New Gaming Rig advice

That is a nice build you got that there! I honestly would not bother with liquid cooling. The Noctua D14 is $30 cheaper and performs the same. Excellent monitor choice! I plan to get the same monitor for my build!  

For $5 less you can get the P8Z68 V-Pro/Gen3, which is more future proof. One more thing: I would get lower profile of the brand of ram.

Besides that, everything is perfect!

Ditch the sound card - that is not needed. I'm really in the minority on this board when I say that I really hate spending hundreds of dollars on expensive peripherals when I can get the same results with a $50 Logitech keyboard and mouse set. To me this is the least important part of the build - is what's outside the case, the most important is what's inside. The mouse pad is a waste, IMO - that is not needed. I haven't used a mouse pad since high school.  

The PSU and SSD setup are also major overkill - a 1250W PSU is not needed on any build unless you're powering four video cards or some crazy custom cooling solution. Get a 128GB SSD and a 2TB secondary storage solution. 2 x 240GB SSDs will eat a large portion of your budget when the drives run at about $400 a piece. Put that money into getting the best GPU you can get.

Also - watch the RAM - Sandy Bridge DOES NOT MIX with 8GB chips - despite that most Z68 motherboards claim to - most run into serious problems - you need 4GB max.

Try this:

Case: Corsair Carbide 500R - $139.99
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MKII 950W - $149.99
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth X79 - $329.99
CPU: 3.30GHz Intel Core i7-3820 - $389.99
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 - $89.99
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Redline 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $159.99
SSD: 128GB Crucial M4 - $174.99
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1.5TB - $179.99
Optical: LG Black BD-R Burner - $59.99
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 - $579.99
OS: Windows 7 Pro - $139.99
Monitor: ASUS VE248Q 24" LED Backlight Widescreen LCD - $199.99

Use the leftover difference and then you can fund the expensive peripherals.

I think you would be happier and save a few bucks with these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... (You can Still max out your SLI/Crossfire capability on your motherboard. saving you about 50$. Seasonic isnt the best brand in the world either.

Also i think you would like the Logitech G110. you can get its much cooler version the G510 (I use one) which has a Built in keyboard monitor with many applets for it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

As for everything else, ill let the others decide but you are set man, perfect build. if i had the money i'd be right up there with ya. Looks like you still got the touch for building computers haha

His monitor was just fine. IPS are not just for video editing. You might want to read this: www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1615513
Also, he said he wants 1200p. The monitor you linked is 1080p.

Also, your way of building a computer doesn't work for everyone. You have to understand that peripherals on his kind of budget are fine to get. You changed a lot of things around for no reason. Besides the suggestions I made, his build was perfectly fine, especially the monitor. IPS gives much better input lag and the response time is Black to White, not Grey to Grey on his.

I know it's just me, but I'll never spend $100 on a keyboard or $200 on a mouse - to me it's a huge waste of money and I really don't care what they do or what makes them better than a cheap keyboard. I'd rather get an awesome GPU setup or the best CPU / motherboard combo I can get and worry about the peripherals later. The only time I'd need to spend money on a keyboard like that is if I needed the backlight. But even then most people usually don't. The one thing i don't get is the $24 mouse pad though - I haven't used a mouse pad in like 10 years and it's something I'll probably never buy again.

If you stick with the original build - you have to watch the RAM though - Sandy Bridge does not mix with 8GB chips. And then there's the tall heat spreader issue.

If he wants to spend that much on peripherals, he should be able to and not be told otherwise.

OP: Honestly, I would only change the things I recommended because the rest of your build is just great!

Thanks! I looked at Z68 and my thoughts were while PCI E 3.0 is desirable, I want the better PCI E 2.0 performance now as I will be going to dual video cards fairly soon. will PCI E 3.0@ 8x give me better throughput than PCI E 2.0 @ 16x? are the 3.0 cards more expensive? Is the board in general a better performer? I will be overclocking, CPU, Memory, GPU. If it offers better performance or is more stable I would certainly switch.

Thanks! While I know that on board audio has improved a great deal since the days I first built my first system (1987 or '88) I have also always done some audio production work like creating tutorials, audio recording and editing for self released music cd's etc. I would certainly never spend 200-300 dollars on an audio solution for a PC, but I do want the kind of sound quality and feature set that discrete audio can offer. I KNOW that on board audio can't match up to a 300.00 sound card, but does on board audio these days sound good enough to compete (as good or better) than my desired 99.00 solution? if it does I would certainly ditch it. that would be a great savings. also, I just dont game, although this build has gaming at it's center of importance. So, I love a mechanical keyboard. The durabilty, feedback and speed at which I can type make it a must have. so, why not one that is geared toward gaming? I appreciate your thoughts on this, but I will not be spending much more on this rig in the near future. I have a few upgrade paths to more ram, second video card, triple monitors and added storage but that's it. I need a setup that is super comfortable, durable and looks good as it will be placed in an open area of my apt. (being in NYC I live in a one room apt.)

I am concerned with the high density dimms, P67 and Z68 all say 32 GB on 4 slots, how can they not work with 8GB dimms? need to find a definte source on this. can you point me in the right direction?