Last Minute advice on $550 budget new build

[sculliondr]

Approximate Purchase Date: 24hrs, its almost time

Budget Range: $550

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming and Home Theatre

Parts Not Required: Monitor

Country: USA

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: Samsung 1080 46" HDTV

The system needs to be good enough to play on Samsung 1080 46" HDTV via HDMI and needs to include OS. Any money saving tips would be greatly appreciated.


CPU: Phenom ii x4 965BE $89.99
GPU Radeon 7750 2GB $84.99
MOBO: ASRock Extreme 3 $84.99
RAM: Mushkin Blackline 8GB $35.87
HDD: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM $69.99
CASE: Antec 300 Illusion $49.99
PSU: Corsair Builder 500w $49.99
OS: Windows 8 $89.99

$555

 

[AMD Radeon]

personally, i will go with pentium G860+cheap b75 mobo
and max out with graphic card, at least 7850 1gb

 

[AMD Radeon]

dual core intel sandy bridge rocks way above the strongest core 2 duo
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($67.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H61M-P31/W8 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($51.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $552.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-04 10:02 EST-0500)

 

[EzioAs]

^ +1 @AMD Radeon.

I prefer these parts too especially for gaming.

 

[geofelt]

For gaming, the graphics card is more important than the cpu.
My rule of thumb is to spend twice your cpu budget on the graphics card.

In your case, with a combined $175 budget, I would split it to a $60 cpu and a $130 graphics card.
That would be a $65 Intel G630 and a $130 GTX650ti or 7770.

Lest you think a dual core is a problem, read this article on <$200 gaming cpu's.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120.html
The G630 actually competes with the Phenom X6 1090T and bests the X4 980.

You can save a bit on the psu with a Corsair 430W unit for $25 after promo code and rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

You do not need an expensive motherboard. Here is one for $45:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157315
I think I might spend a bit more for the better B75 chipset version $55:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157335

 

[mohit9206]

better to go with amd phenom rather than pentium as its 4 physical cores are more future proof than 2 of the pentiums.
however for 1080p ultimately the gpu is the more important component so definitely try and grab 2gb of 7850 for gaming on high settings for a few years. 2gb again is for future proofing

 

[sculliondr]

Best answer selected by sculliondr.