Gaming/Workstation Help

I'd say drop that to a 2500K and drop the case to something like a Corsair Carbide, NZXT Phantom 410, or my favorite - the Fractal Design Arc MIDI. That will give you an extra $140 to play with and I'd heavily suggest investing that in a really good GPU like the Radeon 6950.

I would not recommend water cooling for a first build. Even a liquid block like an H100 still won't give you the performance and stability that a good solid air cooling system will.

As far as the difference between workstation and gaming graphics are concerned - most workstation video cards like the Fire Pro won't handle the fast redraws that a gaming card will give you, and vice versa. You pretty much have to decide what you want out of your system in that area.

Try this - it's a little bit over $1,000 but it should give you an idea according to your specifications. This doesn't include monitor, keyboard/mouse, or OS. If you need those things I can adjust accordingly:

Case: Fractal Design Arc MIDI - $99.99
PSU: Corsair TX750 - $109.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3H - $159.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i5-2500K - $229.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $34.99
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw X 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1333MHz 1.5V - $41.99
SSD: 64GB Crucial M4 - $109.99
HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB - $129.99
Optical: Samsung DVD Burner - $15.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 - $279.99

Total: $1,179.99

Get a Gen3 board so you have the ability to upgrade to PCI-E 3.0 in the future, and if you go with a less expensive board like this one down below and a less expensive case like the CM 922 Blue Edition for $100 you can afford a better vid card and psu. When your on a fixed budget sometimes you have to cut cost one way or another.

http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-80PLUS-B [...] 654&sr=1-9 $99.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
OCZ ZS Series 750W 80PLUS Bronze High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125401 $209.99
GIGABYTE GV-N560UD-1G GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157271 $121.99
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview. [...] me3%20Gen3 <----- A better look at that Asrock board including HD 3000 graphics, Lucid Virtu, etc...

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/overview.html <---- Gen3 boards + Ivy Bridge + PCI-E 3.0 cards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119224 $99.99 FREE SHIPPING $20 off w/ promo code COMA2X7, ends 2/13
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 BLUE RC-922M-KWN2-GP Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Side window

optional 200mm blue fan for the side of that case

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Maste [...] pd_vtp_e_2 $14.73 Free Standard Shipping
Cooler Master R4-LUS-07AB-GP MegaFlow 200mm LED Case Fan (Blue)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220570 $41.99 FREE SHIPPING
Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory with heatshield Model PSD38G1600KH

well i don't suggest dropping from an i5 2500k to an i7 2600k, if you like things moving fast well at least on those that benefit with HP,

you did say this

" I play a lot of Valve games, also frequently play Battlefield 3, Minecraft, Arkham City, BC2, I also work on editing video and use Sony Vegas, After Effects, and Photoshop a lot "

since you do work on editing video and such, the i7 2600k would benefit you more, i thought the same and bought an i5 2500k before but i wanted more so before buying an i7 2600k i passed by an i7 3930k and went with it, it blasted through what i wanted and exceeded pass by my expectation so i suggest and grab some i7 2600k its like an i5 2500k just that for the stuff you do, it's more for you of course unless you don't care about time and don't mind it going overnight if it's a big file or something

well if he can pull up some dollar on his pocket to get both then it's good, even with gaming you don't need a 6950/gtx 570lol, a hd 6850 and gtx560ti is more than enough to play at 1080p, no problem so it's not really bad as with work related = gets cash so much better if he can finish all that so he can game to his hearts content

Those are great for your work needs. The regularly processesing of high-resolution images will greatly benefit from increasing the amount of system RAM available to Photoshop. I suggest you go for 16GB's of RAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231486

On your video card that will depend as designers who works with 3D models will obtain far better performance by installing a faster video card containing more video RAM. The professional cards come with much larger video RAM and often tools to work with programs like MAYA 3d, Photoshop, and others. Here are some tips on increasing performance with a GPU in sony vegas. This said you may not see a big boost depending on your needs so its really your call. I suggest due to your budget you steer clear of professional cards and get a high video RAM consumer version. This card may come down in price once Nvidia launches its 600 series.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102962

You need a good PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371051

A 128GB SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820148442

A after market heatsink & fan CM hyper 212+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835103065

For putting you creations on disk I suggest the ASUS bluray burner.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827135252

I did not pick an HD due to their high prices and would suggest you use old drives if you have one. Total cost of your choices plus the ones I suggest will run about $1400. If you must reduce the price I suggest dropping to the i5 2500K and an NXZT Gamma case.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0354589
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811146061

well i don't suggest waiting for a new 6xx gpu thought, but if you plan on buying 5xx gpu and waiting for the 6xx gpu to come to lessen some prices then it's good, it happened to me i waited, for new gpu before and waited again, until it's been 1 year before i decided to buy one lol feels stupid but yeah make sure you want to buy something and decide on it before you wait, it should help at least

On your RAM I suggest you the 2X8GB's in my link as 4x4GB kit takes up all slots. The 2X8GB kit allows you an easy path to future upgrade to 32GB's. The 4X4GB kit on most all motherboards limits overclocking. The below graph are on the 79x boards but same applys to adding more sticks on any motherboard.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] hz4y0r3hkq
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231489

I suggest the Curcial SSD over your choice as OCZ's are more prone to BSOD. After my last post Intel released their new SSD cherryville. They may be the best you can get.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508 [...] -sandforce
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820167093

I suggest the 7950 with 3GB's video RAM. No other single GPU card has this much video RAM which is very important for increasing your work related performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 1m75qanhsm

The CM hyper 212+ is your best bang for the buck at $30. To see a good OC gain you need to jump all the way to the $90 Noctua NH-D14.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 329l0ueexo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835608018

I highly suggest a bluray burner for line of work and the ASUS is about the best.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] v6kaztf9og

At this budget you may want to know the 22nm 3570k, 3770k, and z77 motherboards are releasing on April the 8th. The new ivy bridge performance is about 15% greater than sandy bridges i7 2600k.