Hey ladies and gents,

So it's been about 5 years since I built my last gaming rig, and as much as this set up has greatly helped me stay above the curve of games bogging down my computer's ability to play on Ultra/High settings, it's time I updated my rig. For those who are curious in dabbling in some no holds bar, spending money for quality with a high budget, feel free to contribute and add some constructive opinions on the build.

Case: Cooler Master HAF X 942
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6811119225

I recently helped me friend built a computer and we both looked at this and thought it was great, and it didn't let down. Great cooling, great ventilation, no issues with space and it's won numerous rewards for design.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD7-B3
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6813128499

I've had a Gigabyte for my current build, and it's done me great. Plenty of upgrade options, when I wanted that Quad core upgrade, my mobo supported it (hell yeah) and this board specifically has 2 PCI-E x16 slots running at 16x, so in case if I do plan to do Crossfire/SLI it's hell of a ready.

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6819115070

Looked at some comparisons in the two between 2500 and 2600K, and definitely looking at this one instead. I'm planning some more CPU usage than just gaming, and this seems to fit right in my alley.

GPU: ASUS HD7970-3GD5-3DI2S Radeon HD 7970
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814121485

I did plenty of research on some benchmarks, comparing nVidia cards and ATI, and as much as I have always been a fanboy for nVidia, every benchmark and person has consistently stated for the same price point, ATI would offer a better card for cheaper, and it shows.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/21.html
I'm using Shogun 2 as a big benchmark, because that game eats resources like crazy, and the mere fact that it outperforms all of the other cards, shows me quite a bit of value. I'm also a bit of a RTS junkie right now, so I'm sure FPS will handle no problem, but I don't want no hold me downs during massive teamfights in DotA 2 or crazy Nexus Wars in SC2.

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6820233247

Here's where I'm a little less informed, I haven't taken thorough time to look at RAM, and so far I'm looking at this purely on recommendations. I mean, I would've went 32GB just for the F*CK of it, it's only 50$, but it's totally stupid because I'll never use 16GB itself. I'm hoping if there's anyone who can shine some more light on possible bottlenecks with the setup and what I should be looking at.

HD: Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6820148443

Another area where I haven't taken too much thought into, but I know the importance. I want a SSD for the booting of the system and core applications, and I want enough space for it. Been recommended this so far, but as far as branding and what I should be looking at, don't know too much.

Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6822148840

Buying two of these drives and running them on RAID 0 to hold all of my files really, day to day stuff. Been running RAID 0 on my current setup with these brand of drives for 5 years now and knock on wood, no issues.

In terms of CPU Cooler and PSU, I haven't looked too much at those, because truthfully, PSU I'm not heavily worried about as long as I get substantial amount of power and Cooler, I'm probably grabbing myself a liquid cooler set up, and I have one in mind already.

Based on this set up, if you guys have anything to constructive talk about it, please let me know if there's any suggestion to the changes you see that may optimize it further. Thanks!! ^_^

Not bad but PSU is more important than you think.... the one that Omega just bought is a great one. Corsair makes great PSU's. Omega, hooker, ???, and I own one. As for the cpu, since the mobo is a 1155 socket go for a 2500. Its a great cpu for the price and will game fine for you. You could wait for ivy bridge but who really wants to wait. :P If you really really expect huge cpu usage you can go 2600K if you like. If you have questions PM me but everything looks good to me. That SSD is a pretty good one too so no worries there. Also here's a list of the SSD hierarchy so you may want to check it out http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/buy ... 088-6.html . Also the size is no worry, 256GB is more than enough. Like i said before PM for questions.

Oh shit, forgot to include CPU LOL yeah I'll update my post to reflect it but I am planning to grab myself a 2600K, I looked at the performance benchmarks and I'm definitely looking at the 2600K over the 2500. Not a fan of the minor bottleneck and as stated, I'm looking for this to last a while too.

Not sure when you are building this, but April the Ivy bridges are supposed to come out if you are interested in that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Benchm ... 14144.html

Even if you aren't, you might catch a price break on your CPU when they do come out.