I3 3220 + ASRock Z77M and some parts

Mister Umbrella

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Nov 15, 2012
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This started as me repairing my busted computer and then just deciding to building a new one. I was doing my shopping in person at Microcenter but not close to me so I don't know when I'll be back there; I'm not picky where I get my parts from. Online would be just as well. Most of what I do is just messaging, google hangout, facebook, adobe inDesign and occasional game playing (Sims 3, STO and Guild Wars II). I don't care too much about top notch performance.

CPU: i3 3220 (have)

Motherboard: ASRock Z77M (have)

PSU: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 700-Watt Power Supply (have)

Case: GAMMA Classic Series ATX (have)

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (I got it for free, not sure if it will work)

Hard Drive: Western Digital 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 (From my ps3; but I don't know if you can do that)

GPU: Unsure of what to go with for it.

Dvd drive: Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA Internal OEM Drive DRW-24B1ST (I pulled it out of my computer and was just going to reuse it)

I have a the OS: Windows 7.

My questions are:

1) Will my dvd drive work?

2) Will my hard drive work?

3) What GPU should I go with?

I'm okay with spending up to 400 dollars on stuff I don't have or what might won't work.






 
Solution
Well that $400 budget is swell because everything is compatible. As long as that 500GB has a SATA port, your good to go. That DVD drive should be fine, all DVD drives are compatible with just about any case :p For the GPU suggestion, if you go $40 over and spend $440 on a Sapphire 7970 GHz Vapor-X you will be set for years. The only thing I am unsure of is if there will be bottlenecking since you are only using an i3. Probably only in the most CPU intensive games, but stuff like BF3 and other GPU intensive games you will be set.

Poltregeist

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Sep 18, 2012
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Well that $400 budget is swell because everything is compatible. As long as that 500GB has a SATA port, your good to go. That DVD drive should be fine, all DVD drives are compatible with just about any case :p For the GPU suggestion, if you go $40 over and spend $440 on a Sapphire 7970 GHz Vapor-X you will be set for years. The only thing I am unsure of is if there will be bottlenecking since you are only using an i3. Probably only in the most CPU intensive games, but stuff like BF3 and other GPU intensive games you will be set.
 
Solution

boulbox

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Apr 5, 2012
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None of those games will use a full power of something like a 7870. i suggest getting a 7870(should run all of those games on the highest and a few future games to come) also maybe Opting for a 128GB SSD might be useful to you for better speed