Budget: up to 600 USD, although less wouldn't be bad. I will be buying one item at a time over the next two months, one item per paycheck. All I can afford. Parts not needed: HDD, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Optical Drive. (I also have a GPU, 5450 1G, and a PSU, Thermaltake TR2 with Dual 12V rails, and about three or four case fans laying around that I can re-use if recommended or needed). Resolution: 1650 x 1080 Crossfire: No, I would prefer one GPU with a lot of power, rather than two. Overclock: Not right now I don't but I would like the motherboard at least to be able to, and maybe the CPU, although not necessary, since I can always keep the MoBo and upgrade CPU. Uses: Gaming, video and audio editing, usual stuff. Location: MS, US. Preferred Sites: All I've heard of is newegg.com but I'm open to others. Other notes: I want to be able to build upon this, keep it for up to 4 or 5 years max, and enhance it, etc. So lots of options and ability to upgrade in the case and motherboard would be nice. Cooling is also important to me because of the little alcove/cubby my tower will be sitting in. Preferred Brands: I have only used AMD, never used Intel. Nothing against them, just haven't used them. Whatever gets me best performance for the dollar. I am also curious about the AMD-FX series with the onboard GPU's, heard about this, it may not even be true. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was all for the Bitfenix Prodigy and I had even done some build ideas around it, but after realizing the odd placement of USB ports, lack of other peripherals, small ability to upgrade, etc. I put it on the back burner.
I prefer Intel. You should be able to get a solid i5 ivy bridge, a Z77 motherboard and 8GB of ram for that budget. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157330 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233 Quick example build, but all good parts ample for your needs. Left out GPU, but have a look at reccomended specs of games you would like to play, and compare the benchmarks of their given GPUs with your own on a site like this to get an idea. http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ Edit: I haven't shopped around for you, only newegg but undoubtedly there are cheaper deals on specific parts elsewhere - use a pricerunner style website. I can't think of one off the top of my head for the US, i'm in the UK.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rY3M Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rY3M/by_merchant/ Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rY3M/benchmarks/ CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ Amazon) Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon) Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($162.55 @ Newegg) Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz) Power Supply: Antec Basiq 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($41.99 @ SuperBiiz) Total: $599.00
