Low-Buxx gaming box with POWER!

[Traak]

Edited to follow Goku's recommendations and wisdom.

I figured I would look at what would get you in the Planetside door, but be so cheap it would not make your supermodel wife mad that you didn't buy her an extra pair of Gucci's.

Under-$1000 budget. As I shopped, I was impressed by how capable a computer you could build for this little money!!!

Black Box
730W modular SLI power supply
Overclockable Motherboard
Overclockable CPU
2X4GB RAM
Blu Ray drive
CPU cooler
Three HDDS! for RAID 5 speed + data security
Monster video card
And, assuming you don't CARE about being able to drop in a second eye-watering video card in the future, here are two cards, that will also serve you very well, perhaps even better.

Case: Less than 20 bucks gets you this Gigabyte case
GIGABYTE GZ-KF03B Black SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$19.99

Power supply by RAIDMAX, modular, LED's and SLI-ready
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular LED Power Supply
$44.99

Motherboard: Two PCI-e 16X slots, one PCI-e 1X slot, and a PCI slot
MSI P67A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$114.99

RAM: has a heat spreader, at least.
PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD8192KD3-1333
$43.99

Processor: Overclockable MAYHEM!!! (motherboard is overclockable)
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
$219.99

Storage: Cheap and fast!

HDD's:
3X250GB drives in RAID 5 gives you speed plus data security. It may not be SSD-fast but it's RAID fast with far more storage capacity in case you want to use the computer for something other than gaming. MoBo is RAID 5 capable.
$36.99 each, $110.97 total.

Since we might want to watch a movie with this baby, I totally splurged on a Blu-Ray drive.
SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Combo Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support - OEM
$59.99

CPU cooler: fairly good price for an Editor's Choice Award winner!
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R1 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+
$34.99

Video: Ah, saving the best for last. Why go so cheap on everything else? So you can have liquid-smooth graphics on that screen!
SAPPHIRE 100311-2SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
$299.99 after 30 dollar mail-in rebate

OR:
Two of these:
HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

For a grand total of $999.89 with the single AMD 5970 dual-VPU graphics card, or $999.88 with Two mighty AMD graphics cards in Crossfire.

I was truly amazed at the heap of goodies available for less than a grand. This includes shipping inside the continental USA.

[Goku]

Good start. There is a few components I would change.

Most important would be getting at least a 600W quality PSU. I do not see that 500W one holding up with a 6970 and overclocked 2500K.

The H67/H61 cannot be overclocked. Only the P67 and Z68 boards can be used for overclocking.

I would dump the raid card as the onboard Intel solution is just as good if not better.

I would drop out the 8GB SSD (its only as fast as most HDDs out now or even slower) as I do not know what you can put on it. I don't think Win 7 can be installed on it. Don't bother with the raid setup either as if you get a proper SSD (I recommend Crucial and Intel drives for their speed and reliability) in you do not need one. Best off getting a 1TB drive for storage and it should be plenty fast. This should be doable if you drop the 6970 down to a cheaper 6950 2GB.

[Bags]

Not to mention the SSD has 56% 1 star reviews.

[Traak]

I kept the RAID, with three inexpensive drives, which gave me speed without the big-chunk-of-change SSD, and got to retain the 6970.

I checked cheap cards for quad-crossfire (Can't do it on this MoBo, just saying) too. However, I don't see how having four weak cards will compare to having two good ones, or one very good one. Or how they would fit on a board that had four PCI X16 full-speed slots with their fans and heat sinks. Nah. I just don't see it. If scaling up the number of processors was the way to go, then we would have eight-VPU cards or whatever.

[Goku]

I don't know about that raid setup. I never see anyone using RAID 5 for gaming setups. Hell I didn't even know what it was till I just read up on it. Most I see who use RAID is with the 0 one due to the higher performance. Depending on your needs you are likely better off with just a single $50 1TB and allocating that other $60 to other areas. Like dropping down to a 6950 and possibly getting a 64GB SSD for instance.

Just a word of advice in the future. Avoid Rosewill and other like companies for PSUs. They're normally over rated and have low quality parts. You are best off getting from companies like Corsair and Antec for good quality. If you want to get really good stuff look at Enermax and Sea Sonic.

I would still go for a better case too. That Gigabyte one isn't that good. Most people I see spend at least $50. I normally spend $100 or so as I want a quality case. These will last you through multiple most likely, so spend the extra $$$ on that.

I do not know if people really should have a Bluray player just yet in builds too. You can get DVD drives for $20, so thats another $40 that can be put towards other areas. Not everyone needs a Bluray drive. I got one actually back in the summer of 2009. I used it for 3 months and since then I have not even put a blu ray in it lol.

Just so many ways to do builds. I was keeping several builds updated weekly from $500 to $1250 during the summer. It was a major pain in the ass, so it ended up not being worthwhile. Between what peoples needs are and possible other budgets it isn't worth doing them.

[Traak]

Yeah, it gives people an idea of the price range and what they get. "Hey, I could add this, and subtract that, because I need this..." is one of the reasons I put it up here. Heck, my other thread about a 250 dollar box, I didn't even know it was possible to build one for that cheap!

Even if one could build one for a hundred bucks, but what good what it be?

Yeah, I bought this el cheapo case and power supply once. After the power supply died, I looked inside. Tiny place with a few components inside this giant, empty box. Next power supply felt like an anchor in comparison it was so much heavier, packed with so many big, high-quality components.

Since computers always seem to be in flux, unlike consoles, which is "buy and forget", I gave people this alternative so they can start low, and then upgrade over time, which, at least in my life, has ALWAYS been the way it went. Components leapfrogging each other.

But, I agree with the power supply. You are unlikely to regret a good name-brand power supply like the ones you mentioned. I didn't even know about the last two you mentioned.

$35 more gets you a high-quality Antec power supply

And, I can't go for an SSD. So little storage for so much price. It gobbles up way too much of the budget for what it offers. Perhaps on a more expensive build.