Ryan Tang - ASUS Master Challenge Top 10

NOMINATED ASUS MOTHERBOARD: Maximus III Formula

NOMINATED ASUS GRAPHICS CARD: ASUS EAH5870

CPU: Intel i7-860
Out of the three current LGA 1156 CPU's available, this is the best compromise. It has hyperthreading, like the i7-870. It is also around half the price of the i7-870, but can be overclocked to 3.89 GHz (higher than the 2.93 GHz of a stock i7-870) with some tweaking; as shown in this article.
 
CPU COOLER: Corsair H50
The H50, being a liquid cooler, keeps the CPU temperatures lower than conventional cooling (fans) during overclocking, but is still at a reasonable price (relative to other liquid coolers). Check out performance results.

MEMORY: 4GB, Corsair, CMG4GX3M2A2000C8
These Dominator GT memory sticks run at 2000 MHz stock and have lots of overclocking potential. They also come with a fan for additional cooling and as a bonus match the colour of the motherboard. I chose 4Gb because this RAM is quite expensive and this amount should be good enough for current games. When more RAM is needed, the price should have dropped to a reasonable level.

HARD DRIVE 1: Intel X25-M Gen 2 SSD, 80 GB
The X25-M Gen 2 is one of the best performing SSDs currently available and also degrades less with use than the first generation model. As SSDs are still new and expensive, this drive should be used for the OS and commonly used programs only.

HARD DRIVE 2: Western Digital WD1001FALS HDD, 7200 RPM
This is one of the fastest HDDs for I/O tasks, which is ideal for gaming (load times); (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hitachi-western-digital-terabyte,2017-8.html). The decent storage allows for a large collection of games and other applications. If multimedia applications were more frequent than gaming (or if games were installed only on the SSD) the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb would probably be a better choice as it is one of the best HDDs for multimedia applications.

OPTICAL DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-218BK
This is a fairly inexpensive DVD drive with good performance. Blu ray drives are still expensive and may not even become mainstream with digital distribution services growing in popularity. If Blu ray does survive, the drives will drop in price (probably) so you're still better off waiting to see what happens either way. 

PSU: Corsair HX1000W
The HX1000W is 80%+ certified (energy efficient), reliable and being modular, it's great for cable management. With 1000 W, it is capable of supplying power to an overclocked crossfire graphics setup and the overclocked CPU. 

CASE: Antec 902
The 902 is spacious enough to accommodate the 28cm long EAH5870 and provides good airflow and cooling. The case also includes washable air filters (to prevent dust build up on the components) and a side window to show-off the components. If you don't like the lights, you could have the case on the ground and switch the top fan light off.

MONITOR: Dell U2410
The U2410 supports a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 which makes use of the EAH5870's potential. Most 27" monitors have the same resolution, only enlarged, and 30" monitors require you to sit quite far back to see the whole screen. The array of inputs allows you to connect consoles along with your PC. Dell offer a 5 year warranty which is comforting if things go wrong.

KEYBOARD: Logitech G110
The G110 has more G-keys than the similarly priced G15 and USB 2.0 ports rather than the USB 1.1s on the G15. The lack of an LCD does not really affect gaming too much, it's mainly good for checking component temps, etc. Although the G19 is a technically better keyboard, the price difference makes the G110 the better choice (personally).

MOUSE: Razer Mamba
The Mamba has a 5600 Dpi laser, allows you to store macros, can run in both wired and wireless mode which makes it ideal for any genre of games, FPS, RPG, etc. Being symmetrical it suitable for both left and right handers.

OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
For any gaming machine, the only choice is really windows with a lack of support on other OSs. Windows 7 has faster startup and better support for most of the components in this build than it's predecessors and the ultimate version comes with xp compatibility mode for older programs; although win 7 pro also has this feature, it's only about $30 less without some features (bitlocker and language support) which may come in handy. The 64 bit version can make use of all 4 Gb of RAM and allows for the upgrades in RAM mentioned in the RAM part.

HEADPHONES: Razer Carcharias
Need a good set of headphones for online games, or if you game at night.

SPEAKERS: Logitech Z5500D
To make use of the moherboard's excellent sound card and X-Fi support

MOUSEMAT: Razer Destructor mousemat
To improve the responsiveness of the Mamba further.