New Gaming Rig Opinions.

[devobserves]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($119.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922 ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.44 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80 PLUS Silver Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VH236H 23.0" Monitor ($144.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1054.35
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-04 04:09 EST-0500)

How's this for a gaming rig? Anything to make it better? This is pretty much my max budget.

 

[manofchalk]

Youv got the idea of it down pretty well, just some small things.

You have a locked processor and a Z77 board, basically the mobo can overclock and the CPU cant. Wanna upgrade to a k edition CPU if you want to take advantage of that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
Otherwise downgrade the mobo to a H77 Pro4.

Would get slightly faster RAM personally. This kit is also low profile so yo can get as large a heatsink you want on the CPU without fear of clashing with the RAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544

Unless your covering for the possibility of dual Crossfire/SLI later on (which the board supports), you dont need a 750W PSU. A 650 or even 550W will be fine.

 

[devobserves]

Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)

Better? Saves me $25.

 

[manofchalk]

Yep, better.
Its a higher efficiency and more in line with your actual power needs.

 

[devobserves]

You're running about the same rig I'm building, can you play new releases on max with 40+ FPS?

 

[manofchalk]

Non graphically intensive games (Assassins Creed, Dishonored, vanilla Skyrim, etc) all run at a fairly solid 60FPS (the Vsync cap) for me.
When I run games like Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 (dont have BF3 yet), you can occasionally hit patches where the FPS will dip below 40.
Crysis 2 ran at a fairly solid 45FPS (everything Ultra, 1080p, DX11 and high res pack) except for when something big was happening (freeway collapsed and lots of dust to scatter light and such), then you drop to the mid 30's.

 

[devobserves]

That's perfect and good enough for me. I mainly play MMO's anyway and usually those aren't graphically intense compared to such. Thank you, you helped a lot.

 

[devobserves]

Best answer selected by devobserves.