$500ish first build. buying this week. help wanted/needed

Try filling out this form: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/353572-31-build-upgra...

It helps us understand precisely what you want, so we don't recommend the wrong parts.

Approximate Purchase Date: this week. by 1/10/12

Budget Range: $500-530 I'd like to stay away from mail in rebates as much as possible

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming(GW2, WoW, TESO, PoE), surfing the internet

Are you buying a monitor: Yes(not included in build link)

Parts to Upgrade: fresh/new build

Do you need to buy OS: Yes(Windows 7 Home Premium)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Location: east coast US

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600x900

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: No PC


http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vIZU

thats a pretty good build for $500, you cant do much better for the money. The motherboard is fine, asrock are good. I would try to put in 8gb ram, for a little extra money. The motherboard only has 2 ram slots so upgrading at a later date would mean removing the ram to add more in. It gives good upgrade possibilities of a core i5 and put in a better gpu when you need it, a 7770 should be fine for 1600x900. You could check out price for a 6850, judging from reviews they are about the same with newer games, but faster on older games. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5541/amd-radeon-hd-7750-r... maybe just read a few reviews. The power supply you have selected will limit your upgrades as you wont be able to put more than a 7850 graphics card on that psu. but who knows, each generation of vid card reduces power consumption vs performance

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

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($67.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H61M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($117.55 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $539.45
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-03 20:50 EST-0500)

Pretty similar

That is as good as you will ever get for $500ish. spend less and you wont have a real good gaming experience at all.

Based on my knowledge, I believe MMORPGs like WoW and GW2 are more CPU demanding(?) I would recommend getting a cheaper storage device and if you must, maybe even 4gb RAM. With the extra money you might be able to get a better processor.