$1000 - $1100 Gaming PC

heres what i would get
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/exwL

if you want to save some cash, you could go with the 660ti or the 7870 which is currently 269.99. exploding dvd burners rarely happen. its the first time i ever heard of one. its most likely a defective one

most onboard sound is good enough nowadays.in order to tell the difference between the two, you would need something like a asus ds or dx card

I only have a few suggestions:

The i5 2500K is a nice processor, but for a couple bucks more you can grab the Ivy Bridge i5 3570K. Might be worth the extra features.

Your RAM heatsinks are a little tall. With a Hyper 212 Evo, you would be better off with low profile memory.

Solid state drives are rapidly declining in price, and for another $40 you could probably get a 120 GB one which could hold a few games too, but its your money so don't feel too obligated to. I don't wanna push you over your budget.

Otherwise, I hope you enjoy a sweet rig!

PSU overkill?

Drop the CPU cooler and SSD and find a cheaper PSU....gun for a gtx 670....add ssd and cpu cooler later. No game out need an i5 to OC and the SSD can be added later.

Otherwise, looks fine.

if he is to do crossfire/sli in the future, its not overkill. OC is a nice option to have but yeah, some people dont bother with it.

adding a SSD to a system to me is more difficult than adding a hard drive to the rig later since you dont have to clone the hard drive, reinstall windows on the new SSD, and get microsoft to reactiveate windows. adding a hard drive in the system only requires you to plug in the hard drive and activate in the control center

While this sounds like a good idea on paper, what with spending more money on parts now and upgrading later, I would argue that for the SSD, its nice to install your OS to the SSD, rather than transfer stuff over to an SSD later when you upgrade. I ended up transferring, and I've had some weird errors because of it (e.g. Netflix will no longer play videos on my computer because it thinks the time/date is wrong).

I agree that the PSU is a little overkill.

Yeah, I went for the bigger PSU so I could SLI my 660 Ti (or 670, depending) when it gets a little outdated.
I'm going to upgrade to the 3570k, and get low-profile RAM for now, maybe change some more stuff up later. I think I might swap to the GA-Z77X-UD3H you posted, looks like there's more room for the cooler on there and its cheaper.
I'm keeping the SSD for my OS though, I definitely don't want to have to move Windows 7 down the road. Its a hassle.

Sounds awesome. Good luck!

Thanks a lot for the quick replies and suggestions

no problem

@ the OP. 16GB of RAM for a gaming build? That's crazy.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $99.99 - $79.99 after $20.00 rebate FREE SHIPPING
CORSAIR CX Series CX750 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

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Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O65JXI/ref=ox_sc_a... $33.45 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $43.99 FREE SHIPPING
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-8GAO

http://www.amazon.com/Lite--Super-AllWrite-Layer-Drive/... $17.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25
Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive - Bulk - IHAS124-04 Version C (Black)

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Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST1000DM003

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MSI N660 Ti PE 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

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SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Total: $1,019.01 *not including shippping & rebates


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $94.99 FREE SHIPPING
SanDisk SDSSDP-128G-G25 2.5" 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)


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Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack


http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme4/ <----- another look at that board along with a link on there to the latest bios update

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-extreme6-z77a-g... <----- Review of that board w/benchmarks

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z77_extreme... <----- Review of that board w/benchmarks

Woops, nice catch. I linked to the wrong set, I was only planning on getting 8 Gb.
Not a bad deal with the CPU combo and that board looks pretty nice. Thanks.