About to buy for my first build - $500-550 for Gaming

[Daenar]

Approximate Purchase Date: This weekend. I don't think I've seen good deals tbh, but from what I've seen, waiting till Christmas can prove costly for some parts.

Budget Range: $500-$550. I really would like to keep it $550 before rebates.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming > Internet browsing, if possible streaming (but I believe I need quad core to do any streaming)

Are you buying a monitor: Not sure.
Right now my list assumes that I am not buying one. My current monitor (1680x1050) is:
http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/monitor/0000/Acer/AL2216W/AL2216Wsp2.shtml
It's seven years old so I'm guessing it's not a really good monitor at this point.

Do you need to buy OS: I don't think so, I hear the windows from dreamspark university program works.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: No preference, as long as it is safe to buy from.
I do live near a microcenter and frys.

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, and the case I picked.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
This should be $99.99 at microcenter
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($74.99 @ Newegg)
I also have a choice of $74.99 on a Samsung 840 120gb ssd for buying a processor with it. Not sure which one is better since I heard 840 was pretty new.
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($101.97 @ Newegg)
This should be $69.99 after $30 MIR from newegg's thanksgiving promo. I don't know anything about ghz versions of video cards btw, if someone could explain that to me, that'd be great.
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
This should be $59.99 after $20 MIR at microcenter.
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply ($31.64 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $524.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-22 05:48 EST-0500)

I'm really lazy but after calculating the discounts I mentioned, I should save around $50 w/o rebates and $100 with rebates.

Additional Comments :
I would like to run these games well: League of legends, diablo 3, skyrim, maybe planetside 2.

I prefer not to deal with rebates that uses prepaid cards.

I currently only use around 60gb on my laptop, so that's why I chose an SSD (in case this gets brought up).

I can get an i3-3225 and a biostar h77 combo to shave about an extra $20 off of my current build planned. But apparently, biostar motherboards are bad or something?

It looks like the only other deals I can look for is ncix and amazon lightning deals so I'll keep those in mind in the next couple of days. Hopefully I can tell for myself what to get after seeing a couple more opinions.

Thanks in advance!(did a little editing my price and rebates)

 

[salaja]

SSD: read some reviews. i think there were some issues (DOA) with OCZ a while ago, and i'm not sure if they were fixed or not. if the vertex 4 has good reviews, get it, otherwise go for a samsung, intel, corsair or crucial, as i *think* they are the better quality brands.


this is a more personal thing, but i would get a cheaper case, and spend the spare money on a better Video Card.

otherwise the build seems pretty good.

i can't really say what frame rate you'll get for those games, but i *recon* it should be fine on high settings.

i'm no expert, just thought i would give my opinions.

 

[djangoringo]

Such a huge case for a micro atx build.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/oMCg
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/oMCg/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/oMCg/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply ($31.64 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $517.57
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

Better gfx card with better ssd.

 

[Violetwax]

I'm thinking about getting a new computer soon too around this price, 128GB just isn't enough for me though. what would you recommend I use instead? I wanna try to stay under 550, maybe a tiny bit higher if I've got to...figured I'd ask here instead of making an entirely new thread

edit: that was to djangoringo's build btw didn't let me quote