After all of these posts, my build would be extremely redundant. The only thing I'd like to note is that with PSU's I'd recommend getting a bit more than you really need, it leaves headroom for future upgrades. Also, PSU's degrade over time, so leaving that extra buffer is a good move. Always go for a PSU that's at least 80Plus Bronze certified.
I think LongGone and Reach have suggested the best builds. I'd suggest a mix between the two.
CPU: i5 2400. I believe the only difference between the 2400 and the 2500 is a small factory overclock. Correct me if I'm wrong (Which I very well could be), but I can't find any other difference. No reason to pay an extra 20 bucks for 200mhz.
Card: The 560Ti will give you the best bang for the buck, no doubt. Pick your preferred brand, my personal favourite is MSi. I've had a lot of good experiences with them. EVGA cards and the PNY XLR8 (I don't like PNY though) cards have great warranties. The AMD equivalent is the 6870, which is actually a pretty awesome card for the price, however much I dislike AMD. I wouldn't recommend mixing AMD and Intel though.
RAM: I love Corsair, they're awesome. I generally go with Corsair RAM, but I've heard that GSKILL is really good for intel setups (Although I don't have any personal experience with GSKILL) so my recommendation would either be 8GB of the Ripjaws or the Corsair Vengeance. Both are pretty inexpensive solutions.
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 LE is pretty good, although you should research motherboards a lot on your own though, that's always a good idea.
HDD: From the sounds of it you have a drive you plan on using for boot already? I dunno, HDD isn't something you really need help on. Western Digital is the way to go, though. Just obviously not a Caviar Green, those are meant for storage and
NOT for boot, so don't make that mistake.
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX750 V2. 80 Plus Bronze, Corsair, can't go wrong. Antec has similar PSU's IIRC, if you prefer non-Corsair. Cougar is really good as well.
Case: Pretty much personal preference. My recommendation is to get a case that has rubber grommets for cabling in the back of the case. That's a really neat feature. The Coolermaster HAF 912 is a really cheap awesome case, I have one for my extra PC and it is great. (Here we go again with the corsair fangirl-ism) My personal favourite cases are Corsairs. They are absolutely /dreams/ to build in. The 600T and the 650D are the best ones IMO.
I dunno if I forgot anything, but, I think everyone else's recommendations are great. I didn't actually take the time to price out the build though because I'm lazy and everyone elses are good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by darkshark
You could also opt to get a better motherboard that supports dual video cards (SLI) and plug a couple of gtx 460's in there. You can get 2 460's for the price of 1 570, and output more power from the pair of 460's than the single 570 card for sure.
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I can attest to this (8 My build is actually running two GTX460's right now, and it's awesome. Depending on how optimized the game is, I'm either on par or ahead of my friends GTX570.