Going for a flexible $800 budget! Can go up even further (max $1000) if the increase in performance is justifiable.

Would two of these be better than the SSD you showed me awp choo? 128 GB SSD Sandisk for $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...1646-L013A

Anyone see any good parts in this sale that are worth scooping up? http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Aug...-PromoWord

Quick question, what should I be watching out for in terms of compatibility of parts? I know you should have a proper PSU (750 w should be enough right?) but what are other things I should be looking out for?

Double post

Thanks for the help guys, I just finished my final build. Let me know what you think!:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Gunmetal/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 600W ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $890.92
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-11 15:51 EDT-0400)

I used pc part picker to list these, so some prices are inaccurate. The GPU was 207.99 (-$52 off)+ Deus Ex HR + BF3 because of a promo code. And there are several MIRs I have to do (hopefully I do them)

Nice build, good job! Also, what about this? and this?/this

Btw, I calculated to see how much of PSU you'll need, I calculated it with all the things you posted and put 2 HDD's as storage, the final result was 516.. Not a bad idea get a 600, but if you want to get a 550, will work too .

Also, here's a good way to build it:

[video=youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw[/video]

[video=youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls[/video]

[video=youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok[/video]

I have a 500 gb external hard drive, another 500 gb on my laptop and probably 180-200 gb hdd that I'm planning on ripping from my old desktop so I'm going to keep on the cheap side and for now I plan on installing Windows using a USB so I don't need an optical (I barely use those things anymore) but I also have a DVD drive I can rip from my old desktop. Thanks for the vids, I'll be watching them over and over in anticipation as my parts ship in (by hopefully next Wednesday ?).

Are there any safety precautions you recommend for a first time builder? Things I should be careful about installing so I don't end up damaging expensive parts?

^Ok, I see

Are there any safety precautions you recommend for a first time builder? Things I should be careful about installing so I don't end up damaging expensive parts?

Dont panic in getting all built up together, follow those videos and dont be lazy manuals when needed. Take a good amount of time to build it (2-4/5 hours) and dont go build stressed out. Be careful in attaching memory/GPU on, also, dont drag the processor trying to get its place (shown on video), power little cables were a pain in the ass for me, so I had to test every single one of them and distinguish which one did what. Other than that, put that thing to work! GOOD LUCK !

PS: I took 2.5 hours to install my things, including windows

Going for a flexible $800 budget! Can go up even further (max $1000) if the increase in performance is justifiable.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
That's a good processor, but you should have gotten 2500k instead. Cheaper and better to OC.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
It's alright.

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
This is really good & cheap. Good choice.

Storage: Sandisk 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.99 @ Newegg)
You should have gotten a HDD but that's ok. I assume you're gonna invest into another HDD because 128GB is not enough.

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB Video Card ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Very good card. Good choice.

Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Gunmetal/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($104.98 @ Newegg)
I love this case.

Power Supply: Corsair 600W ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
600W? I don't think that's enough especially if you're planning to upgrade sooner or later. Nowadays people get 750-850W for gaming computers.
1000W is really unnecessary unless you're using quad graphic cards.

Total: $890.92

Two things Fenken commented on I have to agree with.
The 128GB SSD is fine to fit your OS, Antivirus, a few applications (like Steam & Google Chrome, etc.) & like a few video games.. But I think I've been told the performance decreases as a SSD is near capacity. Also, 128GB is not that much space, especially when you take into account a game like SKYRIM is 6GB (4.68% of that hard drive space) Personally, I have a 64 GB SSD & a 1.5TB HDD. I just put windows & the antivirus ontop of a few other programs in the SSD, but I put everything else into the HDD.

Secondly, the PSU comment is spot on. 600W is probably the lowest end PSU I would even consider for a gaming PC. Luckily if you purchase a 2nd gen Intel i5/i7 processor you don't have the power consumption needs like my i7-960 has. (Granted, if you are buying a 2GB GDDR5 GPU with a 256-bit interface, you wouldn't need the CPU with an additional GPU provided with the second gen processors, but I'd stick with what you have already chosen)
If you want to create a PC to play the current games on the highest graphics settings right now, the 600W PSU will do fine. (I think)
The PSU will probably not meet your requirements in about a year or two if you want to play the future games on even higher graphics settings.

He has an external hard drive (500 gb), so I don't think it's a problem.

[Anubis]

SSDs should maintain relatively steady performance regardless of how much data is stored on them. Magnetic drives show significantly reduced performance at near-capacity due to the moving components within them. The performance of an SSD will, however, degrade over time as the cells are rewritten many times. For this reason I personally avoid any excess caching and space-wasting files, such as a hibernation and pagefile.

For reference, I believe the Z77 chipset in the selected motherboard also supports Intel SRT, which is useful when you have a (inexpensive) SSD that's 64GB or smaller. Instead of using the SSD as the primary drive, the Intel RST software will use the SSD to cache files that are commonly used from another magnetic drive. Not as fast, but still a bit snappier.

Something to keep in mind (especially when dealing with smaller size drives) is that while the SSD is marketed as 128GB, it has only about 119GB useable space. Though as you're going to be using additional drives as well, this won't be an issue at all.

Looks pretty good for a first build. Assembly shouldn't be too bad at all.

Thanks for the input guys, my parts should be coming in the next 2-3 days and I'm pretty excited to start building

It's going to be awesome to play CS:S in a resolution higher than 800x600 . See you guys in the pubs / scrim server