Budget build advice (newbie)

[Lesdawg]

Hey fellas, new member here. I need some help and my friend recommended me to this place.

I'm set to build my first rig. I've done some research and have become more familiar with the process and components. I've got a rough build so far. Any advice would be much appreciated! My budget is somewhere in the neighborhood of under $700 (not including monitor, keyboard and mouse although I still have to purchase those)

The games that I want to play at decent to high settings are: Diablo III, The Old Republic, Starcraft 2.

I want a build that I would be able to upgrade with little trouble in the future. I'm also planning on getting a better processor later this year when I have more cash.

i3 2100 3.1 Ghz Sandy Bridge lga 1155
Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H lga 1155 mobo
EVGA Geforce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi)
G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4 GB
WD Caviar Blue 500GB
OCZ Agility 3 SSD
Asus DRW 24x
Corsair Builder Series CX500 500 W
Cooler Master Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1

I was also wondering if the CPU I have picked would be able to run the video card well, i.e. would there be any bottlenecking?

I'm around $670 on newegg with these parts. Like I said I'm sort of working on a budge of sub-$700. I can get windows 7 from my school software downloads.

I'm completely open to any suggestions and/or advice you all can offer! Thanks!

 

[ssjwizard]

Dont get the 550Ti your chopping yourself at the knees for a gaming build by starting there... That CPU is slow but it should drive most GPUs sufficiently that you wont really notice the performance lost. Combo deals could probably bring the cost down on some of this.

Mostly I suggest trying for more GPU, a GTX 460 or Radeon 6850 are both alot faster than that 550ti for about the same price. The 560 is about even with a 460 but a 560Ti is a good bit faster than a 460 is. If you can stretch for it a 6950 will give you enough GPU muscle to almost max most games on a single monitor.

 

[White_Pawn]

Things i would do:

If you really want intel:
save up the money and just get the 3570k
Get a z77 mobo.
GREAT mobo: gigabyte 77x-ud3h
ditch the SSD. That's an extra accessory in my opinion.
Videocard: cheapest 6850 you can find.
PSU: just get an OCZ, you can find them cheaper and they are decent enough.

Honestly, if you are on a tight budget, i'd ditch intel all together and just go AMD.

 

[Lesdawg]

Thanks for the input guys! I think I'm going to go ahead with the Radeon HD 6850 GPU and ditch the SSD, at least until I get some more cash. As far as motherboards are concerned, what am I looking for specifically besides socket type compatibility with the cpu, and types of ports?

 

[White_Pawn]

the chipset, ie. P67, H67, Z68, Z77 (newest).
connectivity: ports, wifi etc.
phase number and phase/mosfet quality: standard is usually 8 x 25-30A to the cpu.
aesthetics: heatsinks and such
bios and ease of OC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544

 

[Bosco]

I recommend an i5 2500K with a Z68 or Z77 motherboard......

Also if you are gaming at 1080p resolution a Radeon 6870 or Geforce 560 Ti videocard or better.