Buying a Gaming Desktop with Monitor for $750

[ballerslife]

First of all, I know NOTHING about desktop specs. I know laptops, but not desktop. So please help me out. Ok, the games I play are Battlefield 3, CoD series, and other modern games. Mostly shooter. Also the monitor, I heard desktop monitors weaken your eyes a lot because it's really bright. So a 17 to 24 inch monitor, that's really easy on your eyes. OS is not needed, my school provides me with free Windows 7 or 8. I play games like 2 or 3 hours a day, so a good cooling system is also needed. Thanks a lot, I really don't know anything about motherboards, and that stuff.

 

[ballerslife]

First of all, I know NOTHING about desktop specs. I know laptops, but not desktop. So please help me out. Ok, the games I play are Battlefield 3, CoD series, and other modern games. Mostly shooter. Also the monitor, I heard desktop monitors weaken your eyes a lot because it's really bright. So a 17 to 24 inch monitor, that's really easy on your eyes. OS is not needed, my school provides me with free Windows 7 or 8. I play games like 2 or 3 hours a day, so a good cooling system is also needed. Thanks a lot, I really don't know anything about motherboards, and that stuff.

Also, at least 750 GB of HDD.

 

[cball1311]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Kingston Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.99 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($225.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($65.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Zalman MZ215ED 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $735.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-07 18:59 EST-0500)

 

[djangoringo]

This goes a bit over the budget, but it has the case, and the 7870 tahiti le(which is basically a 7930).
My suggestion :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Hannspree HL229DPB 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Patriot Viper 3 8GB 2X4GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 1.5V Dual Channel Memory Kit ($38.50)
Other: XFX 550W PRO550W Core Edition Single Rail ATX 12V 44A 24PIN ATX Power Supply 80PLUS Bronze ($53.99)
Other: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5in Hard Drive OEM ($69.99)
Total: $758.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

Pcpartpicker is currently bugged, doesn't show ncix us parts, here's the list from there :
PSU : http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=59615&promoid=1257
RAM : http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=74758
HDD : http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=74462&vpn=WD10EZEX&manufacture=Western%20Digital%20WD&promoid=1292
Ncix us offers free shipping with 100$ in the cart.

Pick the motherboard in newegg, it shows outlet pc, but get in newegg, it's at the same price, also the cpu is at the same price in newegg with promo code.
So you can just get the parts from two places newegg and ncix us.

 

[ballerslife]

Am I supposed to build all this myself?

 

[cutebeans]

Yes. One mistake and everything EXPLODES!

jk.

 

[djangoringo]

Am I supposed to build all this myself?

See here for a guide : http://techreport.com/review/13671/how-to-build-a-pc

 

[ballerslife]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.24 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($250.38 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Enforcer ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $821.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-19 15:24 EDT-0400)

This all came out to $710. In a great stroke of luck, I bagged the i5 3570k for $169.99 at microcenter. My brother is going to get the monitor for me. Plus the case was one sale, came out to $60. How do you guys think of my build? Parts should start arriving next week.