Best PC parts to build a gaming rig for about $1000?

Just wanting to get opinions on what parts are a good bang for the buck. Parts I need are all of the parts to build the tower including the case so: Case, Motherboard, HDD, DVD Drive, Video Cards (yes plural), Processor, CPU Cooling (whether it's a crazy good fan or liquid cooling), Power Supply and RAM.

I once put a nice little list together through a bit of research and came up with a rig with specs something along the lines of Quad Core 2.6Ghz, 16GB 1066 DDR3 RAM, 10k RPM Velociraptor HD, 1500W Power Supply and 4 - 1GB EVGA Video Cards for right around $1300 with a cool case with the side window and blue LEDs and a CPU Fan that looked like saw blades and had blue LEDs as well. I don't remember the name of any of the parts. I'm leaving that up to you guys haha.

As I said, I'm looking for something as close to $1000 as possible if not less with as crazy as the specs can get. Thanks.

- ImageX

Do you really need 16GB of RAM? You would probably need 8GB for even the newest, most demanding games. You may be better off getting less yet faster RAM. What kind of graphics cards? One high end card can be better than multiple lower end cards. The actual power of the card makes the biggest difference for gaming.

Check out tom's hardware. They usually do different budget gaming rigs every few months. It might give you some ideas on parts and whatnot.

@CrimsonRequiem - Thanks for this. It's more of what I was looking for aside from direct suggestions on specific parts from people.

@ iBeldar - Thanks for your concern I suppose, but I know what I don't necessarily need but want. I only chose the 16GB of RAM because there was a special pricing on it then. It was Corsair RAM I think.

Thanks.

- ImageX

You reject out of hand two very excellent pieces of advice? And think that others would still want to respond? Good luck with that.

ImageX said:

As I said, I'm looking for something as close to $1000 as possible if not less with as crazy as the specs can get. Thanks.

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ImageX said:

I'm looking for an old iBook Clamshell. I'm just wondering if anyone had one they were willing to part with for free or right around $10 because to be honest, I just want it to mess with not to actually use for a purpose.

I'm not trying to sound picky as I am looking for a free item, but anything less than those specs are quite useless because I would put OS X on it and any less specs would be rough to run. I would really appreciate if anyone out there with a clamshell would consider this donation. I've always wanted one when I first saw them released and when I saw it used in the movie "Legally Blonde" (don't hate). Pretty please! Thanks.

- ImageX

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I'm confused. You're willing to spend $1000 to build a Windows computer...but in another thread you basically want someone to give you a FREE iBook Clamshell!

- Nick

I'll give you my build, which WAS about 1000 bucks minus the monitor and the mouse.

info: you dont need 16gb of ram, in fact, your motherboard will only handle 8 unless you get those ram sticks with 4gb per stick, which is expensive as heck. get 4gb, 6 at an absolute max.
also, dont bother buying a GPU until amd drops their 6xxx series, which will be awesome and include a nice price drop for the older cards.
the 10k rpm drive is a knockoff and terrible. it sounds like a jet engine, and dies much faster, along with costs and annoyance. if you want a speedy HD get a solid state drive, they are fast as ****, but dont expect to be using them to store everything, only put your OS on it and a few main programs.
a computers looks comes from its functionality. its only as beautiful as it is functioning.
dont bother with a side window, its expensive, weak, annoying and you could get something useful such as a fan there instead.
LEDs are useless, they are an eyesore that drain power and distract you from your screen. this is a computer, if you want something to stare at, get a statue.

260
GPU: 5850 Newegg.com - XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity dont buy until november because new 6xxx series is coming out, this cost me 309 when i got it, its now 259 (**** yea amd rules)

80
CASE: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case friggin dominant. top esata, firewire, 2usb, headphones and mike

24
DISC DRIVE: Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer 24 bucks, burns dvds at x24 speed


120
MOTHERBOARD: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard its great, has usb3

85
RAM: 4gb Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH

160
CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
amd 3.4ghz quadcore

90
HARD DRIVE: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 1tb of goodness at 7200rpm

65
POWER SUPPLY: Newegg.com - OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
not the one i got, because the one i got was discontinued.

total: 764 (minus shipping)
this is my current rig, and I've yet to find a game I cant play on it.