$500 Build Help

[Crunchiie620]

So, the birthday of a friend is coming up and a bunch of my other friends decided to build a computer for him since his laptop is seriously not doing well. Especially during one of our LAN parties. We gathered up some money and came up with $620. I might add in a few more bucks for shipping and stuff, but I just wanted some advice on what kind of build we should make.


Approximate Purchase Date: 2 weeks from now. His b-day is on the 20th, so hoping to get the build at least 3 days earlier.

Budget Range: $600-$700

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (D3, Dota2, SC2, various console ports), Video Editing, Photoshop, Web Browsing, Student stuff.

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Monitor

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ncix, newegg

Country: Canada

Parts Preferences: Nothing really. As long as it runs smooth.

Overclocking: Maybe in the future, his decision really.

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe in the future, again his decision.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: We need something to have a good "WOW!" factor that will really surprise him on his birthday.

So, need help. Really don't know what kind of build we should go with.
Was thinking of a 2500k, but that would be over-budget.
So either an i3 or an FX?
SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!

 

[jmsellars1]

Two things that would make it seem a bit more special are a nice case and a SSD.

The nice case will make it seem that bit more awesome and nice to look at while the SSD will make it feel really quick.

Something like this should be nice:

Intel Core i3-2120 - $129.99
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) - $37.99
ASRock H61M-VS - $64.99
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7750 1GB - $114.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 500GB - $92.99
Crucial M4 64GB - $84.99
SeaSonic SS-300ES Bronze 300W - $44.99
Samsung DVD Burner - $16.99
LIAN LI PC-A05NB - $69.99

Total - $657.91 on newegg.ca


That's a bit over budget but perhaps if you shop around a bit you could get that for $600. If you could that would be great because it should be able to play those games on high settings smoothly and would be very quiet with low power consumption. The SSD and the really nice aluminium case should give it that wow factor as well.