Brad Mazzer - ASUS Master Challenge Top 10

NOMINATED ASUS MOTHERBOARD: P7P55D DELUXE

NOMINATED ASUS GRAPHICS CARD: ASUS ENGTX275

CPU: Intel i7 860
This is the best value/performance for the money - performs nearly as good as the i7 920, but at a cheaper price (and for the 1156 socket of the motherboard I've chosen).

CPU COOLER: Noctua NH-U12P Special Edition SE2 and Noctua Intel mounting kit
 This is a great air cooler (I use this on my home PC) - quiet and efficient, and a breeze for installation and maintenance.

MEMORY: OCZ 3P 1600 4GK 1600mhz 4gb Ram Kit
I've only chosen 4gb for this system, as my plan is affordability as well as performance - and extra 4gb kit is an easy upgrade to add, which would boost the system to 8gb total.  This memory is on the approved list for the motherboard chosen, and has nice timings @ 1600mhz, with room for oc if needed.

AUDIO: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express OEM
Although the on board audio would do fine - for the extra $35, adding the X-Fi just makes sense, adding fps and extra options in game.

HARD DRIVE 1: OCZ 60G Agility SSD 64M Cache
For an operating system drive, it's hard to go past SSD - speed and quick access times - perfect for the OS.

HARD DRIVE 2: Western Digital 300G SATA II VelociRaptor (WD3000HLFS)
300gb is a good size for game installs - and this drive is quick - I know just by using it's siblings (the 74 and the 36) just how much difference in game these make!

HARD DRIVE 3: Western Digital 1TB Green 64MB SATAII (WD10EARS)
 It included the 3rd drive as a basic storage drive - if this was for a pure gaming system, I wouldn't spend the extra $110 for it - but if it was for a home/gaming system (only a lucky few can have dedicated PC's :P) then extra storage is always handy.

OPTICAL DRIVE: ASUS DRW-24B1ST SATA DVDRW
Still can't avoid using optical media (well, not easily anyway) - and this drive has good read/write speed.  I don't see any bonus for getting a blu ray drive - maybe for future proofing - but the extra $100 is better saved.

PSU: Antec 850W TruePower Quattro
A beefy 850W for just over the $200 mark is great value, and with 4 12v rails, it's got the stability a gaming system needs.

CASE: CoolerMaster RC-922M-KWNI HAF Black w Side Panel
I personally have the HAF 932 - and it's unbeatable - but this smaller version saves a nice $60 and it's not much smaller, but would probably a little more portable (for LANs etc) without sacrificing cooling.

MONITOR: ASUS VW246H 24inch
Great pricing (around the $250 mark) for a 24 inch lcd - with VGA, DVI and HDMI, not only will it be great for using with the PC, but you can also hook up a console as well!

KEYBOARD & MOUSE: Logitech S520 Laser USB Cordless Desktop Keyboard+Mouse
I use this myself - recently upgrading from the old 520 desktop kit - this is responsive, easy to use, doesn't chew through batteries and the mouse can take many clicks - the paint has worn off my old set and the buttons still click perfect every time!

OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
64-bit to take advantage of the 4gb of RAM, and Windows 7 (rather than Vista) because it runs better - and I haven't had a game that hasn't played well in 7 as yet.

OTHER
Brad says he'd put two of the 275GT graphics card in the system in SLI configuration.  "I'd also make use of the 3rd PCIex 16x slot but putting an Asus ENGT 240 card in - this would be set up as a dedicated physx card, leaving the two 275 purely for graphic processing.  This set-up would be roughly equivalent (cost-wise) to a single 5870, but would give a massive amount more graphical processing power.  I'd also throw in an extra 120mm fan or 2 in the case (for extra cooling).
I've tailored this system to be fairly cost effective, while still giving a good performance result."