Rate my gaming rig set up so far please and give me any recomendations please.

[rawr4dj]

All right I am reaching the tail end of my component harvesting Ill start off by filling in the things I have so far, i want recommendations on anything that has a question mark next to it please. Also the components with a (*) next to them, I would like for your output on in terms of if its a good choice or not or if there is a better alternative at the same price or cheaper.
- *CPU: Intel CPU Core i5-2500k unlocked &unleashed
- *Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen-3
- RAM: Kingston Hyper X6 6GB DDR3 running @ 1600
- HDD/SSD:? Any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated I have heard that its a wise ideal to get a small SSD drive so that i can boot my OS from there to increase performance. And I was think about getting 1TB of data.
- Optical Drive: I read somewhere that Blue Ray drives are like over priced? That could have been info from a few years ago so I am not to sure to be honest. I do not need nor require a Blu Ray drive that has the blu ray burner to. I just want to be able to play blu rays to my beautifully stunning 27" LED HP Monitor. But I do indeed require the need of a CD reader/burner and DVD reader/burner. Is there such a thing as combo that has Blu Ray, CD, and DVD reader/burner? Id rather just have one disc drive. Also what exactly are the differences between x22 and etc? Lastly is their a specific brand I should get that is priced right and reliable? or are they all generally the same?
- Case: Thermaltake VL8000 Series V(subscript3) Black Edition its an full size ATX case i believe
- Power Supply: ???Haven't purchased one yet. What amount of Voltage or amps or whatever do I need?
- Sound Card: ???Not sure if I even need this how much of a difference will it make in regards to my sound quality?
- Video Card:???? I am making a gaming rig so im sure ill need this now this is where the reccomendations will help? I would like for the price to be decent. I am very much interested in the 3.0 PCI express slot that my mobo has if this means much at all?

Notes:
So as you can see I know a little bit about the computers hardware but when it comes to all the choices on New Egg and Tiger Direct it gets overwhelming lol. So how do you think my gaming rig is coming along in respects to being able to play games like WoW on Ultra settings. Or BF3, Skyrim, Crysis I/II, soon to be trying Guild Wars II etc. Is the i5 enough power? and what exactly do all the ports on my mobo mean? Like SATA 2.0 3.0 etc eSATA PCI 2.0 PCI express 3.0 etc etc.?

 

[g-unit1111]

- RAM: Kingston Hyper X6 6GB DDR3 running @ 1600

That's a triple channel X58 setup - on a dual channel Z68 or P67 setup you'll need 2 of the same RAM in order to work so you'll only be able to run an 8 or 16GB setup.

- HDD/SSD:? Any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated I have heard that its a wise ideal to get a small SSD drive so that i can boot my OS from there to increase performance. And I was think about getting 1TB of data.

If you can fit an SSD in your budget absolutely, but the small boot drives only work if there's a secondary solution to go with it. The reason being is that formatting takes 10% of your drive and then a full Windows install takes approx. 16GB so on, say a 60GB drive you'll only have 25GB after format and Windows install, you won't have much room for games or anything else.

- Optical Drive: I read somewhere that Blue Ray drives are like over priced? That could have been info from a few years ago so I am not to sure to be honest. I do not need nor require a Blu Ray drive that has the blu ray burner to. I just want to be able to play blu rays to my beautifully stunning 27" LED HP Monitor. But I do indeed require the need of a CD reader/burner and DVD reader/burner. Is there such a thing as combo that has Blu Ray, CD, and DVD reader/burner? Id rather just have one disc drive. Also what exactly are the differences between x22 and etc? Lastly is their a specific brand I should get that is priced right and reliable? or are they all generally the same?

They were overpriced but they've dropped significantly. What is still overpriced in the BD-R world is the playback software. I really like Arcsoft's Total Media Theater but it's extremely expensive per license ($99) compared to (ugh) Cyberlink.

DVD burners are so cheap now that you might as well get one, combo drives do exist such as this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106374

As far as specific brands go - I like Lite On, Sony, Plextor (but you pay a premium with them), and LG.

- Case: Thermaltake VL8000 Series V(subscript3) Black Edition its an full size ATX case i believe

Are you dead set on that case? Thermaltake produces a lot of junk - they produce a few decent components but for the most part a lot of junk.

- Power Supply: ???Haven't purchased one yet. What amount of Voltage or amps or whatever do I need?

That depends on your primary GPU - if you're going for a high end one like the 7870, 7950, or GTX 680 you'll need at minimum 600 but probably 750 just to be on the safe side.

- Video Card:???? I am making a gaming rig so im sure ill need this now this is where the reccomendations will help? I would like for the price to be decent. I am very much interested in the 3.0 PCI express slot that my mobo has if this means much at all?

That depends on how much you want to spend. If you're going for the $250 range the Radeon 7850 is a good choice, if you're going for the $350 - $400 range the Radeon 7870 and GTX 570 - 580 are great choices as well. PCI Gen 3 is mainly a guideline for the new CPUs (Ivy) that will take advantage. It's backwards compatible so you'll be able to run any graphics card you want - even the 7970.

So as you can see I know a little bit about the computers hardware but when it comes to all the choices on New Egg and Tiger Direct it gets overwhelming lol.

I really like Newegg - they're a great reseller. Tiger Direct used to be great but they've gone way downhill since their parent company SYX bought CompUSA - now they don't stock all the current hardware like they used to and you have to wade through tons of crap before you get to the good stuff.

Is the i5 enough power?

The 2500K is tailor made for gaming. The 2600K is tailor made for multimedia applications (CS5, Revit, etc) and has a lot of extra instructions that don't have a lot of use in gaming environments.

and what exactly do all the ports on my mobo mean? Like SATA 2.0 3.0 etc eSATA PCI 2.0 PCI express 3.0 etc etc.?

SATA 2/3 is what ports your HDs and optical drives plug into, eSATA is external SATA (HDDs, MP3 players, etc), PCI 2.0 and 3.0 are the slots that your GPU(s) will plug into.

 

[rawr4dj]

Very very in depth indeed thank you. So Basically I will need to buy new ram? And in regards to the blu ray licensing software what does that mean? Not only do I have to pay more for a blu ray disc, but I also have to pay to watch it? Also in regards to GPU I was going for a midddle of the road kind of how the i5 processor is middle of the road? maybe a little higher than middle of road. And lastly so my mobo is a good choice?