$1000 - $1500 gaming rig

Hey guys,

So I've been out of the hardware game for quite a while (when epic-top-of-the-line GPUs had like 256mb) so I'm really not up to date on everything that's going on in that world. I'm a tech-savy guy, I've fixed a lot of weird stuff over the years so I know I can build a solid computer and make it boot up once I have compatible hardware. Which is, in the best of worlds, where you guys come along.

Basically, I've been playing Xbox 360 for the last couple of years but with Diablo III slowly coming along I want to have a rig ready when it comes out. I'm going to be playing a lot more games as well, but this is the main reason I'm getting myself a new computer. So because I'm pretty new I'm gonna be using the template. Thank you to everyone who helps me out in advance, I appreciate it very much!


Approximate Purchase Date: Anywhere from now until Diablo III gets released. If there's a new line of graphic cards, new and cheaper SSDs or Intel's i9 cores just around the corner, I'll wait it out. No one really knows when it's coming out but I'm not in that much of a hurry. If there's a pretty great deal right now I'll take it.

Budget Range: I'm willing to go up to $1.5K. Anywhere under that is fine, but with what I have in mind it shouldn't be too far off.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mostly gaming and if it doesn't make a big difference I'd love to hackintosh my new beast. I already have a Macbook Pro and will continue using it for my day to day things but Logic Pro on it is a little bit sluggish. If I can hackintosh it, great, but if it's too much of a pain to do so or I have to sacrifice performance of a good deal then I really don't mind skipping the hackintoshing part.

Parts Not Required: Basically all I want to keep from my old rig is my mouse.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Anything that can get me the lowest prices/best deals. I live in Canada but I can just as easily ship something to the U.S. and bring it back because I go there often. Don't worry about taxes. So anything like newegg.com/.ca, NCIX.com or Tigerdirect.com or some other site I know nothing of.

Parts Preferences: I'm looking to get an i7 CPU if possible. No AMD because that pretty much puts hackintoshing out of the picture. Also, a 64Gb or 128Gb SSD to install OSes and applications, paired with a regular HDD.

Overclocking: Not a fan. I've always been a bit wary of this and I think it just makes hackintoshing that much harder, but if it makes a big difference in the final performance of my rig I'm definitely going for it, just not in a liquid-nitrate-cooling sort of way. Speaking of which, liquid cooling seems like more of a pain than anything else and heatsink/fan combos appeal much more to me.

SLI or Crossfire: If it's a better performance/price ratio, yeah.

Monitor Resolution: Nothing under 1920x1080. I'd like at least 24" if it fits the price range.

Additional Comments: If for the same price I can get some cool trippy *** on my case and sacrifice the possibility of overclocking to 4.5Ghz because I don't have 17 fan slots then go for it. I like classy and flashy stuff. A white or pearly case would be pretty epic, if such a thing exists.

Again, thanks for your time and help!