New gaming/SOHO build

[Zanthras]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming/vmware emulation/cisco ios emulation/streaming movies/tv dvr/ect
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~3k Can go higher for a good reason
3) Where do you live?
California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, mobo, ps, cpu/fan, ram, system drive, storage drive, raid card, vid card,
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mouse/keyboard/speakers/monitors/4 hard drives/dvr card
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
2 24" 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within a month at the very latest
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
High ram support, minimum triple x8 pcie support, onboard sound
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Server 2003 32/64(I might upgrade soon), Windows 7 32/64


Notes: This is what ive ended up with after a bit of research, but ive been away from the current scene for awhile to really know if its best. Currently I have a small selection of Aging and aged machines which do all of the above I would like to consolidate as much as possible.

Case: Norco 4220
Mobo: Asus P6X58D
PSU: Corsair 850HX
CPU: Intel I7-950
RAM: Patriot DDR3 1600 12Gig
Vid Card: ASUS Radeon 5850
Sys Drive: Intel x25-M 80Gig SSD
Raid Card: Areca 1680i
Raid Card BBU
Storage Drive: Now: x4 Hitachi 2TB Shortly: x4 more Later add as needed
CD/DVD Drive: Sony Slim Combo Drive

 

[Dangman]

Ditch that RAM and get this setup instead:
$280 - 4 x G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

$40 cheaper, same exact real world performance, and an extra 4GB of RAM. No you don't need to set up the RAM in threes.

Don't bother with the HD 5850 just yet: AMD is releasing their new HD 6xxx series cards next week. They may be worth buying over current gen cards or influence the price of current gen cards.

I would also hold off on the SSD: Intel is releasing newer, faster, and cheaper SSDs later this year.

Also try to get as much of those parts as possible from Amazon.com since Amazon.com doesn't charge tax to CA residents.

 

[Zanthras]

Ditch that RAM and get this setup instead:
$280 - 4 x G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

$40 cheaper, same exact real world performance, and an extra 4GB of RAM. No you don't need to set up the RAM in threes.

Don't bother with the HD 5850 just yet: AMD is releasing their new HD 6xxx series cards next week. They may be worth buying over current gen cards or influence the price of current gen cards.

I would also hold off on the SSD: Intel is releasing newer, faster, and cheaper SSDs later this year.

Also try to get as much of those parts as possible from Amazon.com since Amazon.com doesn't charge tax to CA residents.

Ram: I was debating going to 24GB right off the bat, cost just holds me back. So max density was all i was really looking for. I take it no real noticable difference between DDR3 1333 and 1600?

Vid: I dont like buying brand new generation stuff, all the bugs arent worked out, But I can see what it does to the price of the 5k series

SSD: Later this year is the killer part, Q4 is a large time span, a month out is as much as I want to wait.

Its so nice that newegg has a distro center 100 odd miles from my house... yes I know silly reason, I will price hunt later. That was all just for refference links.

 

[Dangman]

Ram: I was debating going to 24GB right off the bat, cost just holds me back. So max density was all i was really looking for. I take it no real noticable difference between DDR3 1333 and 1600?

No real noticeable difference between DDR3 1333 and DDR3 1600 RAM.

Yeah the HD 6xxx cards are already influencing prices of some HD 5xxx cards. In fact, there was a HD 5850 for $200 straight up on Newegg a few days ago. And that was without a MIR too.