Looking for a gaming desktop $600-700

[mike523]

Hey guys, I'm trying to build a relatively capable gaming system for under $700. From all the reading I've been doing AMD has yet to come up with a viable processor to compete with i5 (i7 probably wouldn't fit in my price range) so after nearly 15 years of AMD systems I am leaning towards Intel for this build. As far as video I still have yet to upgrade my older ATI Radeon 4870 but I can pull it from my current system and put it in the new build if a decent video card is out of the question at this price point (it shouldn't be, right?) I'm just looking for some options here. If anybody knows of some good barebones deals that would require the least amount of upgrading I would love to see them here but I wouldn't mind doing a homebuild either.

For comparison purposes my old system is based around an AMD Phenom II X2 550 and the aforementioned Radeon 4870. I'm sure it will be easy to blow this puppy away for $600-700.

Oh and one more thing, I do alot of multi-tasking so I would like to purchase a quad-core processor as opposed to dual-core...Also I am remembering the whole Modern Warfare 2 fiasco from a year or so ago - I was unable to get decent framerates in that game with this system because it hated anything less than 3 cores.

Thanks in advance!!

Mike

 

[twixa]

Here's a quick list I came up with, should be a good value for what you look to achieve. I would suggest investing more heavily on the GPU side because with a powerful CPU your old HD 4870 will slow it down on high demanding games.

I wouldn't take my word as law, but I simply put this together for the hell of it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/lkcv

Best of luck!

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower. ($44.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147153

Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP LGA 1155. ($79.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157302

CPU : Intel Core i5-3450 Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.5GHz Turbo). ($194.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6&Tpk=3450

GPU: XFX Double D Radeon HD 7870 GHz 2GB 256-bit GDDR5.($209.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150605

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 . ($41.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820233144

HDD: Western Digital RE3 WD7502ABYS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache. ($59.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ard-Drives

PSU: CORSAIR Builder Series 500w 80 PLUS BRONZE. ($49.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X. ($16.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151244

SSD : OCZ Vertex Plus 60GB. ($49.99)
♦ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227811

TOTAL without SSD = $699 with SSD= $749

 

[KenwoodGT]

Just throwing it out there - My mobile i5 can handle 15 intensive programs at once at the expense of an obscenely slow hard drive. It's comparable to a slower i3-2100.

What kind of multitasking do you do? I typically Photoshop something while working on a video in Premiere Pro, and peruse the internet with around 45 tabs open. I normally have Linux open in VirtualBox.

My advice is to invest in a quality HDD/SSD, or else your computer will be slow as ***.

 

[mike523]

wow...i thought i was a multi-tasker! i usually have 15-20 browser tabs open along with various excel, office, adobe acrobat, etc, etc, etc, instances open.

 

[KenwoodGT]

I would still recommend the i5-3450. I was just pointing out that an i3 can do the job.

 

[mike523]

I have to pay sales tax at Newegg unfortunately...

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

cant you buy these parts from local shops in your town ?
if you want to still buy these parts from newegg you can downgrade the HDD to 500GB
and the gpu to 7850 to pay for the shipping and taxes without paying more than your budget.