New Casual Gaming System for around $550-600

[Coastaltuba]

I've decided to build myself a desktop, mainly for casual gaming (the newest games, but I don't care about high settings), and music notation for college. I'm interested in AMD builds, mainly because they are cheaper, and I don't need some overkill i7 build. Anything that you would change, I would gladly listen to. Keep in mind that it is $550-600 only. I am trying to sell my Asus U50 laptop to buy the parts, or trade it for some of the parts. I prefer only Newegg. Here is my build as of right now:

Case: Sentey Optimus Extreme - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811322015

Motherboard (FX ready): Asus M5A87 AM3+ AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard - $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131734

GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6570 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card - $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127585

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AARS 750GB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136847

RAM: ADATA XPG Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $43
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor - $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727

DVD: LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer (Dual Layer and Lightscribe Support) - $22
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335

PSU: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152028

All this, plus keyboard and mouse, equals $573.55 (shipping added)

Help me if there is anything to make it better! Thanks guys!

 

[genghiskron]

you can do way better for the money. i made a build in this budget range today out of boredom, its at the bottom of this thread, which you can use as a guide:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/page-312822_31_50.html

 

[Coastaltuba]

For my money, will it be better to get an AMD or an Intel gaming rig? I've been a fanboy of AMD, but if someone can give me a good enough reason to switch to Intel, I probably would.

 

[genghiskron]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-2100-phenom-ii-x6-1075t,2859-10.html

 

[Coastaltuba]

Alright, I'm game. This means I have to change my whole build... more work lol. But I really do want to keep the case at least, because this is a tremendous case for the price. Any good i5 + GPU combo that will help me out there? I don't want to buy the DIY kits, not good enough components

 

[Coastaltuba]

What about this Motherboard + CPU combo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138319

 

[Coastaltuba]

Nevermind, I would be within $50 of my budget, so that would mean a *** card...Damn this is hard

 

[manu 11]

drop down to a phenom ii x4 955- 114$
psu is fine
case too
motherboard, i think you are intrested in bulldozer too.
i dont trust that ram, here is a good deal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427
better ram for same price
so that means you have 96$ left, you can choose a 5770, after rebatse it would be 89$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363

 

[springhalo]

here's genghiskron's build from the other thread.

Genghis Kron's Product of Boredom $530 w/promo codes, before shipping, no rebates
Processor: i3-2100 $115 w/promo code EMCKDHJ26
Motherboard: Asrock H61 - $75
RAM: Gskill NS 4gb 1333 - $32 w/promo code DM15JN11US
Graphics Card: Sapphire hd6870 - $175
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500gb + DVD combo - $51
Case: Weird Apex Case w/handle - $30
Power Supply: Antec EA 500w - $50 w/promo code EMCKDHJ39
Cooling: stock
DVD Burner: combo'd with hdd above

i5-2400+case alternative: Brings total to $617

It's a HELLA powerful build for that price. An i3-2100 is better/more efficient than a 955, and I'm amazed he could find everything so cheap. If you wanted to spend a bit more you could change the HDD to a 1tb, but @ that price with an included DVD drive, you'd be all set. Also, you could spend more for whatever case you wanted.

To get an aspect of the power of that rig, I'm running an i3/6850 rig now, and have crysis 2 MAXED @ 1440x900.

Maru 11's suggestion of getting a 5770 will cripple your game performance. A 6870 is leagues better than that. If I hadn't already bought my build, I would have gone with that.

 

[Coastaltuba]

Best answer selected by Coastaltuba.