Building a Gaming PC - $1,600 Budget - Need Any Advice You Can Offer

Guys, hey, I've scraped together $1,600 this year and want to assemble a gaming PC to replace my custom rig from 2006.

I've been out of the loop for a little bit, but have a Micro Center near me with a good selection as well as full Internet access to the usual providers (Newegg, Best Buy, etc.)

Basically just want to build something that screams, has a nice monitor and runs a killer game of "Star Wars: The Old Republic". What would you recommend and what do you think I could build with $1,600?

Please let me know and thanks. :-)

Chris

Hmm...you said you have a micro center...that means that some of the components that I list will be cheaper at the center than on newegg (which is the site i'll be using)

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500k $220 (i think it's $190 at the micro center)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115072

Graphics: 2x Gigabyte gtx 560Ti $210 each $420 for 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125401

MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128502

PSU: Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-900 900W $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371050

Case: Antec Nine Hundred $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129021

HDD (storage): HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.C 0F10383 1TB $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822145304

SSD (boot): OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227725

RAM: Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB Desktop Memory Model PGD38G1333ELK $34
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220557

Heatsink+Fan: CM Hyper 212 EVO $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835103099

Blu-ray drive: ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM $58
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827135247

OS: Win 7 Home premium 64bit $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116986

Monitor: Acer X223WDbd Black 22" $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009212

Total: $1527

Explanation: I chose this set up because of the intel i5 processor and SLI of the 560Ti. This rig will surely enable you to game into the future. The i5 2500k is one of the best gaming CPUs at its cost. Anything over that and you're spending too much for extra performance. The SLI of the 560Ti's is better than 1 gtx 580: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/441?vs=305 . The motherboard is decently priced and is SLI capable. The PSU is more than enough to handle the 2 gfx cards and the other components. The 900 case should be roomy enough for all the components. A 1TB storage device for normal storage and a 60GB SSD for a boot drive. The 8GB memory is more than enough for current needs. The Hyper 212 EVO allows you to overclock the i5 to around 4.5Ghz. Blu ray drive for movies and the rest is self explanatory

same here as well apart from maybe wait for the ati hd7970 which is close to a 590 and 6990 around £400 and without xfire/sli issues they should be out january

Dragondude made agood build.....but......

The GFX card is 820 Mhz...the factory OC'd model @ 900Mhz is $25 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125363

Jump up to the Antec 902 V3, has front USB 3 port
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129097

I recommend a 120 GB Tier 3 SSD, you'll be struggling w/ 60GB in 6 months.
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 070-6.html

This PSU gets me 9.5 jonnyguru performance rating and is $40 cheaper .... pays for the better case and the GFX card upgrade
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817207011

All fine and good. but all these high end graphic cards do nothing without a high definition display. A 1920 X 1080 is a must even at a single 560 Ti level.

Good luck!

I have a 580 an no longer feel future proof ;-(

Think im gonna stop reading tech sites rumour sites an forums and just replace my hardware when it slows down lol

Not so future proof

Twin 580's ($1000) get 953 fps in Guru 3D game test suite ....

Twin 900Mhz 560 Ti's ($430) get 862 fps......

That's $670 extra ..... an extra $570 for the cards + $150 for the beefier PSU....267 % of the price for 10% performance increase.