Alright guys, thanks so much for all of your input. I have carefully looked at all of your suggestions and deeply considered your advice.
Here's the deal: The length my last one I built lasted me until by the time I wanted to upgrade it was so old and obsolete it would be pretty pointless to do so. This is my mentality going into this build is that I want it to last 2-3 years, then will probably just drop another 600 and rebuild salvaging what I can again. With upgrade potential not being important to me, this is what I came up with. (With reasoning)
I went about my selections by browsing newegg, reading hundreds of reviews, picking some of the best reviewed pieces, and then cross referencing them with sites like these. I like consumer confidence in a product, and am very loyal to companies who have good customer service. I also chose from companies which I have had success with in the past.
CPU -
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K - Best bang for the buck, highly acclaimed, 93% 5 star ratings on newegg with over 1500 reviews
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Motherboard -
GIGABYTE GA-Z68M-D2H LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Cheap, will only be running 1 video card, has all the features I desire, 5 star newegg ratings, heard good things about gigabyte as a company
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Memory -
CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX16GX3M4A1333C9 - The last memory I bought was from corsair and had 0 problems. Love the company
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Video Card -
EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Same company as my last card. Had 0 problems. 80% 5 star newegg rating
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Power Supply - COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Bronze Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Cheap, 600w will easily cover me per neweggs calculator puts my necessity at around 503 watts. Will not be upgrading to SLI cards, good rating, 5 year warranty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM - Cheap, 5 star rating with over 2600
reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Case - Aspire X-navigator
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
HDD - WD3200SD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Few more questions for you guys before I finalize my order.
1) Is there any reason why I should steer away from a Micro ATX board? I did alot of research and the only downsides is that there are not as many extra ports/slots on a regular sized ATX board, and I read that occasionally there are heating issues. Is there any truth to this and should I reconsider my selection? I really like the board because it has what I want, I'm only going to be running one card which is where I had heard of possible heat problems arising from SLI setups, and its cheap.
2) for the DVD burner, what sort of cable should I purchase along with it? It just says 'SATA' in interface, so any SATA cord that is compatible with my MOBO? Could you link an example just to clarify for me?
3)For my HDD, since I'm re-using my old one, I was recommended using a program called UltimateBootCD then installing a new OS with the new hardware. Is this the correct way to go about it? I have windows 7 on the way from a friend that works for microsoft for $30. What else would I need to do to get this to work?
Is there ANYTHING about my build that looks as if it's going to conflict with each other, anything I'm overlooking, or any advice in general that I should know or that would be helpful to me? I will most likely order tomorrow afternoon if everything checks out here.
Thank you guys SO much for all the help.
Jesse