PC Mostly For Gaming ($1000ish)

[Regato]

Approximate Purchase Date: Very soon, within a week or two.

Budget Range: $1000-$1300 (I will need to buy a monitor and speakers as well but I'm looking at about $1000 for the guts)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming and other general activities

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse

Preferred Website: Newegg.com and Amazon.com

Country: US

Parts Preference: None

OC: Maybe

SLI/Crossfire: Probably not

Monitor Resolution: Not sure yet but might go with this monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=ozi7jaeaxzr9

Plan on Playing BF3 and other newer games.

Here is a very tentative build. I'm not attached to any of the parts so feel free to recommend changes. This is my first build.

Case - COOLER MASTER Storm Scout
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

DVD - ASUS 24x
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Hard drive - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Mobo - I was originally going to get this ASRock one but then I heard some people complain about their reliability.
AsRock P67 Extreme: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157229
or
ASUS P8P67: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131701

RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) (I am a little confused about this, what's the difference between buying the 2x2GB or 2 of the other?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231310

Processor - i5-2500k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

Graphics - EVGA SuperClocked Geforce GTX 570 (I'm sure there will be better recommendations here)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595

PSU - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series 80 plus (not sure)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

CPU Cooler - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

 

[Why_Me]

I'm not sure where you read that Asrock board wasn't reliable, it's a pretty solid board imo. That 650w psu will only push one of those cards, you want a 800w-850w psu for two of them. Also with 2x4GB stick of RAM your only using up two RAM slot and your covered for life...or as long as you will be using this rig.

If you looking for a single card set up then I would do something like this down below...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157230 $109.99 FREE SHIPPING
ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371048 $69.99 - $49.99 after mail-in rebate FREE SHIPPING
Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-620 620W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

 

[wintermint]

You made a good choice going for Sandy Bridge, that's pretty much the best bang for your bucks right now. For memory, I would go with 1600MHz. It shouldn't matter whether you choose the 2x2gb or 1x4gb because it's pretty much what you want. For most people, 2x2GB is enough and they usually have two more slots for another 2x2GB. You can always get 4GB now then get another 4GB down the line.

For hard drive in the 1TB range, you have to go with the Samsung Spinpoint F3. It offers better platter density than Western Digital which translate to improve performance. It was $50 but it's back at $60 now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

Don't write off ASRock just yet. They're like the Hyundai in the auto industry. They had really improved themselves and I would consider them a solid choice among ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI.

Why_Me made a good suggestion with Antec HCG series. It's pretty much Antec high standards brought down to the budget level. It's still reliable and good quality [just more budget friendly].

As for the EVGA gpu, EVGA is a solid choice. You may be able to find cheaper but EVGA has lifetime warranty, great customer service, has some programs dealing with recertified cards and "step up" program. You won't regret EVGA haha.

 

[aznshinobi]

Check out my $850 build here.
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore
Honestly I recommend allowing yourself the ability to CF/SLI. BF3 still hasn't told us requirements but just told us that a 580 can't run it on max apparently. Now at what resolution I do not know, but the demo of campaign we saw was not at max and was running on a 580. So I think allowing yourself the ability to use CF/SLI is a good deal. I think going SLI 560 Ti or CF 6950 2GB would pretty much have you set for a while.
For price sake, I recommend this monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236100
That'll put you at about $1000.

 

[Why_Me]

Check out my $850 build here.
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore
Honestly I recommend allowing yourself the ability to CF/SLI. BF3 still hasn't told us requirements but just told us that a 580 can't run it on max apparently. Now at what resolution I do not know, but the demo of campaign we saw was not at max and was running on a 580. So I think allowing yourself the ability to use CF/SLI is a good deal. I think going SLI 560 Ti or CF 6950 2GB would pretty much have you set for a while.
For price sake, I recommend this monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236100
That'll put you at about $1000.

I heard something about a gtx 580 not being able to max out BF3. If that's the case, then screw BF3. It sounds like another Crysis when that came out. I'l stick to CoD, but I'l be damned if I'm going to pump in hundreds of dollars on vid cards just to play that game.

 

[genghiskron]

whoa whoa whoa. lets not say things we are going to regret. apparently certain EA personnel have mentioned that no current system can max out bf3. this doesnt mean that low end systems cant play the game, it just means that MAX could require way more power than very high (think ubersampling in Witcher 2). a single gtx 580 was used in the singleplayer reveal, and the game looks BEAUTIFUL at those settings. multiple people (including a personal friend), were able to run the alpha on high with a single hd6870, and it looked pretty darn good, although its likely "high" in the alpha is going to be different from "high" in final release.
i imagine they are putting in some serious anti-aliasing and filtering settings which will require considerable graphics power to fully enable, but this doesnt mean that the game will look ugly with more mainstream graphics. go look at the singleplayer trailers again.
that means the game can look even BETTER than that.

ive been playing battlefield since 1942 so im kindof a huge fanboy, if you couldnt tell. ive been following the development for the last few months and they have been making some very smart decisions, and they have repeatedly mentioned that one of their goals is to allow mainstream computers (including xbox 360's) to play the game.

i will warn you that its not going to be like BFBC2 or COD. if you havent played BF2, youre going to whine like a little girl in a big conquest map because jets, tanks, helicopters, and organized squads are going to wreck your stupid lone wolf bunnyhopping leet sniper face.

 

[Regato]

Thanks for all the advice everyone!