For comps, I like Intel / Asus combinations. The other parts I have some flexibility, like $al says, the core components tend to come from the same place anyway.
That said, I want brands that I recognize and that back their product. Otherwise, you would just buy a box PC and hope for the best. I min/max (read as obsess) about the parts for quite some time.
As good as SB is, I don't need it yet as my rig plays everything I want with eye candy at high or better. But I am keeping an eye on IB so if I need to pull the trigger on a rig, I have done all my research.... so in 6, 12, 18 months (Haswell territory now), I will already know where I want to be at insofar as the main parts.
Believe it or not, the toughest part for me to choose is the case. Need great airflow, balanced with quiet and not being ugly or too done up with LEDs as my rigs turn into family PCs when their gaming lifespan (or my new rig itch can't be ignored any longer) is over.
The basics of my build for any given generation (given the collapse of AMD for gaming CPUs) would be:
- top or 2nd from top unlocked SKU Intel CPU
- 2nd or 3rd from top AMD/ATI or Nvidia GPU factoring in bang for the buck, and performance after overclocking with a view to upgrade halfway through PCs lifespan
- top HSF, likely Noctua, could be Phanteks or Silver Arrow
- appropriate watt modular gold PSU (5 or 7 year warranty) that will handle the upgraded GPU in 2 to 3 years
- 2nd / 3rd top speed RAM, factoring latency and HSF clearance
- Good SSD as boot/programs drive
- good HDD for storage (possibly 2nd for backups or external for backups)
- speakers/headphones, monitor, mouse and KB to be reused or determined later
- optical drives, DVD-RW... unless BD-R/BD-RW and the related media come down in price
- applicable release of OS (likely Windows 7 or 8)
- case / casefans for airflow suitable to a 24/7 performance oriented overclock of CPU and GPU -- last thing to pick
I think that covers it. With NCIX to web price matching (just paste the URL in the order for each item) I cannot imagine going elsewhere for now. Yes I could put it together myself, but time is money and NCIX's assembly/testing charge ($50 basic, $75 premium) is well worth it for me as I couldn't do as good as a job as they do in 2 hours or less ($40/hr of my wages x 2 hours = $80).
So if I had to buy tomorrow it would be a 3770K on P8Z77-V Pro with NH-D14, GTX670, AX850 or SS-850KM, 4x4GB DDR3 2133 F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH
