Optimized Gaming Computer Builds For Every Budget

An SSD is going to be used as your OS drive and it's going to store your operating system and also the games and programs that you most commonly use. This gives your programs a lightning-fast startup time and is going to feel much more convenient. Your computer will also be ready to go on the desktop about 10-20 seconds after you turn the power on. However, an SSD won't offer any real-world improvements in gaming FPS or the sort(A few exceptions, like texture loading in WoW), so they're by default not included in any of the builds. However, if you value convenience and fast search / startup times, getting a SSD might be worth it.

Currently, I will only recommend the Crucial m4 SSD as it is more reliable than the SandForces and has the best price-performance ratio in my opinion. The two SSD sizes that I would recommend would be 64gb if you have just a few games / programs that you use often, and the 128gb version if you play more games / use many programs often and have some larger games like WoW.

64gb one will cost 106.99$:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441

128 gb one will cost 197.99$:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442

Remember to check other sites for better pricing.

If you do go with the SSD, remember that a 7200rpm HDD is no longer completely necessary as it's just going to be your storage drive. Because of this, if you want some more storage room, feel free to replace the 7200RPM drive with a lower RPM drive with a larger capability, here would be a good choice for 2TB at 79.99$:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148681
If you don't need the extra space, you can use the 1TB drive in the original build.

Despite offering little to no performance increase over an i5 2500k in gaming, this processor is still going to be a good choice if you indeed have a use for it. Good situations to invest the additional ~95$ into this would be if you need the hyperthreading or the extra cache size. Situations like these would be if you do a lot of photoshop, video encoding, video editing, rendering, and so on. It might also marginally improve your ability to stream, but it's a waste to spend the 95$ for just that, as the difference is marginal at best.

These can be had for 314.99$ and they'll replace the 2500k, rest of the build can remain intact:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

For most people, 1TB is enough. If it isn't though, feel free to add as many 2TB drives like this as you need in addition to your main system drive for 79.99$:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245