Yet another $600 Budget Gaming Rig

Approximate Purchase Date: Within 2 weeks


Budget Range: $600 after MIR, tax and shipping but somewhat flexible for the right parts.


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming & Surfing.


Parts Not Required: Speakers, OS, Monitor,mouse, keyboard.


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon, Tiger Direct, Newegg (charges Tax in my state but I can pickup from their warehouse)


Country of Origin: United States


Parts Preferences: None


Overclocking: Not likely.


SLI or Crossfire: Maybe


Monitor Resolution: 1440x900, Similar to 1280x1024.


Additional Comments:
I will only be gaming on a single monitor for at least another year or two.

This computer will need to last me at least 2-3 years.

A quiet PC would be nice.

I want to run BF3 and Modern Warfare 3 when they come out in November with at least 45FPS.

My main concerns are the motherboard. Is it a good choice?

Need advice on choosing GPU. Debating between Radeon 6850 and 6870? Is the extra $23 worth it for a 6870? I mainly play shooters (COD, BC2)

I'm debating whether I should choose a cheaper GPU and case to get an i5-2300 instead of an i3-2100... An i5 will cost me an additional $54.37.


Parts I already have (all prices include tax):

G.Skill DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) 1666 Memory
$65.84
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

Corsair CX500W PSU
$31.57
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139027

Both have already been counted in the budget. So I have $530 remaining.


Parts I have chosen (after tax and rebates):

CPU,
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10 GHz Dual Core Processor
$108.74 from local Micro Center


GPU,
XFX Radeon HD 6870
$186.32
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150506


Motherboard,
MSI P67A-G43 B3
$112.18 AR from local Fry's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130583


Case
Cooler Master Elite 430
$40.47
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product


Optical Drive
ASUS 24X DVD Burner
$23.04
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827135204

Total:
$530.75

Thanks

At that resolution you will be seeing pretty good frame rates even on a older Radeon 5770. so no doubt the 6850-6870 is good
Below is a chart. Straight from TomHardware benchmarks itself showing the difference in FPS at 1650x1050




Since you play Shooters i chose this one. Bfbc2 gets very respectable framerates with highest settings Including 8xMSAA and 16x AF
Now the radeon 6870 gets 8 fps on average more than the 6850

I wouldpay the extra 23$ for the extra performance. The more Fps the better

AS for your cpu the quad core will if you have the money be a better choice and be much more future proof then the dual core.
They both would last. But 2-3 years from now im sure many games would be utilizing more then just 2 cores. and with 4 cores you won't need to worry about your bottleneck as much. Also the intel i-5 has 6mb l3 cache while the i3 has 3mb l3 cache. So double the cache and cores = Greater speed, power, fps

And the one you looked at was the Intel i-5 2300 2.8ghz

ADD just 5 more dollars and get the

Intel i-5 2400 which is 3.1ghz stock .3ghz faster for 5 dollars. not to bad and you don't need overclocking.