Monster Rig for Under 1299

[Jereag]

Hi all,

Ok, I have selected the parts for my gaming pc. There are no bells and whistles. Everything is selected for performance. Please take a sec and critique it. I want this PC to be around 1200 in the end, 1100ish after rebates; WITHOUT MONITOR. Of course, take into consideration that I will NOT build this PC UNTIL July 22.

Confer with Newegg.com if needed:

Sony NEC Optiarc 18X DVD±R DVD Burner, OEM Version Black SATA Model AWG170S-B2 - OEM

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 16mb cache 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

MSI NX8800GTS-T2D640E-HD OC GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-650-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 650W Power Supply - Retail

Logitech G5 2-Tone 6 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Laser Mouse - Retail

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail

EVGA 122-CK-NF66-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

Care to recommend a $50ish keyboard for gaming and a 19"-22" monitor?

Thanks all.

[Jimmy0]

To be honest, if you are not looking to build until July 22nd, then I would wait to pick the parts because the processor especially will drop heavily, which will allow you to go for something better in other aspects of the build.

Personally I would recommend:
- A Lite-On optical rather than a Sony one, make sure it is SATA and if you get a retail one you get software included
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10's over WD drives, 5 year warranty, better bang for $.
- Cooler master is a good brand for PSU, but I would prefer a Corsair one, check out the 520HX one, or perhaps the 620HX if you really want a lot of headroom for future upgrades.
- I personally recommend Corsair RAM over Crucial, better reliability and quality.
- We tend to recommend Asus motherboards here (right now being the Asus P5K), and I personally would not get a board with an nForce chipset.