Building Budget Gaming PC

[ysoserious]

Alright, so you are all saying no matter what get an i5 and get the best card I can afford after that?

[ysoserious]

So basically you all are saying I should just spend alittle extra and not cut corners and go with this
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BjCE
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BjCE/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BjCE/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $760.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-03 17:56 EST-0500)

[Termie]

Well, yes, except that just about everyone would agree that if you have that budget, you should add at least a small SSD or you're warping your system back to 2009, when everyone had to sit around to watch their applications switch on their overclocked i7-920 GTX285 SLI rigs.

I'd knock the system down to an i5-3470 ($150) if you have a Microcenter nearby, drop the motherboard to a B75 (~$70), and drop the hard drive down to 500GB ($50). Then you have room in the budget for a 120GB Samsung 840 SSD. It will be like a completely different computer. Unless you overclock or have a huge amount of media files, you won't even notice the difference between this system and the one you picked out. It will work EXACTLY the same in games, except feel 100x faster in everything else.

[ysoserious]

I plan on buying an ssd, but down the road, no need for that right away in a gaming computer

[Termie]

Originally Posted by ysoserious

I plan on buying an ssd, but down the road, no need for that right away in a gaming computer

Going from a hard drive to an SSD is not a straightforward upgrade, particularly if you are going to use more than 120GB of that hard drive.

[ysoserious]

When I get an ssd I'm just going to use it for windows and whatever space I have left for games, my main hdd will still be my 1tb .

[Termie]

Originally Posted by ysoserious

When I get an ssd I'm just going to use it for windows and whatever space I have left for games, my main hdd will still be my 1tb .

Ok, just keep in mind that when you do this upgrade, you'll need to reinstall your OS and all your applications.

[ysoserious]

Yeah, I understand

[Sleepingforest]

Honestly, I would go the other way around (128GB SSD now, and then get an HDD later). You quickly realize how much junk you accumulate and how little space you actually need on a new install.