New gaming rig; $1500 budget.

I'd recommend something with the Marvell controller: Intel 510, Plextor M3, Crucial M4 (highly recommend), Corsair Performance Pro.

The M4 128GB can be had for around $150 or less. I wouldn't pay more than $1/GB for a Sandforce drive...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703028

i would suggest getting this psu instead

an personally i would go with this case instead of the 650D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146088

Yeah the Crucial M4 is a great SSD and nowhere outdated. I'd recommend getting the Corsair Performance Pro. Just a personal preference. The NZXT Switch Case is very good for the price also.

Nope, in fact they have some of the better read/write times supported by benchmarks. See this subforum for more info on SSD's: http://www.overclock.net/f/355/ssd

can get a 2600k from microcenter for $199 atm

Edit: Added modular PSU
Edit: Added more videos

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Microcenter)
Best CPU for gaming as of now; the IB equivalent 3570k may be better but whe don't know yet. It's coming out this month so it's worth the wait to see. (Benchmarks)

CPU Cooler: XSPC Rasa 750 Water Cooling Kit ($129.99 @ FrozenCPU)
I would say it's worth it to get a custom loop because the H100s temps are around the high end air coolers. The Rasa on the other hand performs better by a large margin. (Benchmarks) Review Video (Click to show)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($147.86 @ Newegg)
Great price/performance motherboard. ASUS and ASRock have nice motherboards and OC well. IB ready and cheaper then its predecessors(Review) Review Video (Click to show)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($46.99 @ Newegg)
G.Skill is a very reputable brand and is responsibly priced. They OC well if you really want to. (Review)

SSD: Crucial M4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.99 @ B&H)
M4 is the price/ performance king and basicaly your go to SSD. The best SSDs with similar performance and reliability are the Samsung 830, Intel 810 and the Curical M4 so basically just choose the cheapest. (Review)

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($387.55 @ Newegg)
Better then the 580 (Benchmarks) and just had a price drop (Article). It's also on amds newer line of GPUs so as the drivers age you will most likely get better performance. (Benchmarks)

Case: NZXT Switch 810 (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Probably the best WC case and great air flow. NZXT makes very high quality cases. (Review) Overview Video (Click to show)
Power Supply: Rosewill 800W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($155.98 @ Newegg)
A 800w that's 80+ gold certified which basically means its more reliable. Just about the same as the one you listed but cheaper by a large margin. Some nice features are: it's modular, lighting options, and it's very quiet. (Review. It's for the 1300w there are no other reviews . The price has dropped on it significantly so the only con on there, that it's expensive, doesn't apply. ) (Review for the one you picked) Non-Modular PSU option (Click to show)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Cheap and does the job unless you want a Bluray player or something along those lines.


Total: $1,316.33
(Lower if you choose the other PSU. $1,270.34)

Hope this helped
Edited by UltraHoboLord - 4/17/12 at 10:07pm

The M4s are old in technology time but by free firmware updates, that most companies make you buy a new one for, they have increase the performance to make it a higher end drive while the prices are low SSD wise.

Ah you want a modular PSU I'll change my post.

That was a one day deal last week; they sold out instantly and their site almost broke.