Need a new gaming rig $1000 budget. Critique my build.

If you are a "gamer" and you are building a new gaming rig these days, I would say the 7950 is absolutely what you want. (or higher of course) Games are ALL about the GPU and that is the single place you do not want to skimp. Save your money on the other parts but don't cut your GPU short.

If you absolutely have to save more money, the 7870 will save you some but don't go as low as the 7850.
 
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($234.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($61.24 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.97 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $821.11
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-28 21:18 EDT-0400)


thoughts?
I have plenty of storage in other places. I'm not too worried there.
I wish I could increase to i5 or the 7950, but both would add 100$.
I wanted to invest in a SSD purely for non-gaming, work related use.
EDIT: Oh, and I need to change the tower (says PC part list)
 
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($234.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($61.24 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.97 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $820.11
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-29 16:55 EDT-0400)

Switched to i5, sacrificing a little in the motherboard.
Final Thoughts before I begin ordering?
 
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Looks pretty good to me. I might consider upgrading to a blu-ray player, but that all depends on your TV setup.
 
Is that Sapphire 7870 the new Tahiti core? This Powercolor one that's back in stock at Newegg is very well reviewed since it's the newest Tahiti core that's powering it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ion-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=14-131-484&cm_sp=

It's also $25 cheaper than the Sapphire at the moment.

Also for whatever it's worth, I like the Metro interface overall; I'm running it on the new desktop I'm building and I actually like it enough that I'm planning on upgrading my win 7 laptop to it in the next couple weeks. I think it will eventually be the direction windows goes completely. I think this transition period where some things work in desktop but not metro and others in metro but not desktop is definitely wonky and annoying though. But as far as Human-Computer Interface design, especially as we move towards touch and eventually 3-D control metro is very well setup for that. It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft can actually pull off the transition and bring the power of their win nt (7) kernel desktop to Metro. There's nothing inherent in the design language that would prevent it, it just hasn't been done yet.

I'm also a big fan of aesthetics as well it's not worth sacrificing function for aesthetics, but function w/o aesthetics lends to a pretty bland experience too.
 
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