$800 budget build

[SaintSoLo]

Approximate Purchase Date: This week or next
Budget Range: Strict budget of about $800.. $805 is cool, $879 is not.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Pretty much game everyday, other than that nothing intensive
Are you buying a monitor: Nope. Already have one 1920x1080

Parts to Upgrade: Everythiiiiiing

Do you need to buy OS: Nope

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Uh, doesn't really matter, but if possible I'd like to get everything from one place so they all arrive at the same time.. I usually just shop newegg.

Location: Bridgeport, CT

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, everything else is cool as long as it works

Overclocking: Nah

SLI or Crossfire: Nah

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: uuuuuuuuh...

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: It's just time I guess, bought my last PC 3 years ago, Power Supply blew up while running Need for Speed Most Wanted, so I figured it's time for an upgrade.

Currently, I picked out some stuff that I think look wonderful, but you can never be too sure, so I wanted second/third/forth opinions.

Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming Case - $90
Intel Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz - $210
MSI B75A-G43 LGA 1155 Intel Motherboard - $90
XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7850 2GB - $190
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD - $90
CORSAIR TX650 V2 - $85
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) - $40

All of that is $795, no tax, no shipping. Uh, everything I have listed here is just about all I feel I need.. Don't really need a SSD at the moment..

Also not looking to downgrade in some areas to make room for aftermarket heatsinks, water cooling or like overclocking measures.. I could overclock, but I'm just not at all that concerned about turning 3.7GHz into 4.0GHz so it's not something I keep in mind while shopping. Just explaining my choice of motherboard/processor, although feel free to change anything as long as it's not "this will give you a better overclock".

Other than that.. Help plz?

 

[malbluff]

This would give better performance. The higher powered GPU is well worth the extra cost, and have made savings elsewhere, to accomodate, with virtually no performance drop, there. Have included optical drive, didn't know if omission was intentional. Prices include carriage. Apart from PSU, think most available via Newegg. It is often worth buying some stuff, elsewhere, particularly PSUs, as Newegg don't always have the best. If you don't have local Microcentre, the i5-3470 is better value than the 3550, even if you have to buy elsewhere, at "normal" price. Definitely worth a trip to Microcentre, if you do have one, though ($40 saving).
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.35 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.93 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($244.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill BlackHawk ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $775.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

 

[SaintSoLo]

This would give better performance. The higher powered GPU is well worth the extra cost, and have made savings elsewhere, to accomodate, with virtually no performance drop, there. Have included optical drive, didn't know if omission was intentional. Prices include carriage. Apart from PSU, think most available via Newegg. It is often worth buying some stuff, elsewhere, particularly PSUs, as Newegg don't always have the best. If you don't have local Microcentre, the i5-3470 is better value than the 3550, even if you have to buy elsewhere, at "normal" price. Definitely worth a trip to Microcentre, if you do have one, though ($40 saving).
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.35 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.93 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($244.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill BlackHawk ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $775.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

Nice nice.. Uh, not sure if I have any microcentres around where I live, and it'd be somewhat of a hard commute if not seeing as I don't have any reliable transportation.

Uh, the optical drive was left out because I do have a DVD-RW from my last build and seeing as how I only ever use it to install drivers (that I end up getting online most of the time anyways) or OS upgrades I figured I'd just pop it in the new build. I know from being an avid TH reader that higher numbers on a power supply don't always mean better, but I do have a couple of extra peripherals that I use including charging my phone and wireless controllers on my PC and not to mention the 5 120 mm case fans that the Blackhawk generously comes pre-loaded with.

Doing these repairs because my 3-year old 600w OCZ proXstream just gave out (rest its soul) during a particularly draining play session, and I'd like to get something a little beefier this time around so that it doesn't happen again. I was actually thinking of scrounging up a little extra and getting the TX750 just in case..

Uh, any reason why you chose the Crucial RAm sticks over the Corsair ones that I picked? Being that they're the same price and the Corsair ones clock in at higher speeds (even though it doesn't look like either of those boards support it) I figured they'd be more efficient? Or is there more to it than that?

 

[malbluff]

On the subject of PSU, there isn't honestly any point in going higher than 550w, given the CPU and GPU, unless you wanted to have two graphics cards. If you want that capability, you would need 700/750w, and would change mobo to Z77. There's nothing WRONG with some oversizing of PSU, as long as it's good quality. Something like Corsair TX750M (better than the V2), would be a reasonable choice, but honestly, unless you do want 2nd GPU, it's something of a waste of money. 550w is more than capable of handling any minor additions. If it gives peace of mind, use a PC Power&Cooling Silencer MKlll 600w, but it's about $40 more than the XFX, although has the advantage of being modular.
Re the RAM, Ivybridge only has native support up to 1600MHz, anything higher is more trouble than it's worth. Generally prefer low profile RAM, the high heat sinks on Vengeance are really more for show, these days, and whilst you have locked processor, so don't need an aftermarket cooler for overclocking, you may still wish to fit a new cooler sometime, and low profile gives you free choice. Really just a case of no point not fitting low profile.
Obviously drop the optical drive, if you don't want it. Whilst that's a really good deal, for processor, from Microcentre, even at $190, elsewhere, it's still the best value i5.