jefequeso: New build:
Took the graphics card and CPU down lower, but improved the motherboard. How important is it to have a good motherboard?
Psyringe: It's a good build imho, though the mainboard may require some further thought (see below). I don't know the prices on the US market and can't tell how good Newegg's prices are, but the composition of the build looks good.
With regard to mainboards: Even cheap mainboards get the job done pretty well by now. Mainboard price depends mainly on (a) chipset and (b) bells and whistles like additional controllers and connectors. It's okay to buy a cheap one if you know that you don't need the bells and whistles, the actual performance won't differ much.
Regarding chipsets, there are four which are worth a consideration in your situation:
H61 is a chipset for people who just want a system with the latest generation of Intel CPUs for the lowest possible possible. It offers no overclocking, no SATA 3.0, no RAID, and has limited upgrade capacity (only two memory banks in total), but it does get the job done, the speed difference to the more expensive boards is negligible as long as you don't overclock the others, and you can get a working board for a modern CPU for less than 60$. I wouldn't necessarily _recommend_ this chipset, but it's an option if the budget is limited.
H67 is a chipset for people who don't care about overclocking. It's most attractive for people who want to use the graphics chip that's integrated in the CPU, are on a tight budget, and want to retain some upgrade capabilities with regard to memory. It's probably not the best fit in your situation since you're using a discrete graphics card, and you can get a board that allows overclocking in the same price range.
P67 is a chipset for people who don't care about the graphics chip that's integrated in the CPU, and who want the possibility to overclock the CPU. It can't use the on-die GPU at all.
Z68 is a chipset that combines the strengths of the two previously mentioned, it allows overclocking and can make use of the on-die GPU. It can also switch between that GPU and your discrete graphics card, which sounds good in theory, but can be a hassle in practice (but you don't need to use this feature if you don't want to). Nevertheless, Z68 is the most evolved chipset in this group.
Apart from the chipset, the other main factor that raises mainboard prices is the amount of additional controllers. Decide if you need USB 3.0, Firewire, Bluetooth, surround sound, etc.
My advice is to decide which kinds of bells and whistles you need, then compare the prices of boards with different chipsets that have these bells and whistles, and then decide on a chipset.
With my current "machine," I'm just thankful if I can get anything post 2003 to run PERIOD, much less with decent visuals. I don't even know what exactly overclocking is, much less have the desire to do it. So ringing and whistling isn't really necessary. As long as it won't cause a performance bottleneck or keep games from running, it sounds like I'll be perfectly happy with a cheap motherboard. I'll probably go for a H67, as per your suggestion.
EDIT: oops, misread. You DON'T recommend the H67
hmm... well, I'm strongly considering just getting the H61... but it seems that would severely limit my expansion options in the future, yes?
And it does make me feel tons better to hear that the build isn't crap.
AlKim: I've heard Seagate has had some reliability issues lately, although they used to make quality products at some point. A friend of mine went through three Seagate HDDs in two years, which sounds pretty poor. Unsurprisingly Seagates also have the shortest warranty of all hard drives in my local computer store.
If you want to avoid Seagate, there's at least Samsung and Western Digital. As far as I know, WD is the bigger player in the business. Looking at the prices in the local computer store mentioned before, the Samsung SpinPoint is cheaper than the WD Caviar Black, but also has a shorter warranty (three versus five years). Either one should be a solid choice. Avoid the other two Caviars: first of all, the Green is cheaper, but it's strictly for storing files you don't access very often (so there are power-down features, longer loading times and such things you don't need on a primary HDD), and secondly, while the Blue is lower-performing and hence cheaper than the Black, it seems to have a shorter warranty as well.
Ooh... that is not good. HD failure = D:. I'll hunt around for another HD then. The HD isn't too much of a concern, though... as I said, I won't be buying this stuff probably until summer, so prices/products may vary. It's stuff like the GPU that I want to get nailed down, since my eyes usually start glazing over when I see "Nvidia XL354-4RF Sim #78 Delta Alpha Foxtrot Bravo MLA 3546723-!674583_RT" or stuff like that.
@Liquid Cooling O_o You think I'm some kind of mad scientist??? ;)
