Mid-range gaming rig - partly built

[_RoRo_]

Good day, gents, here's a system that a friend of mine built for his son and wanted to get some advice...

Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP

Budget Range: 1300 or so

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming will probably be the most taxing

Parts Not Required: Just need the case an all the innards

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com works fine.

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: Thinking Intel/Nvidia

Overclocking: I am a fan of overclocking after a year or two to get some extra juice out of the system but the builder is not and believes that any kind of overclocking will ruin components, you can try to convince him otherwise =)

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe later, would prefer a better single card to an SLI setup at this point

Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080

Additional Comments: Here's the current list made by the builder, my comments in brackets

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P LGA 1155 (I much prefer ASUS and think getting smth with 4 RAM slots would be much more flexible)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506&Tpk=GIGABYTE%20GA-Z68XP-UD3P
$164.99
Intel 311 Series Larsen Creek 20GB 2.5" SATA II SSD (I prefer using a 10k drive for this...but I guess an SSD for the OS alone is ok)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167062&Tpk=Intel%20311%20Series%20Larsen%20Creek%2020GB%202.5%22%20SATA%20II
$119.99
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core (I think the 2500k is the best option here)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074&Tpk=Intel%20Core%20i5-2400%20Sandy%20Bridge%203.1GHz
$189.99
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104231
$53.99
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s (intended to run in RAID0...I think it's much better to just get a 2TB...)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
2x$79.99
COOLER MASTER Hyper N 520 RR-920-N520-GP 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler (imo unnecessary unless there's overclocking to be done)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057&Tpk=COOLER%20MASTER%20Hyper%20N%20520%20RR-920-N520-GP
$33.98

Case still not selected but thinking a CM HAF 912 or maybe the full tower version, power - major brand (unfortunately it seems like we'd need 1000 to leave space for an SLI upgrade down the road)
Any responses welcome.

 

[mortonww]

You aren't going to use a 20 GB SSD for the OS. You can use it as a cache with the Z68 platform, but you won't even be able to fit a 64 bit install of windows 7 home premium on that before it's completely used up.

i5 2500k ($230)
Gigabyte Z68 UD4 ($160)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB ($50)
20 - 64 GB ssd Cache for use with Intel SRT ($100). A lot of the small ssds are out of stock. I'm guessing it's because of the z68 launch. Try to find a corsair force series 40 or 60 GB drive for around $100 or a little less.

HAF 922 ($100)
GTX 580 ($500)

-There are several brands to choose from. MSI has a Twin Frozr II model ($495) and a "Lightning" model ($530), both of which are aimed at at least somewhat serious overclockers. EVGA offers a "superclocked" edition with the standard pcb and cooler that's $470 with rebate right now. It's a mild overclock, really.

In order of how serious you are about overclocking, it's EVGA Superclocked ($470), MSI gtx 580 Twin Frozr II ($495), then the MSI GTX 580 Lightning ($530), which offers the most robust voltage regulation circuitry and gives you more options for voltage tweaking. Also, the lightning features the Twin Frozr III cooler, which is pretty sweet.

Antec HCG 750 Watt ($70 after rebate)

8 GBs of G.Skill 1600 MHz, CAS 8, 1.5 Volt RAM ($70)

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit ($100)

That's $1380 if I didn't forget to add something. Just a tad bit over your budget but I think it will serve you very well.

 

[_RoRo_]

Yeah, my bad, the SSD is for cache...