Planning to build a £1300/$1500 PC, wonder your thoughts on this:

[Phaydze]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Phaydze/saved/2MN5

Or for you Americans

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Phaydze/saved/2MN5

By the way I live in England, so bear in mind that ridiculously cheap prices for hardware isn't that much of a trend over here

[herulach]

If you want intel, then sack the £90 you're spending on a keyboard and mouse off, and buy a 290 and a £10 mouse and keyboard combo from Asda. yes it won't be insanely high DPI or have a backlight, but its much easier to add that on next payday and get a better GPU.

Similarly, get a Modular (or at least Hybrid Modular) PSU, you're only going to be using 3 strings at most, and you don't want tonnes of cables flopping around all over the place.

I don't like that case, but then they're as much an aesthetic decision as anything else, and I imagine the handles might be useful if you move around a lot (although since you're planning a 23" monitor I guess you don't)

[Phaydze]

Funnily enough, I was planning to buy the R9 290, would you recommend the Asus version.
What modular PSU would you recommend?
I was planning to move my PC downstairs occasionaly (to my TV) if I have friends over and want to LAN.