said by McBrain:Since you put it that way, it definitely sounds like an i5 CPU/Mobo combo from Micro Center will be the best bang for the buck. Surely I can get a good processor and Mobo combo for around $250. That leaves me ~$350 for GPU, PSU, and ram. I'm happy with that. I'll probably end up going with a Radeon 6870 GPU and a 450-500w power supply. I like the performance of nVidia GPUs, but after researching them, they absolutely suck tons and tons of power.
I'm using my phone to post this, I'm waiting to pick up the wife from surgery, so I can't really do much research and link posting. But this is what I'm thinking right now; i5 Ivy Bridge (3750K), decent Mobo (prefer ASUS, don't need Crossfire), 450-500w 80 Plus Bronze PSU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, Radeon HD 6870 GPU. All for around $550. I'm going to end up getting a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ pretty soon(like this week) so I'm dropping fan off the list as far as budgeting is concerned.
People at real computers can you linky for me? I have a buddy in Norfolk, so I'm tentatively open to a CPU/Mobo bundle from Micro Center.
McBrain, make sure that Coolermaster Hyper 212 will fit your case and not block your 4th slot of RAM. Some setups will require low profile RAM also.
That cooler is absolutely massive. Even the mid tower case I just ordered, you cannot run a Hyper 212 without removing the side fan. That's why I opted to stick with my TX3 92mm instead. Just a tad bit smaller and no worries about blocking my RAM slots.
