Sub $1000 Gaming/Media | February 10th

[fierycrotch]

Approximate Purchase Date: within 10 days

Budget Range: $1000 Before Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Watching Movies on TV, Ripping Blu Rays

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, TV, 1 TB 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon.com, newegg.com, tigerdirect.com (If you know of any others please recommend them)

Country: Florida, United States

Parts Preferences: I'd love to get the GTX 570. I will not budge on the i5 2500k. (If there is something better, then yes. But I will not go down in performance/price.)

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: This is my first build and first post on Tom's. I am not the savviest computer individual but I have done some research.

Here are my unknowns:
■Do I have any incompatabilities?
■What PSU should I be select? Is 650w overkill/underkill/just right?
■Where may I cut corners?
■Should I get the GTX 570?
■Did I fail choosing Biostar?
■My OS will be on the SSD along w/ what ever game I am primarily playing. Is there anything wrong with Sandforce and SATA III? (I remember glancing at a subject whilst researching)
■Will the GTX 570 handle playing SWTOR on my PC monitor and Playing a video file on the TV at the same time? SWTOR would be in windowed mode.

Here is what I have so far:

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-90G 2.5" 90GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Model #:VTX3-25SAT3-90G
Item #:N82E16820227759
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227759

GIGABYTE GV-N560UD-1G GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Model #:GV-N560UD-1GI
Item #:N82E16814125401
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125401

ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Model #:Z68 PRO3 GEN3
Item #:N82E16813157279
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157230

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 ... Model #:BX80623I52500K
Item #:N82E16819115072
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Model #:VL80001W2Z
Item #:N82E16811133094
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094

XFX Core Edition PRO650W (P1-650S-NLB9) 650W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified ... Model #1-650S-NLB9
Item #:N82E16817207014
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9B Model #:CML8GX3M2A1600C9B
Item #:N82E16820233196
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196

SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo SATA Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support
Model #:SH-B123L/RSBP
Item #:N82E16827151232
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151232

Current Price $931.92

 

[Outlander_04]

I would avoid the Biostar mb . The p67 was replaced with the Z68 chipset that has a lot of useful new features . There are some nice Asrock Z68 boards at very good prices .

Presumably you will have a hard drive as well? If so you can use a smaller 40 gig SSD as a cache drive

The RAM you have listed is an older model and I dont believe it will run those timings at 1.5 volt that you should run it at with sandybridge processors . This instead
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196

If you plan to overclock the processor you need the 2500K , not the 2500 . Identical but the K is unlocked

 

[fierycrotch]

I've made a few changes.. Updated the MOBO, CPU, RAM, and I added the Blu Ray Drive.

@Outlander_04. Thanks for the suggestions so far. I don't plan on SSD Caching.