Custom Gaming rig - Any good?

Just a few thoughts:
Case: LEDs are only cool in theory, they get old and annoying. I'd recommend a solid case with no bright leds and no side window. The Antec P182 is my favorite case, but probably out of your budget for this build.
PSU: That's a lot of watts for a low price. That's bad. I can assure you this build won't need more than a 450W PSU. Go for a quality brand with lower wattage. Cheapo parts are loud, unreliable, and have poor voltage regulation.
CPU/Motherboard: at this budget, you might want to hold off until the i5's arrive. According to Anandtech, they are very impressive, and make the additional cost of the 920 and x58 platform a poor value.
RAM: doesn't matter much unless you are heavily overclocking
Graphics: that's a pretty weak card compared to the i7 CPU, are you mostly gaming? You'd be much better off waiting for the i5's and get a better graphics card at the expense of a weaker CPU.
HDD: eh, they are all the same basically, I'd consider getting a 30gb vertex ssd for boot drive if you can afford it
DVD: all about the same really
wifi: any reason you can't run ethernet? More stable and faster network transfers to other pcs

Honestly, at this price range, I'd wait until Xmas time when Lynnfield is out.

jw12345 said:

Just a few thoughts:
Case: LEDs are only cool in theory, they get old and annoying. I'd recommend a solid case with no bright leds and no side window. The Antec P182 is my favorite case, but probably out of your budget for this build.
PSU: That's a lot of watts for a low price. That's bad. I can assure you this build won't need more than a 450W PSU. Go for a quality brand with lower wattage. Cheapo parts are loud, unreliable, and have poor voltage regulation.
CPU/Motherboard: at this budget, you might want to hold off until the i5's arrive. According to Anandtech, they are very impressive, and make the additional cost of the 920 and x58 platform a poor value.
RAM: doesn't matter much unless you are heavily overclocking
Graphics: that's a pretty weak card compared to the i7 CPU, are you mostly gaming? You'd be much better off waiting for the i5's and get a better graphics card at the expense of a weaker CPU.
HDD: eh, they are all the same basically, I'd consider getting a 30gb vertex ssd for boot drive if you can afford it
DVD: all about the same really
wifi: any reason you can't run ethernet? More stable and faster network transfers to other pcs

Case: I was going for a full tower, and that was the cheapest one :)
PSU: I'll change it
CPU/MoBo: I probably won't get this until i5's are old news
RAM: I'll find a way to use 4GB, and I want a reason for x64 :)
Graphics: I picked that b/c it was newer and cheaper. I can take some money from the PSU and put it there.
HD: Want some elbow room, and multiple OSes
DVD: Yeah...
WiFi: Can't do ethernet, family internet connection.

I'll go over these and edit my post

On more note: the Ci7 920 needs THREE sticks of memory, not two. Look for either a 3x1GB kit or a 3x2GB kit.

Edited to add: here are some suggestions.

weh said:

On more note: the Ci7 920 needs THREE sticks of memory, not two. Look for either a 3x1GB kit or a 3x2GB kit.

Will do!

ikilledkenny said:

[various stuff]

Case: -- avoid the gimmicks, think one of the Antec standard cases.

PSU: -- name brand, please, 450-ish watts is fine, but look at something from Corsair or PCP&C with a single 12-volt rail. money well-spent.

MoBo + Audio: ASUS P6T - $168, Newegg.com - Open Box: ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

fine, or one from Gigabyte, or wait for Core i5 and choose then (coming September-ish)

CPU: Core i7 920 (Heatsink and Fan inc.) - $280, Newegg.com - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

fine, or wait for Core i5 (as already mentioned in another post). Should be killer performance for even less money. Mobo's should be less, too. (coming September-ish)

RAM: Patriot 6GB (3x2GB) 1066 DDR3 - $80, Newegg.com - Patriot 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PSD36G1066KH - Desktop Memory

As mentioned, Core i7 needs 3 sticks; Core i5 only needs TWO. Wait and save might be prudent.

Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD4850 (PCIe 2.0 x16) - $155, Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100273L Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Make your choice at purchase time. New cards are almost a monthly occurrence and prices drop rapidly.

Hard Drive: Hitachi 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive - $75, Newegg.com - HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

I really like the WD Caviar Black series.

CD/DVD: LiteOn DVD Burner - $22, Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA 22X DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

Anyone's will do. I'm partial to Pioneer, Samsung, LG and Lite-On, in that order, but it's really six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Internet: Linksys PCI Dual-Band WiFi card - $75, Newegg.com - LINKSYS WMP600N IEEE 802.11a/b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Wireless Adapter with Dual-Band WEP, WPA & WPA2 Personal, WPA & WPA2 Enterprise - Wireless Adapters

Linksys is good, so are D-link and NetGear. Get the same brand as your router.

On the memory, I meant that brand and speed don't matter. Amount does matter up to a point. I wouldn't get less than 4GB. And the 920s don't require 3 sticks, it's just recommended, but most benchmarks show very little difference. But if it's going to be a while before you build, definitely don't do x58. You'll spend too much money on the motherboard and cpu and not enough on the GPU which is argueably much more important.

I'd try to get a 4870 if you can. Dual slot cooler alone makes it worth the difference in cost from the 4850 or lower. Especially since dual slot coolers push out heat pretty well, and if this is your first build, you'll almost definitely screw up case cooling the first time. Everybody does.

PSU: I wouldn't spend any less than $40 on a PSU. They are one of the most important components in a system and can seriously destroy your desktop by going cheap because of poor voltage regulation. Thermaltake and the Earthwatts (think that's what they call them) are good names.

Your wifi shouldn't cost that much unless you really need some special features. $25 is more like it.