Looking to Build a Gaming Computer

[momboom1]

Hello! I was wondering if anyone could help me create a good gaming rig in preparation for Battlefield 3. I would be willing to spend up to around $1500. I know it seems kind of lame since I'm just asking for someone to do the work for me. But I really have no Idea what I'm doing when it comes to Hardware. I'm more of a Software geek.

 

[Night Fox]

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Newegg.com - ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Internal 4X Blu-ray Reader Model iHOS104-06 - Blu-Ray Drives
Newegg.com - OCZ Solid 3 SLD3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC
$1,460.90
$1,471.88 <-- With shipping (to me)...

 

[momboom1]

Just wondering. Why did you link a Solid State drive and a SATA. Was I mean to use both or one or the other. Thanks for the links btw

 

[Trotter]

Both. The SSD would be for your OS and main programs while the SATA would be for less used programs and data.

 

[momboom1]

I just remembered that I also had a 200 dollar Gift Card to newegg. So add on 200 to that price making it $1700. Would you change anything?

 

[momboom1]

Also did that not include a wireless adapter card?

 

[Night Fox]

Few people use wireless, so I didn't think anything of it. I don't know your requirements for a wireless card, but this one is good: Newegg.com - D-Link DWA-552 IEEE 802.11g, IEEE802.11n Draft 2.0 32-bit PCI Xtreme Desktop Adapter Up to 300Mbps Wireless Data Rates Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA, WPA2)

Also, with an extra $120, (subtracting the wireless adapter) I'd either upgrade the cpu or the graphics card...its up to you:
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5 GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K

 

[momboom1]

Sound Card? :l

 

[Night Fox]

Well on-board audio is plenty for most people. If you're super picky and have the ear to tell the difference in sound quality...then here's some good ones:
Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
Newegg.com - Creative 70SB088000004 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express 1x Interface PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional 70SB088600002 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card

 

[Foozle]

Hi. There seems to be a near infinite combination of components to make a viable system. This forum is great, but is there somewhere I can go to learn about each individual component and understand the pros and cons of all the variations? For example, some people recommend the Intel I7-960s versus the I5-2500k. I grew up in the 8086, 286, etc. era and while the additional choices are amazing, things were much simpler back in those days to at least get your hands around. Also, is this build still viable or maybe it is out of date?

High End Gaming Computer Build For 2011

Thanks!