The i5-2500k asus p8z68 gen3 mb is a great combo I'm super happy with it, as far as onboard sound it works great, I only upgraded to a soundcard recently since I'm a headphones-only user and wanted the headphone amp for music listening.

As far as memory 8GB will be plenty, the only reason to consider 16GB is because memory is really cheap now as future proof insurance, seems hard to believe I paid $210 for 6GB 3 years ago but just $60 for 16GB during black friday.

For video cards it all depends on what type of performance you need, there's good sales now on 580s and 560s since the 680s came out, if you do single monitor gaming you have lots of options, if you plan to do multimonitor then I would go for a 680.

Cases are a very individual preference thing, I tend to like Cooler Master and Corsair cases, the only recommendation is to get one with enough room for cooling in case you want to overclock and cable management options to make it nice to work with, a good one that will last you 5-10 years over various upgrades.

Good luck with your build looks like it will be great.

I recently picked up an Alienware Area 51 Alx off E-Bay for 1299.99 shipped to my door. It has the 580 card and I simply added 12gb of ram and feel I'm good for a few years. Once the graphics catch up the video cards will be down to 150 or so get another run sli and your good for another year. I'm new ONLY to this forum and once I get some pics uploaded I'll show off the rig a friend and I have been putting together. I can post a link to where to get one but like I said don't want to break a rule my first day.

So this is what you get for the price and honestly the video card and the chip by itself would cost more.


Be Well
Mr.Wags

http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/carbide-series-pc-case/carbide-series-500r-mid-tower-case.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009

Ok thanks again for all the input guys.I pulled the trigger on this yesterday and began building this morning.

Specs:

asus z68-v/gen3 mb
I-5 2500 intel cpu
seagate 7200rpm 1 tb hd
Antec high current 750 w 80+ bronze ps (non modular)
gtx580evga
cooler master haf 932 advanced case.
corsair vengence 8 gig mem
Windows 7 64 bit
total system cost minus OS $1412.00 US

Now the bad news. I bought the stuff from a local electronics store here in the Sacramento California region called Fry's .

These guy have somewhat of a bad rep for reselling broken or previously open stuff . They generally are good about letting you

know which boxes have been opened and returned for resale with a small discount. What they suck on is letting you know if parts

are missing on the returned items before they put em on the shelve again. My MB i bought yesterday was one of these "returned and

checked out to be fine" parts. To begin with the where totally out of stock of new unopened p8 z68 mb's in any version ( although

they had the floor demos still hanging there } so i ended up with a lower grade version of a preopened p8 z68 with a slight price

reduction.I did a quick check in the box to make sure i had all the parts as said in manual.

I find out this morning after begining the build that they shorted me a Sata cable and what has me most worried is the plastic

protective cap the covers cpu pins on the MB was missing (kicks self in butt for not noticing in store). Needless to say I'm taking

back the MB today I'm just not going to risk bent pins, I'm kind of pissed they would resell a board in this condition , I mean you

can't even return it for warranty claims with ASUS without that cover,almost like buying a MB without a warranty.


I originally was going to buy everything online From New Egg , but when i priced things out there was really only a couple dollars

here and there difference between both stores. The only reason I went with the brick and mortar store was I felt it easier and faster

to return broken or defective parts there verses mailing stuff back to somewhere. This is the second system I've built using parts

that I bought from fry's and this is the second time I've had problems with preopened MB's with them missing parts. I think I need

to reevaluate who I'm going to shop with next time for my parts.

Again thanks all for taking the time to give input i read the articles and websites you guys posted and learned a bit on the way.


Kampf

Sorry to hear that your build is going to be delayed.
The selection of components looks good.

Between Newegg, Tigerdirect and Amazon (which also lists Tigerdirect) you can just about always find all the best prices with just those sites. All 3 are very good about returns as well, the few times I've had to do so with them.

The egg has always gone out of their way to make any problems I might have go away. Fry's is a great store to shop in for stuff you don't have to have but they are, like you said, not good at marking parts that have been returned as being returned parts.

I don't know if you have a MicroCenter where you are but they have some great prices especially on in store only stuff.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0378094

When I build mine I'm going to check amazon, newegg and if I get one built to see what the price difference is between the 2.

Best online store is Newegg - superb customer service and always competitive pricing.

Best brick and mortar store is MicroCenter - you still have the tax but always honest and have some amazing specials especially on Intel CPU prices.

Two cents.

Yeah I do all my computer gear shopping with NewEgg and Amazon, combine their awesome prices and customer support with prime or shoprunner free 2 day shipping and it beats my local Frys 30 miles away :-)

Your build list looks great, hope it goes smooth from here on.