[Solved] CPU/Motherboard/RAM Combination -- low-end gaming

Hi! I tried to follow the template as well as I could where it made sense to. Here it goes:

Approximate Purchase Date: Soon. Before Christmas, anyway. I was hoping to leverage some holiday-type sales in order to get good prices

Budget: I'm not trying to stick to a budget so much as I'm trying to figure out what I need, and some components that are good choices. Then I'm going to try to get stuff for as cheap as possible, maybe leveraging some holiday sales. If I had to throw out a number, I'd say ~$500, I guess.

System Usage: light gaming: WoW, Starcraft II, Portal, Half-Life 2

Parts I already have:
Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX12V V2.2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153023

XFX Radeon HD 5770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150462

SATA HDD

Case

Parts Needed:

CPU/Motherboard/RAM combination
I was thinking about basing this around a Core i3 ($100 at Microcenter) unless somebody can give me a reason not to.
Probably 4GB of RAM -- I don't really know what I require speed-wise...
Monitor -- Something bigger than 20'' with at least 1920x1080 resolution. I'm open to the idea of a refurb here (I've heard that Dell's Outlet is good for monitors?)


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg I guess. I'm open to others.

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: I don't really have a preference... Looking to get good performance for my money, and was thinking about an Intel Core i3 initially.

Overclocking: Probably--light, using stock cooler

SLI or Crossfire: No.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 or better

Awesome, thanks for the input guys. I will definitely take a closer look at the AMD route... One question about the motherboard though. Is there any room in there for even more savings? I realize that $99 is pretty damn cheap, but I thought I'd ask since it seems like it has lots of bells and whistles that I won't necessarily use (2xPCIe, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0, optical audio, etc.)

Okay cool, that's kinda what I figured. Any gut feelings on what kind of performance I could get overclocking it? I'm going to do some googlin' to see what I can find, but I thought I'd ask if anybody here has success.

Also, do you think my 430W Thermaltake PSU will hold up?

What atotalnoob said. Although you probably won't use the extras immediately, they provide much room for expansion and futureproofing. If you'd rather not, here's an even cheaper cpu/mobo combo that's just as good. It has an older chipset so you may not be able to unlock the 4th core on the Athlon. You need one of the newer chipsets with core unlock and also a bit of luck to get the 4th unlocked, then you'd have a Athlon II x4 for the price of a x3.

Athlon II x3 445 and ASRock M3A770DE $118.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.547178

Just for my reference, can you recommend a comparable motherboard for the Core i3? Currently the 540 is only $99 at my local Microcenter, so I may still explore that option
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0341728

Thanks again for all of the input =)

Here are some recommended intel boards..

ASUS P7P55D-E $139.99 after $10 mail-in rebate card ($144.99+tax at microcenter)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131620

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 $129.99 after $10 mail-in rebate card ($129.99+tax at microcenter)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128412

It would bring your total to around $230-240 before tax which in this case you'd be paying the same with tax as the AMD 955. Keep in mind if you're not in california you don't pay tax on newegg.

The only thing I would add to sr26 's post and something no one has really addressed is his power supply. I think this should do the trick at a reasonable cost.

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139004

Certfied and only $80 bucks, $60 after the MIR.

This will be over budget by $60 bucks, but without solid power, nothing else really matters.

Hey guys, can somebody field a quick RAM compatibility question? If I get this motherboard (from the combo deal), will it work with this RAM?

It says the motherboard supports 1600 overclocked, but I'm not entirely sure what that means. Thanks!

Motherboard says: DDR3 1800(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066/800
RAM says: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know what I went with:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz -- $73.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103872
Mobo: ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard -- $79.99 with a Black Friday deal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157198
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) -- $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231277
Monitor: eMachines E233Hbd Black 23" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 80000:1(1000:1) -- $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824114004

Added up to $313.97 after the -$10 for the combo discount.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Happy gaming, and Building!