$2000 Gaming PC, a few questions

I'm planning to build a real gaming PC sometime around the end of November, and am now picking out the parts I want.

I went for the graphics card first, and went with the ATI 5870. Possibly going to add another to it with Crossfire after Christmas.

My choice for the CPU is more complex, I'm looking at the upper Intel range (i7), and wanted to know what was good, as well as recommended motherboard. Considering the the i7 975 and 965 are a little bit too pricey, I was looking at the 960, although is it worth it compared to a lower range one (950)?

For motherboards I have no clue, obviously I want it to integrate well with 5870 (meaning Crossfire support's a must), and run an i7 chip. DDR3 ram for sure. I was thinking along the lines of an Asus P6T6 Revolution, although that may be dumped because of budget constraints. This is an area I really need some suggestions in.

For sound cards I really have no clue, and wanted to know if it was worth a dedicated card...

I also have no clue for power or case, I do realise I'll probably need liquid cooling.

For the HD I'll probably go Western Digital 500G, I already have a 1TB external HD.

My planned monitor (as this is a ground up build including peripherals) was a Benq E2420, although I'm not entirely sure that's been released yet...

power: Corsair 750TX (or HX if you want modular)

Thanks for the help everyone,

CPU's are still my main issue, it's between the i7 920 and 860, price isn't really an issue in this department. I also wanted to be able to upgrade in the future, specifically to support dual GPUs, (which in light of akash's advice will probably be postponed for a long while).

EDIT: I've had a look around and realise the 920 vs 860 topic has really been done to death, and, despite the 860's 'Turbo' business (which I kind of thought was a bit of a gimmick anyway), will probably go with the 920 unless someone says something to radically change my mind. I'll probably try my hand at overclocking too.

Also the SSD...I'll admit I knew absolutely nothing about it until my dad mentioned it to me in his new laptop this morning. Basically the HD in the actual computer is going to be for installing games onto, data will go onto the External. An SSD looks very attractive, but I just know zilch about what it does compared to a normal HD.

As for the monitors it simply needs to be able to run my PS3 as well, which means support HDCP and have a HDMI port. the Benq looks great in this regard as well as having a ton of inputs.

Well, if I were you don't be excited with the super high-end LGA 1136 boards unless would want Tri/Quad CF/SLI WHICH IS OVERKILL. That P6T SE support Tri CF/SLI FYI.

Something like the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128375
or the Asus P6T SE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131386

and get an SSD..
But you shouldn't RAID 0 them because its very expensive and for now TRIM doesn't work. when you RAID 0 them.

All about TRIM is here: http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3667
I hope you can read the whole article it will be worth it especially if you want to buy an SSD.

Get an Indilinx controller drive from OCZ or get an Intel X25-M G2

Where did you find that news? I want to check that out.

Yup, a lot say hot especially the Giga board. But looks like even the board you choose also some says hot. So I say take the risk and go for the board you picked + an SSD. You will see a HUGE difference in loading OS, apps, etc.

+1 to the P6T V2, it has an extra slot inbetween the pcie slots which will help with cooling a dual gpu setup.