$1000 Dollar Budget Desktop Build- Need Advice

[Hazard Fox]

Okay, my currently obsolete 5 year old desktop is running on it's last limbs and since I just got $1000 USD from the Pell Grant's return, I was wondering what and how I should build.

I already have a good case and the works (monitor 1440x900 native, hard drive 500gb)

Can anyone recommend me a good build? This is my first time and the only thing I know is how to assemble and which CPUs go with which Motherboards.

I'd like to stick with Nvidia and Intel though. Any help would be great also getting windows 7, and yes this is for a gaming build.

Any help and links to a site such as newegg or amazon would be very helpful.

[Hazard Fox]

Well, seeing as how no one has responded. I'll provide what I'm currently looking at and maybe some feedback would be nice.

CPU: i5 sandy bridge lga 1155
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072[/url]

Motherboard:

ASUS P8P67 lga 1155
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131706[/url]

or

ASUS SABERTOOTH lga 1155
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131702[/url]

RAM: Corsair XMS3 8gb (4x2gb)
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145261[/url]

PSU: Corsair GS700 700W
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139024[/url]

GPU: Nvidia 560-570

Not sure which to pick

560 Ti (not sure what the TI stands for, if anyone can enlighten me it would be nice)
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604[/url]

570
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593[/url]

In total (after adding the 560 instead of the 570)

$884.94

and with a 1TB HD added in
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245[/url]

$964.93

[Angry Pineapple]

[THUMB]http://i.imgur.com/mT9e7.png[/THUMB]
$960, if you do decide to get a 1TB HDD, go with this one
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185[/url]
If you get the HDD it puts you like $20 over $1k.

[David Tennant]

Angry pineapple's build is fairly perfect, except get this PSU instead: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020[/url]

[Hazard Fox]

You think I should skip over the hard drive?

My hard drive is currently working. Though I have to ask, will I have to back up my current data if I install a new OS?

And thank you for the advice.

[David Tennant]

You won't, it'll save all your files in a windows.old folder on the drive itself, so you'd install the OS over vista and then drag/drop what you want to keep such as programs and files and such, 50% of the programs won't work though due to registry issues, but if you wanted you could back that up, just be sure to back up your hidden "Appdata" folder in your user folder as a lot of saved games and core files are stored there.

And you don't "need" a new drive, but check the speed of your current one to compare, the F3's are fairly fast.

[culexor]

I recommend doing a fresh OS install anyway. I'd get another drive (or borrow someone's external) to back up any data you don't want to lose and then reformat. I do this once or twice a year just for the hell of it.