First time builder - HTPC parts - Any suggestions?

I highly recommend stepping up to the HD 5770. It's only a few bucks more, but you get a lot more power. I've got the 5750 when the price difference was $50ish when the 5xxx series launched, and I've regretted not shelling out the extra dough for the 5770.

Ditch the Coolermaster PSU. Coolermaster + PSU = POS. Instead, shell out for this SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold unit. It'll go a long way in making the build quieter.

I'd avoid buying a SSD right now, especially the Vertex 2 series. A while ago, it was found that OCZ wasn't promoting the Vertex 2 using it's actual specs. Instead, the reported numbers were inflated. Besides, the newer SSDs should be trickling down into the lower budget units fairly soon. You'll be able to pick up either a much larger SSD or a much faster one for the same price soon. Besides, there isn't much of a benefit to SSDs in general.

Other than that, it looks pretty good. You don't need anything else as long as you don't buy everything open box (which isnt' recommended).

As for building guides, I don't find videos very useful. You'll spend more time restarting them, and typically text guildes are better and more informative. The one on this forum (through the stickies at the top of the forum) is one of my favorite guides.

I read all the "Toms build your own" articles. You can compare and tweek them where you like. They are all tested and rated for you. You can't go wrong.

I built the $1500.00 job with a few tweaks. I'm not a hard core gamer, so I dropped one of the GPU's in my build. I saved $300.00. I upgraded the HD to larger and I got Corsair H50 cooler. I went on the Dell website and built the exact same configuration as the one i put together but I did it for $900.00 less.

Some more good advice that helped me a lot besides reading everything, watch a lot of you tube videos. Any parts you’re thinking of buying and assembling are posted. Somebody has done a home video on it. Both specs and how to's.

Take your time be patient and understand your motherboard manual completely.

Isn't the Core i5k an unlocked processor which benefits gamers? I was reading somewhere that the 2nd generation i7's have 2 distinct motherboards that have different chipsets. One better for gamers and one for video and general use. Check that.

Good luck you’re going to love it.

Best answer selected by bigmantrav.

I ended up buying and installing as originally specified and it worked out great. When putting it all together I was very worried about plugging things in wrong but the connection sockets and plug orientations almost makes that impossible. I still double checked everything and read all the manuals. The mobo and gpu were easily configured and overclocked.

The only issue I've had so far is watching blu rays over 7.1. The software that comes with the blu ray player only supports 5.1. (BTW it's called Cyberlink PowerDVD but it does play BDs.) I ended up getting the arcsoft total media theatre 5 which supports 7.1. After watching my first blu ray movie it was choppy after 40 mins. After installing the latest drivers on the gpu the choppiness went away.

Glad to hear it all worked out. Good Job. Watch your Temps.