Ok so I went ahead and built the Tested 1500 gaming Pc

And it's awesome.  Actually I didn't just build the 1500 gaming pc.  I used the 2600K i7 processor instead of the i5.  I bought 8GB of 1600Mhz DDR3 instead of 1333Mhz DDR3, and I bought a 1 TB Caviar Black drive instead of the 2 TB.  I bought everything else right down to the specs they're using.  And like I said, it's awesome.  I'm mainly interested in my computer being hyper fast without breaking a sweat- so I turned on Intels IMP overclocking instead of setting up manual overclocking and the only default I changed was to actually turn down the max OC multiplier from 43 to 40.  At 43, my CPU was hitting higher temps than I'd like so I tuned it down.  And it plays everything.  Below is my list of games installed (all of which play at maximum settings at native resolution).  I don't have some super great monitor so native resolution is 1680x1050


Crysis
Crysis: Warhead
Crysis: Wars
HL 2, Ep 1 & 2, Lost Coast
Portal
Garrys Mod
TF2
Unreal Tournament 3
The Sims 3
Civ IV


Of these- crysis wars seems to never work.  This sucks.  It appears the game hangs when trying to join a game.  That's ok though, because TF2 always works and Unreal Tournament 3 works (more on that later).


So Crysis was the first game I booted up.  Wow that game looks good.  It plays smoothly and everything works as it should.  HOWEVER, damn that game is hard.  I'm not sure if I'm just stupid or what, but I really suck at this game.  It's total crytek through and through though.  It feels like what I used to think of Far Cry as, but just a little better.  Enemy AI is just ever so advanced than before, and levels are 'bigger and better' or so some say.  I legitimately like this game, but it is really really hard.  I'm committed to finishing the game though, so oh well.

Unreal Tourney 3 was game number two.  And surprise downgrade number one.  I used to be a huge UT fan.  I've owned and played bunches of every UT out there on the PC except this one.  Now I've owned them all.  And there's a fairly small number of servers still active with a fairly small community base playing on fairly ugly community maps.  Booo.

Then was TF2, my surprise number one of these games.  That game is legit fun.  And while I've owned the orange box for the xbox, TF2 plays way better on the PC.  So much so in fact, that last night I had a sucessful round as a heavy.  I never play as a heavy- nor have I ever found success with this game.  So go that.  However- I was upset that in one round I got autoswitched to the other team, and immediately lost interest in the game.  But looks like TF2 will be my go-to multiplayer PC game for a while.

Garrys Mod was a huge surprise.  I had no clue what to expect and though I'm somewhere at the 'put the square peg in the square hole' level of understanding, I'm having fun.

I think overall the observation I'm having is how good games look these days.  I noticed that UT3 is throttled on the PC, which makes me mad(ish) but all the other games appear to be PC games- they look really good and play amazingly.  So anyways that's all I really have to say.  I suppose for the next year or so every new game that comes out will have me in fits deciding between the xbox and pc version.... meh....

Hope you enjoy the games! PC gaming is freaking awesome.

I do alot of cloaking, even in a middle of a gun battle, since the soilders will get suprised you dissapeared again, then you aim at their head and kill them. Then run for cover, ect.

Or you can just grab ppl at their nack and throw them at each other. Far away if you use strength mode, you gun has no recoil, so you are basically using a sniper rifle. I also like to put a but of contrast for the setting and even less gama, adjust it until you get that photorealistic look. This game rewards you for your creativity. Also congrats on your new rig.

I like the 1080p rez, some ppl likes X1200. But I use a hdtv as my gaming monitor, I like the rectangular rez, I don't like x1050 that much. Maybe it's something to consider for the future.

Oh I want to get a new PC myself now. Just can't afford it... Time to start saving! D:

I'd try this out, but I'm not sure if it's possible to build a laptop. Do Alienware and Asus make laptops like that, or do they do what other laptop makers do and just glue everything down to prevent dicking around too much?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Double spacing!! You are driving me crazy.

Want to buy me one?

You shouldn't have to downclock a 2600K, that processor was meant for overclocking. It shouldn't hit more than 70-80C even at 4.4Ghz. Check if you've properly applied the thermal paste and attached the cooler. 

@Zyte: 1) So with a 64GB SSD I'd spend too much time managing space that the headache factor wouldn't be worth it.  By this I mean my whole build is designed so I can turn it on and as long as my software is up to date, do what I want.  With an SSD I might have to do more drive management sooner than I'd like, which would be a negative.

2) Price- 1TB of 6GB/s SATA is probably surplus storage for me, but it's like a $70 drive.  another $150 will get me another 2 TB of 6 GB/s SATA storage on my current rig.  Which is a $150 I won't have to spend for a while (space is not a major item for me), but to get the equivalent SATA+SSD, I'd have to spend more than the $70 I spent and then to make my $1500-1600 budget I'd have to adjust down other specs.  I chose the highest level sandybridge CPU specifically so that doesn't have to be replaced so soon, and the GTX 570 to get the longest use out of it before needing SLI or a replacement.  Forcing myself to squelch those items in favor of an SSD would mean my upgrade timeline would be impaired, and the long term cost would be higher.  If SSD's were more cost effective and an SSD+SATA drive were more long term cost effective I would have done that, but they aren't (yet)

3) I'm worried about the way SSD's delete data and IO operations.  Not that I would be changing around alot, but from what I've heard there's reason to wait for that to advance.

Don't worry to much about Crysis. I struggled a fair amount at first but it gets a lot easier once you master the suit. You should also check out this guys Crysis videos for tips. He is extremely good (understatement) at the game and is a lot of fun to watch.

That is a good PC by the way. The one I built a few weeks ago is pretty similar.

that sounds awesome to buy. i need to upgrade my computer. i'm still using a pentium 4. i need to get the money and such to do such a thing though.