If your main bag is gaming, and you dont do video encoding, number crunching and the like, then the 2500 is a good choice (with a 1155 motherboard as Caek notes) considering the price differential http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288.

However, I would still go for the 2500K rather than the vanilla 2500. For $20 more, you get an unlocked clock multiplier and those puppies overclock like the bejeezus - they run very cool and stable at 4Ghz (ie an easy  25 percent overclock) - but I've seen plenty of reports by the more adventurous of them running stable at 4.5Ghz and up (on air).

As to your first question - yep hardware hasnt moved on much and the discussion here remains pretty relatively current. 

Cheers

Smeg

How so? Just make sure the processor is supported by the motherboard?

Would you say that the i7-2600 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115071) compared to the i5-2500 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073) is worth the extra $90? I'm not computer hardware savvy so I don't really understand the difference other than the extra threads and cache size.

Hehe, the main prob is that I don't have a desktop :P. All I have is my lappy which basically dies anything big happens even on ultra low graphics ><.

Alright, I'm going to hi-jack this thread since it's basically identical to my situation. I need a new desktop which will be for pure gaming (have a lappy for work). Is this stuff still good (stinking comps change so quickly...)? And if not, what's something good for the same price ($1000)? ATM, I have a mouse, keyboard, moniter (have 1, would prefer 2, but not necessary, comp comes first), and speakers.

Looks good Caek

But I would think about getting the 2500K rather than the 2400. For $30 more, the 2500K has the unlocked clock multiplier, allowing an easy overclock to 4ghz on stock cooling.

Also, if your budget can stretch far enough, Id look at stepping up to a 6950 rather than the 6850. Not sure what a stock one goes for over there, but they have significantly more grunt than the 6850. http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2011-gaming-graphics-charts/Enthusiast-Index,2674.html

Oh, and in my experience, DVD players are all pretty comparable (unless you want blu-ray) . Just get the cheapest reputable brand you can find.

Happy shopping!

Cheers

Smeg

Just as a note, when you go to the Radeon X9XX series, you need to make sure you have a case long enough to hold it :)  So don't take Doc's video card with the case I selected!  (I haven't checked measurements but it would be really tight at the least).  With a X9XX it's got 2 cpus so I wouldn't feel a need to crossfire it at all.  I agree with the choice if a) you can fit it b) need that horsepower.  The major limitation on crossfire is that you HAVE to run in fullscreen for it to work.  I run LOTRO windowed so I can easily admin TS3 on my other screen.

Any of the Intel i5's actually, pretty good for the power/cost, although if you can squeeze a bit more in, i'd go i7 (which is what I have).  You don't need an unlocked one as those overclock. 

SSD drives rock for loading things, so I would install programs on the SSD and save things on a regular hard drive.

SSD = Solid State Drive, which means no moving parts to access memory. It's a HUGE increase to preformance and stabilty for processing.

Intel Core i5 - $210

Asus P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156  - $115

Antech three hundred ATX mid tower case - $60

Corsair HX750 modular power supply - $150

Sapphire Vapor X Radeon HD 5770 - $120

Kingston HyperX (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 ram - $55

Kingston SSDNow KR-S1296-3H 96gb SSD - $135

Total - ~$880

Not including monitor, mouse, keyboard, nor operating system.  Expect old hard drive to be used as storage