Gaming build, budget oriented, advice welcome.

Approximate Purchase Date: this week (Thursday)

Budget Range: <$600 Before Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming rig, must play Rift on high settings.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, hard drive

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: microcenter.com (local pickup)

Country: U.S.

Parts Preferences: Quality, stable

Overclocking: Maybe (future CPU upgrade, GPU not likely)

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: This will be a secondary gaming rig, main requirement is it must play games like Rift on pretty high settings. Parts must be available for local pickup at Microcenter.

Concerns:
-Thermaltake make a decent PSU?
- 500w good enough for the vidcard selection?
- H61 chipset sufficient or should I look for better?
- Vidcard sufficient for my needs?

Also looking for any alternate parts with similar price ranges and performance levels that might be better then what I have. I have been selecting a lot from the Hot Ad deals and rebate items, although that is not a necessity of course.

Here are the parts, and a link to the wish list on microcenter:

Wishlist, total around $560 with tax, before rebates:
Wishlist, total around $617 with tax, before rebates:

https://www.microcenter.com/Insider [...] aGowepqwFp

Gigabyte GA-H61M-DS2 LGA 1155 H61 mATX Intel Motherboard: $54 ($10 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0377387

Intel Core i3 2100 LGA 1155 3.1GHz Boxed Processor: $99
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0359809

Corsair XMS 8GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10666) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit: $49 ($20 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0347304

Crucial 8GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10600) CL9 U-DIMM Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules): $35
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0382099

Diamond 6770PE51GB AMD Radeon HD 6770 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.1 x16 Video Card: $99 ($20 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0381820

Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.1 x16 Video Card GV-R685OC-1GD: $165 ($30 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0354216

Thermaltake TR2 Series 500 Watt ATX Power Supply: $44 ($10 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0365237

Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-430CXV2 430 Watt ATX Power Supply: $46
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0361421

Thermaltake V4 Black Edition VM30001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case: $39 ($10 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0340862

Acer S231HL bid 23" LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor: $114
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0354785

Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD Burner - OEM: $18
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0380574

Thanks!

Some Thermaltake PSU's can be OK but I'd generally go with a Seasonic, Corsair or Antec or something. 500W is much more than you need for that system, 400W would still be plenty. At peak load that system will pull around 220-250W assuming you don't have 12 hard drives.

The H61 chipset should be fine for that build.

My advice would be to drop the PSU to around 400W (Corsair CX-430 perhaps) and drop down to 4GB RAM to get a slightly better GPU. See if you can find a version of the HD 6850 which requires 1 x 6 pin PCI-e connector that would be good.

Thanks for the input.

I swapped the PSU for the following:

Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-430CXV2 430 Watt ATX Power Supply
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0361421

Looking at vidcard options to see if I can squeeze in something more powerful.

It shouldn't cost you too much to go 8GB of ram.
It is a better value and would probably save you money in the long run.

And good choice on swapping the PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820148476

Ok here is what I got, puts me a little over budget but that's ok, rebates will bring it down a bunch:

Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 6850 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.1 x16 Video Card GV-R685OC-1GD: $165 ($30 rebate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0354216

Crucial 8GB DDR3-1333 (PC3-10600) CL9 U-DIMM Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules): $35
http://www.microcenter.com/single_ [...] id=0382099

Brings total to $617 before rebates. Think that should about do it.

You can bring the price down on the 6850:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125353

That comes to $120 after coupon and rebate.