
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130227

RAM: OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282839&sku=O261-7510
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365

Power Supply: OCZ StealthXSteam 600W/700W

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4975140&sku=O261-2038
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTS 250

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4494046&sku=E145-0250
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130468

Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1028568&sku=C283-1002
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4426054&sku=TSD-1000EADS
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317

CD/DVD: Haven't bothered to look yet, recommendations?

I would also appreciate if you could give recommendations on parts to change, or any ways that I could lower the cost further. Thanks for your time.

 

[blackhawk1928]

That looks like a solid build. Any old CD/DVD player will do I never really cared for my DVD drive as i use it once in a blue moon to install a game, otherwise all my stuff is on hard drives or flash-drives And I would risk buying a cheap one since if it breaks....oh well you will just buy a new one, and it wont harm your computer at all so its no big deal. Also about your hard drive, caviar green conserves energy but isn't the drive you want if you need high performance, its very fast for a 5400rpm hard drive but you will get slower loading screens in-game, slower applications openings, maybe a little but i would recommend a caviar green to an office worker who doesn't need performance...just enough to run a simple program. Besides even they had a tiny difference, the price different is worth (small enough) to up to a caviar black. But for you I would get a caviar black, it has 7200rpm, high cache, is much faster and is the right hard drive for someone like you. Your choice though, pick whichever suits you best.
-Otherwise, solid build, you have good parts from good brands. Good Luck