New budget gaming/photo editing build under 1000

Most importantly you want an IPS type of monitor rather than TN panel. I personally recommend the new LG IPS226V-PN for a good 22" monitor. The Dell U2311H (or the smaller U2211H) is an older, yet GREAT monitor that comes HIGHLY recommended that is said to have better color reproduction but it costs more. The LG monitor is newer with LED backlighting, thinner, and has HDMI input for $200.

Hands down you want hardware RAID, but luckily many newer motherboards have this capability (RAID 0,1,5,10) for small setups so you do not need additional PCI RAID cards. Software RAID is a bad idea for photo editing - you need your CPU resources for editing.
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CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W ATX12V v2.2 / ESP12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

2 x 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=N82E168...

Windows 7 - OEM (64 bit)

TOTAL = $1045

Best would be to skip the RAID1 and just use 1HDD for OS + Programs and 1HDD for storage of photos. OR If your budget allows you to spend another $65, then get 3 drives to allow a C: drive and an additional RAID1 for storage. Good article on RAID is here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/525263

Edit: Get this mobo instead of the one above... will allow for Quicksync which will speed up photo editing.


ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

New TOTAL = ~$1065

Sorry it took so long to reply, I've been in Florida for 3 weeks for my job.

I went ahead and bought what you suggested, and now as I try to install windows I get a blue screen as soon as it says "Starting Windows"

I've tried the hard drives and RAM in my other desktop and they work fine.....I'm stumped and don't know what my next step should be, any suggestions?