https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=20709365
See link.
I already have a nice SSD and astorage drive. No other peripherals needed. I want to keep the budget $900 or less. I don’t do a lot of gaming at all, but I like to play a game here or there (BF3, borderlands 2, etc) without being concerned about poor/average graphics. What would you change?
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Not really a bad build. I personally like Full tower cases because it’s easier to move stuff around if need and with those huge cards stuff can get tight. In my Antec 900 case I had to move drives around just to plug stuff in. I was never big on Gigabyte boards after they lied and said my quad core CPU was supported and then the computer didn’t work. Switch to ASUS, which I’ve used in about 4 or 5 builds already.
You also may want to spend a few more dollars on the CPU and bump it to one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction2&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction2--AMD--Processors%20-%20Desktops-_-19113284&AID=10487648&PID=3962334&SID=
They’re up to 8 core @ 4.0 now for ~200? o.O oh boy.
I’m still on a 4c @ 3.2…
After I build one, I refuse to look at computer stuff until the one I have can no longer keep up with what I need… I get too depressed seeing everything I bought a month ago for $1000 is now only $100. Same with cars… 
I’m a fan of the Antec 1200 (I have a 900, but I like the 1200 much more), and ASUS mainboards.
The bulldozer chips got very poor reviews…I’d still personally go with a higher end i7 chip.
Or this…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMPUTER-EQUIPMENT-/321008590688?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item4abd9a5f60
For gaming/most peoples general day to day usage a either these two chips will work great a quad core i5 or dual core i3 will be much better bang for his buck. But Progrocker is right you shouldn’t buy AMD chips.
Intel Core i5 3570 (199.99 with the promo code)
Intel Core i3 3225 (129.99)
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A couple of other suggestions that could save you some money, I am these days more of a fan of Fractal Design, Bitfenix or Corsair cases but since you want to save some cost. Why get this case Antec Three Hundred, one small suggestion that is more of a personal opinion I would suggest Corsair or Seasonic PSU.
Lastly please, please do not buy a AMD/ATI video card, there drivers (and performance numbers) are just fucking horrible. I would suggest this card
Yep, I’d recommend the Corsair (they make great all around products) or Antec for PSU. I’ve had my 1200w Antec running for years without a hitch. Modular PSUs are better at saving room inside the case. The 660Ti is benchmarked higher than the original card you posted as well. I’m partial to Nvidia myself but with little/no gaming cards really shouldn’t be too much of an issue. The Antec case above is nice, but I’ll stress again, things get tight with a large GPU and multiple drives. I went with a Full tower for mine and I probably won’t swap it out for many many years.
Great info, thanks.
Since you’re suggesting intel, which comparable motherboards would you suggest?
For the money, the AMD CPU’s are about half of what the Intel ones are. Just saying, I bet that the Intel does not give 100 percent better performance.
I just put together a pretty nice “non gaming” computer with an AMD Triple Core processor (Around 60 dollars) that I think is pretty nice.
Any asus or Gigabyte Z77 chipset motherboard that fits your needs will work great for you.
Cores does not equal performance, and AMD chips benchmark far below Intel chips.
alright, i switched gears to intel. I knew the single core performance was lower on the AMD side, however I was looking at budget as well… But after setting this up, I’m not too far off from my initial budget.
I switched to an MSI nvidia based card based on price and positive reviews. I also found a highly recommended mid-tower case that has the features I want and is pretty damn cheap. I was looking into full tower, but I don’t think I’ll need it. The liquid cooling is only there because I’ve wanted to give it a shot for awhile now. I’m not too concerned about overclocking, but it gives me the option to do so without as much worry about heat.
I’m not too sure if the motherboard would be overkill… Thoughts?
https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=28840468
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Are you going with these higher end parts simply for games here and there, or do you do other CPU intensive tasks (video editing, etc?). If it was just a normal web browsing desktop that was used for games here and there, id spend less money personally. I just build a machine and went with an i5-3570k (no advantage to i7 over i5 for gaming), asrock z77 extreme 3, 8 gigs ram, and the gigabyte 7870.
I think you should be able to go cheaper on the motherboard unless you overclock. Id spend less on ram-- look up benchmarks and you will see that the performance differences between cheap and expensive ram is not worth the price difference for someone not looking to pump every last bit of performance from a computer. Also, I’m not sure 16gb is needed if you’re only playing games. Also, your 998 price in the second list is without ram or a dvd drive.
This PSU is on sale til tomorrow.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=qXpjyCubEeKXT_70KdAAXgkEW7_0_GDK_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction--cables--na-_-na&Item=N82E16817139006
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Heres a CPU benchmark comparing the i5 3570k and the i7 3770k. Not worth the price difference IMHO if games are the CPU intensive task the computer will be built for.
Do you plan on overclocking?
If not then drop the water cooling and just use the stock heatsink. The stock coolers on both chips are more then enough at stock clocks to handle the temps on the cpu.
From your description of what you want to do, you honestly would have a hard time telling the difference between AMD/Intel with either build. Also, depending on your screen size and resolution that you game at, it might even be a more moot point. If you plan on gaming more or doing more cpu intensive tasks like video editing, photoshop work, encoding, etc. then the Intel setup will be faster for you.
I would just get an i5 3570k and overclock it. I have mine at 4.8 Ghz 24/7, and it will be a while until I need more than that.
Don’t cheap on the power supply, if it fails it could kill everything else.
Also I like XFX graphics cards, because they have a double lifetime warranty, you have a lifetime warranty, and then when you sell it the next guy also gets a lifetime warranty.