Suggestions for gameing computer $600-$700

[dario03]

Hey guys, I haven't posted in a while and haven't been lurking much either so I'm not up to date on whats the best bang for the buck in computer hard ware. But I have a friend that wants to get a new computer and has a budget of $600-$700 for the tower and internal hard ware (monitor, mouse, keyboard, OS not included in the budget) So I'm looking for suggestions. He wants it for playing games and web surfing. He said he wanted a good amount of ram so I'm thinking 8GB of ram and ~1TB hard drive space should be good. No prefrences in hard ware companies so suggests whatever you think is the best bang for the buck.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Night Fox]

Newegg.com - LG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
Newegg.com - ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K

$839.68 after shipping, then $809.68 with mail-in rebates...I gotta go now, but I'm sure someone could cut the price to $700, or I'll do it later.

 

[Jagged.Edge]

I can't really improve on that, looks good!

 

[Roark]

If you want to go the AMD route to save some $ for a better graphics card:
-$85 PII x4 965BE.
+2.87 Asus M4A88TD-V EVO.
+38.02 XFX HD6870.

Price includes shipping and rebates (still probably look for combos), saves $44.11.

 

[Yerfdog]

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
Newegg.com - MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Newegg.com - ASUS Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A7T/BLK/B/GEN - CD / DVD Drives

That was a list of parts that I had typed up before, it comes out at about $590, I think.

Though if you wanted better graphics (be able to max Crysis at 1680x1050 and get 30+fps w/ 4xAA), you'd probably want to upgrade the PSU and GPU. (Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card for the GPU)

Also, I had a 4GB set in there (which would be all you'd need for a gaming rig), this would be a good 8GB set (I think):
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM

This would be good for the PSU, I think:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

and if he wanted to upgrade more a few years later: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

 

[Trotter]

OK, here's a shot...

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

1x AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
&
1x XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - ASUS Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A7T/BLK/B/GEN - CD / DVD Drives

Total = 654 + 31 shipping - 40 MIR = 685 - 40 = 645 after rebates

 

[Thomas]

What's with everyone recommending this ripjaws stuff? Mushkin and Corsair still make ram right? Keep in mind latency is important with AMD so I would recommend looking into some cas7 ddr3....

 

[Jagged.Edge]

What's with everyone recommending this ripjaws stuff? Mushkin and Corsair still make ram right? Keep in mind latency is important with AMD so I would recommend looking into some cas7 ddr3....

Ripjaws is probably the more recognized manufacturer of RAM now, yes Mushkin, Corsair, Patriot, and others still make RAM, but Ripjaws is the flagship of all RAM companies.

 

[Trotter]

Patriot stumbled hard back in the day of DDR2, same with Mushkin, hence why they are not recommended much here. Corsair, Crucial, Kingston are all good, but G.Skill seems to pull together quality and performance at a great price point, plus their customer service is great.