First of all, welcome to OCN!
At first glance, it's looks like a solid start.
Some suggestions.
For a gaming desktop, your GPU is WAY underpowered in comparison to your CPU. You would get alot more bang-for-your-buck for a gaming system if you doubled your GPU budget. Typically, a good value is to make your GPU budget the same or greater than your CPU budget.....at least from my own personal experience. Nothing on the market now will bottleneck a I5 or I7......but i know of a lot of things that can bottleneck that HD 7770.
Don't start off with a SLi/Crossfire system. Get the best single card you can afford, and use SLi/Crossfire as a upgrade path in the future. SLi/Crossfire systems are pain in the butt. Trust me. :-)
An Asus ENGTX560 TI DCII would be a much better GPU choice for that computer. :-) I am continuously impressed with that the DCII GPU's can do, and it's a better fit for your build.
If your building this PC for gaming, a I7 will offer you NO improvement over a I5. If you do a lot of video encoding, photoshop, ect.....then a I7 is a better choice than a I5. If it's just for gameing, get the I5 and re-invest your money in a better GPU.
SanDisk Ultra? ....Ugh. I can think of 1,000 better choices. Get a SanDisk Extreme, Samsung 830, Kingston HyperX 3K, or something that is actually fast. X-D Here is a good guide on the best SSD's per dollar on the market right now -->
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-storage-value,3184.html
Lately i have really liked the ASRocks better than the Asus's. Your motherboard isn't bad,....just...i think we can find better. Just wondering why you chose a Z68? With Ivy Bridge around the corner, Z77 looks like a much better choice. Take a look at the ASRock Z77 Professional. I think it is a all-around better motherboard than the Asus you chose.
As far as HDD's go, get, a SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ. It will outperform any Western Digital, AND it's cheaper. If you still insist on the Western Digital, make sure it's a WD black...not a WD green. The "green" is their low power hard drive. The "black" is their high performance hard drive.
For power supplies, OCZ or Corsair make really solid stuff. Stay away from Antec or Diablotech. A Corsair Professional Series HX1050 1050W would be a really good choice.
As for a case, I have a HAF-X and love it. It will hold a H100 with plenty of room to spare. It's a excellent case for overclocking. I have either 6 or 7 hard drives in my HAF-X right now, with a tripple slot GPU and i still have a ton of room in there.
EDIT: Also, i agree with Ensamada on the RAM. If you run virtual machines on your PC, stick with the 16 Gb. If you don't use virtual machines, stick with 8Gb of RAM and reinvest that money into a better GPU.
Edited by crimsontears809739 - 4/30/12 at 6:57pm
