$500 Gaming PC Check

[the_thr34t]

Hey guys, a friend of mine asked me to help him pick out parts for a $500 gaming PC. I'm not the biggest expert when it comes to making budget PCs so hopefully you can help. I found this pretty cool website called PCPartPicker that can compare prices, here's what I got.

CPU: AMD FX-4170 4.2GHz Quad-Core $123.60

Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ $69.99

Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 $35.99

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM $59.79

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 1GB $125.45

Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower $49.99

Power Supply: Cooler Master 600W ATX12V $39.88

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer $18.99

Any suggestions on where to improve? I would also think the shipping costs would be pretty high so if there's any way to bring the total cost down, it would be appreciated it. There were also a lot of mail in rebates, I think the final price with the rebates came down to something like $520.

 

[zooted]

I would go for the 965be instead of the FX. Has higher ipc and performs better in games, especially when overclocked. Also swap out the power supply for one from a better brand. The cx430 from corsair is similar in price and will be plenty for a 6850. You could go with the 500w for a little more overhead or the XFX core 450 is a good unit with a little better quality.