building my first PC

[Ronen]

A good gaming system: i7 2600k w/ ATI 6870 will run you about 1250 give or take 100 dollars.

 

These are the prices if you build it yourself...So much more fun than buying a PC, and a hell of a lot cheaper too.

 

I suggest you wait till Quarter 4 for the new processors and boards, whilst saving up money. IE new x79.

 

Here's some light reading

 

http://fudzilla.com/motherboard/item/22679-x79-detailed-ready-for-q4-sandy-bridge-e

[PotshotPolka]

don't bother with the hybrid SSD. either go all in or not. a decent 7200RPM HDD will be fine for ya.

 

I picked up a SSD for my OS and game folders, I won't be going back to an HDD for anything but storage. OCZ Vertex II if you're willing to drop $200 for 5-20X the performance for three times the price and a third the size. It's a trade-off, but a warranted one. The price is plummeting too, since the vertex 3 just came out (and is god-like fast).