$1500 gaming rig? Help me out gurus!

[nobrains8503]

Budget: $1500

Items Needed: Everything except OS (Windows 7 64bit Pro). This includes monitor as well, I don't need anything bigger than 24 inch. Keyboard and mouse don't have to be fancy or included in build price.

Goal: Gaming and light use of photoshop elements. Games include WoW, SC2, Diablo3, and various other older games. No FPS for me so not a big focus. My goal though is to play all games in at least 1920 x 1080 res. as smoothly as possible.

Preferred Vendor: Newegg, plain and simple you can't beat free shipping on most products and no sales tax.

Details: This will be my third self built PC so I know how to piece them together, but I prefer to stay with a system that doesn't need to be OC'd. I have very little experience in it and would rather not bake my new parts on accident, so no lectures please on how easy it is, i'd just rather not. Would rather stay away from SLI/Crossfire as well, I don't think any of the games I play would need something that extreme. SSD seem a little extreme as well and would rather have more storage than speed in that case.

Extras: I also need a new wireless router, so if anyone has any input on which to get for speed and range, feel free to chime in.

 

[sandybridge]

The current batch of H67/P67 chipsets/mobos have a flaw in SATAII that may degrade in performance overtime. Some mobos have backward-compatible SATAIII ports that are unaffected cuz they're on another chip. I've been on 2500+ & P67 for 2 weeks no problems. The news has spread to even yahoo now.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20030048-92.html

Would you buy a AMD cpu + mobo? Cuz I can't recommend sandy bridge right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625+600007943+600013659+600009016+600054095&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=22&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671%20600005863%20600005574&IsNodeId=1&name=Phenom%20II%20X4&Order=PRICE&Pagesize=20

 

[mdd1963]

In light of most P67 motherboards being yanked back in recall by Intel, a P67 based solution might require a few months wait. (April is last heard forecaset date for new rev B3 boards)

If unwilling to wait, there are still several older socket 1156 cpus that perfrom quite well in gaming, I'd recommend at least a GTX560 as a solid gaming card.

There are a plethora of quality 24" monitors available for sub-$300 all capable of 1080p res.

 

[batuchka]

Goal: Gaming and light use of photoshop elements. Games include WoW, SC2, Diablo3, and various other older games.
Would rather stay away from SLI/Crossfire as well

Meh i would think a sub $820 rig with LCD in would suffice

$240 1090T + MSI 870A-G54
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

Items from egg

$417AR

23" LCD $147 Free Ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009266

$804AR before keyboard and mouse

 

[Guest]

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131665

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8TU-6GBPI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247

EVGA SuperClocked 012-P3-1572-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 20000:1) Built in Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052

Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Keyboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109191

RAZER DeathAdder Precision Optical Gaming Mouse - 3.5G Infrared Sensor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153055

Total 1452$ AR

 

[nobrains8503]

Anyone else?

SR26's build looks good to me, but I'd like some type of second opinion.

Thanks for the help!

 

[gerry410]

read all of toms byo articles then decide.