I think the Corsair 600t would be an excellent case, though I prefer full tower ones so I know I'm not limited spatially for any compenents / future upgrades. I think all advice for you so far is good, too. Especially the PSU. Just be careful if you decide to upgrade / just get a legit build to begin with. 600W you need to be careful.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139003

Well wow, sweet guys. I'm going to go check out all their similar mobos now! I like doing my research.

Wow, I didn't even look at Gigabyte stuff...reliable? And what about the PSU? Is it enough power? Is there a way to calculate it? I see guys with similar systems with 1000+ PSUs, is that overkill?

where is Asus? G73jh anyone? Do your homework, man!

[QUOTE="Dune571"]

I'm somewhat hooked on the mobo for futureproofing reasons. plus it's just too sexy. go big or go home.

blaznwiipspman1

take it from experience computer builders, the motherboard is usually the very first part to get outdated and fast.

Yeah I'm a little leery about all this usb 3.0 drama, i feel like these latest RoG crop should have been the ones to finally be native, but oh well. And I know Sandy Bridge2k11 is right around the bend, but based off what i've read it's not going to be a big performance increaser, let alone for gaming. You know what they say about waiting in the pc market.

Just my 2cents about brand, EVGA for sure...you won't be dissapointed. pretty painless rma's/lifetime warranty. reputable and established customer service.

I'm somewhat hooked on the mobo for futureproofing reasons. plus it's just too sexy. go big or go home.

Thanks! Yeah I read the 2500 is just as good OC'd, which shouldn't be an issue with the H70. This is definitely the 'dream' setup, I might have to get a bit more budget-conscious when I actually hammer it dowm and count my dough! I'll keep that in mind. Everything else checks out though? PSU and all?

What do you guys think?

CASE: COOLER MASTER HAF X

PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850

MOBO: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z LGA 1155 Intel Z68

CPU; Intel Core i7-2600K

MEM: CORSAIR CMT8GX3M2A2000C9 DOMINATOR GT 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000

GPU: EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3072MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

STORAGE: OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA II + Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA

I'm also looking for a great new set of (gaming?) speakers, I've had the Logitech Z-2300 (2.1) forever and I love them, but I figure since I'm dropping all this and it's a total upgrade, etc. For my input I'm going with the Logitech G9x mouse and G510 keyboard.

Corsair H70 for cpu cooling.

Also, the chosen monitor so far:

SAMSUNG S24A350H ToC Rose Black 24" Full HD HDMI LED

Please let me know what you think / any suggestions! This would only be my second build ever.

Front panel? Last time I left them out my system didn't have any sound though. Do you mean the rear connectors on the sound card?