Good Budget Gaming PC? (revised)

[Elliott Doyo]

Is this a good mid budget gaming PC? Will there be compatibility issues? Any mistakes?

cpu: Intel Core i5 3770k Quad-Core 3.4 ghz $220

gpu: MSI 7770 GHz Edition 1gb $105(frys)
mobo MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 LGA 1155 $105(frys)

hdd: WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive $67

os:Windows 7 64-bit $90

ram: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1600MHz $45 (frys)

monitor: HP WJ676AA#ABA S2031 20" LCD PC $100 (frys)

keyboard:Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 800 $20

mouse:Black E-3lue E-Blue Cobra $10.40

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue 2x $17.06


Hardware Total: $779.46




NZXT Phantom 410 RED Mid Tower $90

Corsair CX Series 430 Watt Modular $50


Total: $140






Total $919

Thanks

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

Consider a 7870XT instead, if they are available in your area.
- There are a few 'better' 7870's on the market and more than one baseline spec for cards using that nomenclature.

If need be try to shave off the difference in price, as for a gaming rig you are much better off with a 7800 series GPU than a 7700 series GPU.

Yes, the part number is close, but the performance of the HD 7700 series is about half that of the HD 7800 series.

Spending $220 on the CPU, then less than half of that on the GPU for a 'gaming PC', when the budget is already near $1,000 doesn't make sense!
- Long gone are the days when you could get a $160 CPU and a $80 video card, then just fire up Quake 2 and Half-Life (original) and be done with it....

The 'original' HD7870 is basically two HD7770's internally, albeit far more tightly integrated with a better GDDR5 256-bit memory controller and higher quality Video RAM.
- http://www.hwcompare.com/12188/radeon-hd-7770-vs-radeon-hd-7870/

If you need to: Downgrade the CPU to a dual-core hyper-threaded variant, unless you need AES-NI or some particular feature of the Core i5 'K' series, and put this money into a better video card with a GPU that is 'at least' twice as powerful as the HD7770.

Today's, and tomorrows 'next gen' console ported, games run fine on dual-cores with hyper-threading, or AMD's three-core/6 threads (3 x L1 caches for code, but 6 x L2 caches for data) processors.
- Performance will scale better and your minimum frame rate will actually be higher with a slower processor, and a more powerful GPU/VPU, in this case.

 

[Elliott Doyo]

Better? If i get a $200 graphics card, should i go for AMD Radeon or Nivida?

cpu: Intel Core i3 3220 Duel Core 3.3 Ghz $110

gpu: Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB $195

OR


EVGA GeForce GTX660 Boost SuperClocked 2GB $210



mobo MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 LGA 1155 $105(frys)

hdd: WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive $67

os:Windows 7 64-bit $90

ram: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1600MHz $45 (frys)

monitor: HP WJ676AA#ABA S2031 20" LCD PC $100 (frys)

keyboard:Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 800 $20

mouse:Black E-3lue E-Blue Cobra $10.40

Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA Internal OEM $25

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue 2x $17.06

Hardware Total: $796.46



NZXT Phantom 410 RED Mid Tower $90

Corsair CX Series 430 Watt Modular $50



Total: $160






Total $921(HD78502gb)
Total $936

any miss calculations? Can my 430 psu handle a 7850/gtx660?

Thanks