Sub $1000 Gaming PC for a friend

[Xarath]

I have been recruited by one of my friends to assemble a parts list for his new gaming PC. This PC is a bit similar to my newest build, with a few changes (and I hope I didn't make any glaring mistakes).

I'll just cut to the chase and post a parts list:

Mobo:
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550 - Retail

PSU:
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail

Memory:
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5 - Retail

Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Video Card:
EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Disk Drive:
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS120-08 - Retail

Case:
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Is there any point of picking up high quality thermal paste if my friend does not plan to overclock? If so, I'll pick up what is generally most recommended:
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

EDIT:

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the OS, monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse are all covered.

[Alaron]

Seagate has been having some quality issues lately. We recommend using Western Digital Black drives instead.

Otherwise, looks good.

The thermal pad on the stock Intel HSF will be fine. You can use AS if you want, but it's not necessary.

[shadowpr]

You could get a E8500 instead, and use the money saved to get a faster video card.

[not important]

Originally Posted by shadowpr You could get a E8500 instead, and use the money saved to get a faster video card.

Ditto: The Dual Core will be better for gaming than the Quad.

[David M]

You do not need the Arctic Silver thermal paste if you do not plan on overclocking. The E8500 though is a very overclockable CPU with clock speeds of 4.0 easily achieved. You might as well throw in a little extra for the Arctic Silver and an aftermarket CPU heatsink for another 30 to 50 bucks. The vast majority of games still cannot utilize more than two cores....so a quad core would go to waste in that respect.

I like your graphics card choice for a budget gaming computer....thats the best bang for the buck card for your budget.

Which OS do you plan on using? I like Vista 64 if you are considering that. Be sure to purchase it OEM....not in the retail box. You will want 2gigs of RAM for XP and 4 gigs for Vista. 800MHz ram is good enough. Corsair is fine.

It looks like it will be a good sub $1000 gamer....enjoy!

[Xarath]

So I should get the E8500 and upgrade the video card to something along the lines of this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143141

[shadowpr]

That would be an upgrade over the 260.

Might also look at the 285, or the 4870.