$600 Gaming Build first timer

Good idea adding another fan at the front of the case

I'd spend a little more and get a motherboard with a 970 series chip set . The 770 is good but the 970 has USB 3 and support for newer processors AMD will release
Maybe
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-SB950-DDR3-Motherboard-G...

but I like the ASUS evo a little more , even if the price is higher

You also need a hard drive

Yeah, I wanted to make sure the computer will stay cool. I already have a 2TB hard drive ready to be used when I build this.

Check my sig if it helps  

At a quick glance over your $600 one, wouldn't the 6850 be better? I thought it was higher in the benchmarks and being like $20 cheaper. Looks like I was fairly close to in your build, just a few differences.

If you can spare the extra $40 I'd suggest an AM3+ board instead. (same prices on Amazon btw)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$100 ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
$100 GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

6870>6850. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291?vs=290

Pssh, this a joke right?

Intel i3-2100 LGA 1155 Socket $115
ASUS P8Z68-V LE Motherboard $135
XFX 550W POWER SUPPLY: $75 http://www.amazon.com/PRO550W-Wired-Bronze-Power-Supply...
ASUS DVD DRIVE $20
Sapphire Radeon 6850_ $159
G.Skill Sniper 8GB DDR3 RAM $60 (Or 4GB = $30)

Finally: Case of your Choice! $25-75!

Also have $15 rebate...

  Gl with the build, and just for the record, the i3-2100 beats the phenom x4 standard clocked, When you overclock the phenom x4 to 4.2 ghz then they give the exact same performance. So the i3 is much better. AND AND AND you can upgrade to IVY BRIDGE in 1-2 years with the Z68 MOTHERBOARD   YES ITS AMAZING RIGHT?  

Btw, For the Operating System... You can do what most people do  

Are you kidding me? A dual core? Yes, i3 is good, but he'd be better off with a x4 because of technology utilizing more cores in the future, then the i3 would struggle.

i5 or x6 IMO.  

You buy an AM3+ motherboard and you can upgrade to ANY AMD CPU for the next half a dozen years without worrying that AMD will kill it off.

YES, AMAZING!

I'll look into getting an AM3+ motherboard. I'm just a bit leery with the i3 due to the dual core and a micro ATX motherboard. Thanks for all the input everyone!

The i3 will be spanked by the Phenom everywhere

but you really dont need a 6850 for such a low resolution monitor . Unless you are upgrading the monitor you can save money and max out any game with much cheaper hardware

Yeah, I do plan on getting a new monitor. I just figured I'll build the computer first. I'm seriously due for a new one now.

i3 2100 - $124
H61 based MoBo - $80

i3 2100 beats Phenom II X4 955, 965, 975 BE in gaming. (In almost every game) Clock for clock performance is also better in i3. Its also a 32nm chip which produces lesser heat and consumes lesser power than the Phenom. If you really wanna go with AMD then atleast wait for Bulldozer.

Also, Get a good monitor first before thinking of buying a mid/high end GPU. Get a cheapo one under $70.

What do most people do?

If you've got a Microcenter nearby, save some $$

http://www.microcenter.com/

I just got one of these deals, grab the Phenom II x4 840 and a motherboard, you get 40 bucks off the board, and also 40 bucks off the processor. I got the CPU and Micro ATX Gigabyte board for 60 bucks, only paid 20 bucks for 4gb of ddr3 1333. For that, add 35 for a decent case, 20 for a DVD burner, say 60 for a decent power supply. 50ish for a 1 tb hard drive. Then add 100 or so for Windows 7 home premium, and you've only got 350ish into the build.

At that point, for the $$ you've got left, forget the 6850 and grab yourself a 560ti.

In fact, even the micro board I got was AM3+. So meaning if you would grab a deal like that, you could instead of getting 4gb of ram, maybe bump to 8 gb of ram, drop a 560ti in your build, and take one step down on the processor now, but still have an upgrade path to bulldozer.

Edit.. no I don't work for Microcenter or anything, was actually doing a build this week and one of their guys told me about that, so saved me a good bit of $.

Yeah, I looked at Microcenter but I'm no where near one. Which is depressing.

DO NOT believe the simplistic benchmarks you find on anandtech and some other sites .
Some are so ludicrously slanted I suspect they come from intels marketing department
the Tomshardware system builder marathon proved conclusively that you can prove pretty much anything if you benchmark the right way .
They build a $500 i3 system to replace a $500 AMD system using a Phenom 920 x4 . Both systems used a 6850 graphics card . The intel was marginally faster in games at stock clocks and spanked in every other benchmark . Two cores cannot match 4 .
The phenom 955's faster clock speed ,AND THE FACT YOU CAN OVER CLOCK IT FURTHER, mean it will beat the i3 even in games .

But the OP , nor anyone else, should be building with phenom unless they are using an AM3+ motherboard ... and preferably with a 970 or 990 chip set