Need a decent build. 600-800 USD

[Donovan Pritchard]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of this month.
BUDGET RANGE:600-850 USD

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, school, music

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Mouse, OS, already have a decent monitor and keyboard

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg, anything you guys prefer
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States

PARTS PREFERENCES: Pretty much the most bang for my buck i can get with my budget

OVERCLOCKING: Dont plan on it

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Nope.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: Dont remember the exact resolution, ill look it up when i get back from school

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Build is for a friend, pretty much asked for a decent pc that can play games, do some schoolwork on, and just listen to music

 

[Donovan Pritchard]

anyone?

 

[markiz]

I will just put this out here and let others critique.
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 ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Lian-Li PC-A55B (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($78.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $738.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-13 09:45 EDT-0400)

 

[Donovan Pritchard]

I will just put this out here and let others critique.
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 ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Lian-Li PC-A55B (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($78.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $738.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-13 09:45 EDT-0400)

pretty good, anyone else want to suggest something?

 

[markiz]

pretty good, anyone else want to suggest something?

I'm in no way any expert, you should wait for other suggestions.

Couple of points:
- if you get cheaper case, or skip on optical drive, or can stretch your budget some more, you could get a stronger video card, like nvidia 660 http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n660tf2gd5oc
or radeon 7870 XT http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax78702gbd52dhppv3e
But 7850 should play all games at 1080P resolution on high details:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148.html

 

[Donovan Pritchard]

Hrm, ill def. consider skippin on the optical drive, but then again this is a school pc

 

[markiz]

I'm biased towards nice looking cases, so this might be better:
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 ($98.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($279.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $794.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-14 11:00 EDT-0400)