First build ever $600 budget - opinions please

ingo33

Honorable
Jun 15, 2013
1
0
10,510
This is my first build ever and I have 600 bucks to spend. I need something mainly for school but would like to be able to run battlefield 3 on higher settings. I'm a casual gamer I don't need to run games at 60fps but would like everything to flow nicely. I have my os already (w7) along with monitor, mouse and keyboard.Here's my rough draft http://pcpartpicker.com/user/ingo33/saved/1LMx Let me know what you think. Thanks!
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($92.13 @ TigerDirect)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($67.23 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($154.00 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $585.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-15 14:25 EDT-0400)

-Upgraded gpu to a much better one.
-Ditched blu-ray drive. You won't really need it.
-Higher quality psu.
 

game junky

Distinguished
Pretty good budget rig - the 965 is still one of the most popular budget AMD processors and it gets the job done. The 650 should be able to handle medium settings on BF3 as long as you don't turn on anti-aliasing and motion blur. Wish you had a little extra wiggle room to get you to a 660 and an 8120. Here's getting close to that budget, case isn't sexy but functional and the 8120 will drastically increase performance if you install an aftermarket cooler and overclock the processor. Even at stock, it's going to help with multitasking. I think the 660 should be able to handle high with the except of the larger maps w/o AA & motion blur. The large player maps might be a push - I have mine running High with an 8150 and a Nvidia 560 and I notice a drop in performance on those maps. Take a look at the rig and see if that will work. You can also grab a blu ray drive down the road - cost isn't going to go up on those consider they are putting them in both next gen consoles.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/16I3y