Gaming PC For ~$700

[Namieo]

Approximate Purchase Date: this week

Budget Range: ~$730 Before Rebates / ~$700 After

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Internet, Photo Editing

Are you buying a monitor: No

Parts to upgrade: All but keyboard, mouse and optical drive

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, TigerDirect, amazon or whatever else is on pcpartpicker

Location: Austin, TX

Parts Preferences: Nvidia preferred over AMD (Will use AMD if it's a better value)

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600x900

Additional Comments: I would like to be able to play games released within the last year using medium to high settings with a framerate of >40. Reasonably low temperatures would be nice, but I can deal with some heat.

This is what I created using Logical Increments as a reference:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1gFIc

While I don't want to go much higher than ~$700, I'm more than willing to spend more for a longer life/notable gains.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My old computer has been on life support for the last few months and was never particularly good to begin with.

 

[Swordkd]

Pretty sweet deal going on at Newegg right NOW. Buy this z77 motherboard and get a free 8gb's of Ram. This allows you to get a much better motherboard/cpu than you'd normally be able to fit in the budget. I am a bit over budget though, however you did state that you could spend more if the performance was there. I believe with this build, it is. The 760 is probably the king of price per performance video cards right now even at the 260 dollar price point.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z77MA-G45 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($107.55 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.61 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($255.66 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Tempest 410 ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $751.79
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-14 19:57 EDT-0400)

Just remember that you'll be wanting to purchase a cooler so you can overclock your Cpu, but that is a cost you can defer for a couple of months...maybe when you get your MiR's back.

 

[firestorm09]

Replace the 3570k with a FX 8350.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-vs-AMD-FX-8350
the FX 8350 has a much better multi-threaded performance.

AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX
XFX Double D FX-785A-ZDF4 Radeon HD 7850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower Computer Case, support up to E-ATX / XL-ATX, come with Four Fans - 1 x Front Red LED ...
ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Item #: N82E16813131872
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
Rosewill Stallion Series RD700 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
CORSAIR XMS 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M1A1600C11
LG 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive Black SATA Model GH24NS95 - OEM

Price: $705

This is all in a combo deal on newegg.

 

[Namieo]

After a good deal of deliberation, I've decided to go with firestorm09's suggestion of buying Newegg's combo deal. While the sheer power of the GTX 760 is tempting, the added cost goes too much over my budget and the 7850 is already a huge jump from the GTS 450 I currently have. At 1600x900, I simply don't need it. In addition, the combo deal has a nicer case and motherboard IMO and with the $60 saved I can buy more games while the summer sales are still going strong.

Thanks to both of you for the help.