Budget barebone + SSD?

[fiCti0naL]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming system.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US, Charlotte, NC
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
mobo/CPU/RAM, SSD (maybe power supply).
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec 300 case, Earthwatts 500 power supply, PowerColor 7870 2GB
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1920x1280
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within the next month.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Nothing special, usb3.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, I own several copies of windows 7 and windows 8 64bit.


So that's the deal - whats the best mobo/cpu/ram deal can I get to take advantage of the 7870? My current system is old as dirt and is bottlenecking performance severely. I'll also want a SSD to boot from. Don't know if the earthwatts is enough to handle new specs - pretty sure it's fine though.

Thoughts? Deals? I've been out of the hardware game for an eternity. Educate me!

 

[Dangman]

Here's a rough system:
$190 - Intel Core i5-4570 CPU
$80 - MSI B85-G41 PC MATE mATX Motherboard
$60 - Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1600C11 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$100 - Samsung 840 120GB
---
Total: $430 shipped.

 

[tiraides]

Which games do you play?

How old is the power supply?

Here is an alternate build proposal, including a(n optional) PSU:

$119 - Intel Core i3-3220
$70 - Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
$54 - G.Skill Value F3-1600C11S-8GNT 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$92 - Samsung 840 120GB SSD
$50 - Corsair CX500 500 watt power supply
=====
$385 - Subtotal (not including taxes or rebates)

The Haswell-based i5-4570 outperforms the Ivy Bridge-based i3-3220, but the latter can compete with (if not beat outright) most similarly priced AMD quad-cores in many gaming benchmarks. (The i3-3220 is a dual-core processor with Hyper Threading.)

I recommend replacing the power supply if it's over four years old and has been under heavy or constant use throughout that time.

 

[fiCti0naL]

I play alot of Dota2, HoN, BL2, Battlefield (want to be able to play BF4 @1280) & have quite a few upcoming titles in mind.

Power supply is 3.5 yrs old.

I'm going to be purchasing the CPU/mobo/memory/ssd next week - any updates to these lists? New deals? What about saving on a CPU/mobo combo? Also, I think I want to stick with haswell as it's more future proof. I think I'm going to stick with my current PSU if that helps your build tiraides.. Will probably upgrade in 6 months or so.

Also I should have noted before, but I want to stick with amazon prime-eligible items only or do everything at once through newegg.

Thanks guys!

 

[Carl224]

Which games do you play?

How old is the power supply?

Here is an alternate build proposal, including a(n optional) PSU:

$119 - Intel Core i3-3220
$70 - Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
$54 - G.Skill Value F3-1600C11S-8GNT 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$92 - Samsung 840 120GB SSD
$50 - Corsair CX500 500 watt power supply
=====
$385 - Subtotal (not including taxes or rebates)

The Haswell-based i5-4570 outperforms the Ivy Bridge-based i3-3220, but the latter can compete with (if not beat outright) most similarly priced AMD quad-cores in many gaming benchmarks. (The i3-3220 is a dual-core processor with Hyper Threading.)

I recommend replacing the power supply if it's over four years old and has been under heavy or constant use throughout that time.

I like the way this guy thinks - makes sense because you can upgrade in some time. You could also go the has well approach if you are going to re use your PSU ( save money there and get haswell CPU + MOBO)

 

[tiraides]

I'm going to be purchasing the CPU/mobo/memory/ssd next week - any updates to these lists? New deals? What about saving on a CPU/mobo combo? Also, I think I want to stick with haswell as it's more future proof. I think I'm going to stick with my current PSU if that helps your build tiraides.. Will probably upgrade in 6 months or so.

Also I should have noted before, but I want to stick with amazon prime-eligible items only or do everything at once through newegg.

Go with a variant of Dangman's earlier build:

$139 - Intel Core i3-4130
$79 - MSI B85-G41 PC MATE
$66 - Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$100 - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD
=====
$384 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

The quad-core Intel Core i5-4570 costs around $200, which would burst your budget. (NewEgg doesn't have any good processor/motherboard combo deals with the i5-4570.) The i3-4130 is the Haswell/LGA1150 equivalent of the i3-3220.

I still believe that you should upgrade your PSU sooner than later, but that's my personal opinion. I prefer the thought of a new PSU powering a new system.

Trust me when I say that the Samsung 840 EVO and the Crucial Ballistix Sport are worth the wait.

 

[fiCti0naL]

Went with the MSI B85-G41 / i3 4130 / Samsung 840 EVO 120GB / Crucial Ballistix Sport.

Thanks guys! I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[fiCti0naL]

Just put it all together and had zero issues, booted up and loaded win8x64 in around 10 mins. This thing is blazing fast and stable as hell. Love it! Thanks guys.