Building mid-range gaming Desktop PC

Ooloki

Honorable
Sep 8, 2013
2
0
10,510
I haven’t built a PC for years, so I’m horribly behind on them. I gave in a few years ago and bought an ‘Entertainment’ Laptop for the ease of transport, but I want to go back to a desktop because my laptop is a piece of $&%@. I really dislike that I can’t upgrade my laptop parts periodically like I would with my desktops, and HP sucks with providing software updates for my PC. I currently have a HP DV6 3143us.

Some of the parts I already own because they were purchased by family as presents since I mentioned I was building a PC eventually.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Here’s my proposed new build:

Motherboard:
This I need help with. I’ve spent days trying to decide on one and I cannot choose. I need a reliable brand known for long life and little issues that will work with the i5 I want to buy.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3350p (seems like the best value for balancing price and quality)

Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200.12 (already own)

GPU:
EVGA 02G-P4-3657-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card (I’ve had several trusty EVGA cards in the past, but let me know if something else would be cheaper/better)

I own a EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX from my last PC, but I think it’s way too old to put in my new PC

RAM:
Corsair 16GB XMS3 (2x 8GB) DDR3 (should I just go with 8GB (2x4GB) for cheaper price or is the 16GB worth it?)

Power Supply:
OCZ GameXStream 700w (already own, but I can purchase another one if I need to)

I just want a mid-range gaming PC. I don’t overclock, but I want some decent graphics for a nice price and that doesn’t require my computer to overheat like my crappy laptop. I currently play games like Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider, Minecraft, Skyrim, and a variety of older games. I really think any mid-range PC will be better than this laptop, and I won’t have to worry constantly about overheating issues.
 
Solution
Look for motherboards with an H77 chipset . Gigabyte or ASUS as first choices IMO

You dont need 16 gig of RAM for gaming . Even 2 x4 GIG is more than enough for the time being .

Use the money you save on RAM to get a better graphics card
Thank you so much. I was definitely leaning toward the 8GB to save some money, and it's nice to know that's really all I'll need. I'll look into Haswell tonight to see if that's what I want to go with.

Update: Found some good bundles on the Intel Core i5-4670 Haswell on tiger. Any suggestions on whether a Gigabyte or ASUS motherboard would be best?

Any suggestions on a video card? This better CPU choice, even with less RAM, doesn't allow me much more money to upgrade from the GPU I listed earlier.