Considering a New Gaming Rig

[Klep]

So I just got my Christmas bonus and I'm considering using it to buy a new desktop.  Unfortunately, I no longer have the time to muddle through hardware reviews to figure out what I should be getting, so I'm hoping to turn to you guys for advice.  This link is what I'm looking at at the moment, but I've not arrived at that out of any special knowledge or desire.  For purposes of this discussion, let's say that my budget is no more than ~$2k.  If anyone has any help they are willing to offer me in terms of parts recommendations, I would really appreciate it.

[Methuselahn]

Seems odd that you dont want to read reviews of components but ask for parts suggestions.  If you're going to build your own tower then you're better off doing the research yourself.  That said, if you ARE going to build your own system for gaming then make sure your GPU is as good as the rest of your system.  A good sandy bridge or ivy bridge processor is also recommended.  Don't skimp on the power supply.  Prebuilt towers from Dell and Asus have worked well for me in the past.  Nvidia > ATI, imo.  Dual graphics cards (SLI/Crossfire technology) generally are not worth it unless you really go high tech.

What you linked to should be more than sufficient for most games, even at high detail.

good luck.

[quicksilvervii]

How much are you paying for liquid cooling?  If you aren't overclocking, I don't see a need (even if you are, I like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 better anyway).

Personally I like to get unlocked chips and MoBos nowadays OC it rather safely for you.

Make sure you read up on the case to see if it has proper ventilation. Also think if you need something with rails or not.

You don't need 32 GB of RAM if you arent doing some serious video editing.  Honestly you won't be using more than 8 GB (and make sure you get a 64 bit OS - which I see you did.  This is tremendously important).  You can save money buy getting the system builders OEM version as well if you are building your own rig.

Do you really need 240GB on your SSD if you are using a 1 TB drive as well?  Could save some money here unless you really need the space on your SSD.  I just have the OS and some small things on the primary drive and have everything else installed on the HDD.  Steam (if you use it) lets you choose your install directory game by game now, so space really isn't an issue.

I haven't read up on the MoBo (quick glance only) but if it supports Sata III, make sure your SSD and HDD support it as well.  If you are paying for it, get the most speed out of it that you can.

Just some food for thought.

[Zeksagmak]

You dont need 32GB of mem, even 16GB is overkill (unless you're editing movies etc)

the video card is a bit weak, go with a GTX 570 or GTX 480.  with NVidia, after you go from GT to GTX, the most important # to care about is the second one.  (GTX 650 is 6th Xtreme edition, 6th gen, avg card).  If you want a true gaming PC, save yourself $ on the ram and upgrade the graphics card.  I like the 240GB SSD + external HDD setup. 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

[Klep]

Thanks for the advice so far.  Taking what you guys have said here into consideration, how does this setup look (the liquid cooling is not costing me anything).

[Zeksagmak]

Not sure how big you are on expandability and ease-of-access.  I'm pretty picky about the innards of my rig.  I'm currently running my OS and games on  240GB samsung ssd and i have 4 expansion slots all filled with 2TB HDDs.  The bluray player is costing you $50-100 depending on their markup.  Personally I've never use my bluray drive since I dont want to run a cord over to my tv but if you're into bluray then more power to you.  Overall it looks like a good system assuming you're ok with the storage space. 

If you find that you actually need more than 8GB later, it's really easy to upgrade yourself. 

650W PSU may run you into some issues if you're big on upgrading a bunch of stuff yourself but should be fine unless you want to go with 2 VGA cards.