Need some to build a gamer for under $699

[EQTitan]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
World of Warcraft, Mail, Surfing the web

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$699 or less

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Open to anything

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
None

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
No

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1920 x 1080 or close

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
1 week

 

[zerocool84]

Do you ever play any other games other than WoW or plan to?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I just refreshed my HTPC for under $400. I bought an Athlon II x4 630, this Gigabyte board, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a BFG GS-550 550 W powersupply, and a Cooler Master Gemini II cooler. You could eliminate the Gemini II and use the stock cooler (save $35) and then add a case and hard drive for about $140 and then spend $170 on a graphic card like a 5770. You could also spend a little more and upgrade the Athlon II to a Phenom of some variety, though I am not sure it is worth it given your intended uses. Sticking with the Athlon II, the list above would put you at about $695 or so. You could go a little cheaper on the board and stick with 2 GB of RAM to start if you want to save even more.

You can probably do a similar build using an Intel platform, but I am not familiar with the i3 enough to make any recommendations.

You say you aren't planning on using any of your existing parts. Do you intend on including a monitor in that $699 price?

 

[AzNPinkTuv]

You should check the build i just set up in the forums here.
i had similar requirements and this might be of help.

waiting on AT input as well here

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2052724

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You should check the build i just set up in the forums here.
i had similar requirements and this might be of help.

waiting on AT input as well here

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2052724

It looks like a good build to me.

For me personally, I chose the Athlon II x4 because the intended use would involve a lot of video encoding and multiple cores obviously benefit that task tremendously. An Athlon II x4 is, in my opinion, THE CPU bargain right now. You can find them hovering around the $100 mark and in benchmarks, they only trail comparably clocked Phenom IIs by 5% or 10%. With the money you save, you can invest that in a better card or more RAM and make up most of that difference.

My last two main system builds have been with higher-end boards and mid-range CPUs. I seriously think that if current trends continue, I may just go with AMD next time around and use mid-range parts across the board. I like my Rampage Formula board very much, but I could've spent 1/3 as much and probably got similar OC results and performance. Oh well, I had to spoil myself once.