Building a new PC! (Help wanted)

[The Mighty Stove]

Hey there guys, so this is it. The big boy pants are finally going on, I am building my first pc. My goal here is to play most modern games from Med-High (60fps). Now I do have a limit, I really would like the bring down the cost of this a bit but I will spend this much if it's worth it.

I'm gonna salvage my 1TB HD, and already have a monitor (1680x1050), mouse and keyboard. As far as OS goes, I do need an upgrade but as a student I'll deal with that personally.

So on to the main course:



PCPartPicker part list [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BYrx]

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd6300wmhkbox] ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3] ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/a-data-memory-ax3u1600gb2g92g] ($25.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr795wf33gd] ($297.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Raidmax Super Hurricane (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/raidmax-case-atx248nwb] ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 620W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-neoeco620c] ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04] ($16.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $676.90

So my main questions I have for this are the following:

1)What could I run with this set up smoothly?
2)Any way I could tweak this to make it cheaper? (Even if it's a slight downgrade)
3)Is there anything I'm doing wrong or need to fix?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[ShinyCharizard]

1. You will be able to run every game smoothly with that set up.

2. If you only plan on running games at a resolution of 1680x1050 then you can downgrade that GPU to a 7870 to save money and you will still get 60+ fps on pretty much every game.

3. It all looks fine.

 

[The Mighty Stove]

1. You will be able to run every game smoothly with that set up.

2. If you only plan on running games at a resolution of 1680x1050 then you can downgrade that GPU to a 7870 to save money and you will still get 60+ fps on pretty much every game.

3. It all looks fine.

If I do downgrade to a 7870 I can save myself about 50$, which I would really like (Who wouldn't?). But what am I sacrificing if I do? And by games running smoothly are we talking on High? Med? Or hell even some on Ultra?

 

[The Mighty Stove]

So.... do I got any other takers on this?

..anyone?

 

[ShinyCharizard]

1. You will be able to run every game smoothly with that set up.

2. If you only plan on running games at a resolution of 1680x1050 then you can downgrade that GPU to a 7870 to save money and you will still get 60+ fps on pretty much every game.

3. It all looks fine.

If I do downgrade to a 7870 I can save myself about 50$, which I would really like (Who wouldn't?). But what am I sacrificing if I do? And by games running smoothly are we talking on High? Med? Or hell even some on Ultra?

We're talking ultra for alot games. And high for really demanding ones. Really though the difference between high and ultra is hardly noticeable in most cases.

 

[The Mighty Stove]

1. You will be able to run every game smoothly with that set up.

2. If you only plan on running games at a resolution of 1680x1050 then you can downgrade that GPU to a 7870 to save money and you will still get 60+ fps on pretty much every game.

3. It all looks fine.

If I do downgrade to a 7870 I can save myself about 50$, which I would really like (Who wouldn't?). But what am I sacrificing if I do? And by games running smoothly are we talking on High? Med? Or hell even some on Ultra?

We're talking ultra for alot games. And high for really demanding ones. Really though the difference between high and ultra is hardly noticeable in most cases.

Thank you good sir for the answers, my only concern is, well... I don't over-clock really.

Now I have done some insight into it and, is this something I should learn to do?

 

[ShinyCharizard]

1. You will be able to run every game smoothly with that set up.

2. If you only plan on running games at a resolution of 1680x1050 then you can downgrade that GPU to a 7870 to save money and you will still get 60+ fps on pretty much every game.

3. It all looks fine.

If I do downgrade to a 7870 I can save myself about 50$, which I would really like (Who wouldn't?). But what am I sacrificing if I do? And by games running smoothly are we talking on High? Med? Or hell even some on Ultra?

We're talking ultra for alot games. And high for really demanding ones. Really though the difference between high and ultra is hardly noticeable in most cases.

Thank you good sir for the answers, my only concern is, well... I don't over-clock really.

Now I have done some insight into it and, is this something I should learn to do?

It's not really necessary. Maybe look into it further down the line when you find you need more performance. Also it's easier than ever to overclock your CPU and GPU these days so it won't take much time to learn.

 

[The Mighty Stove]

1. You will be able to run every game smoothly with that set up.

2. If you only plan on running games at a resolution of 1680x1050 then you can downgrade that GPU to a 7870 to save money and you will still get 60+ fps on pretty much every game.

3. It all looks fine.

If I do downgrade to a 7870 I can save myself about 50$, which I would really like (Who wouldn't?). But what am I sacrificing if I do? And by games running smoothly are we talking on High? Med? Or hell even some on Ultra?

We're talking ultra for alot games. And high for really demanding ones. Really though the difference between high and ultra is hardly noticeable in most cases.

Thank you good sir for the answers, my only concern is, well... I don't over-clock really.

Now I have done some insight into it and, is this something I should learn to do?

It's not really necessary. Maybe look into it further down the line when you find you need more performance. Also it's easier than ever to overclock your CPU and GPU these days so it won't take much time to learn.

So, I did some talking to other people on reddit/BuildAPc. Someone suggested I use the i3-3225 since I don't OC and it get's better fps in games. I don't do anything else really besides gaming and general internet-ings. here is the alerternative build that popped up.

PCPartPicker part list [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Cgq5] / Price breakdown by merchant [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Cgq5/by_merchant/] / Benchmarks [http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Cgq5/benchmarks/]

CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637i33225] ($136.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h77m] ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmv8gx3m2a1600c11] ($39.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax78702gbd52dhppv3e] ($239.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pc-power--cooling-power-supply-ppcmk3s500] ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer [http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-optical-drive-sh224bb] ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $581.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-09 03:49 EST-0500)

(The case is on Newegg and isn't on this list)

 

[AWAR]

I'd say stick to the AMD. A sub 150 dollar dual core Intel just isn't very future-proof.
Also overclocking isn't as hard as you might think. There are guides on the internet and usually it is just a matter of changing some values in your motherboard bios.

 

[Hawkeye 131]

Looks like a pretty solid build. Great info and advice here too, stick with the AMD CPU downgrade to the 7870 to run at 1680x1050. Only other thing is stay with the 8 GB's of RAM if you want to run games like Arkham City, BF3, Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Witcher 2 on ultra settings.

-Hawk