Could I make this better?

Hardware Build a PC
1
  • PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/IIdl
  • Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/IIdl/by_merchant/
  • Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/IIdl/benchmarks/
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter) 
  • Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($76.99 @ Amazon) 
  • Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ NCIX US) 
  • Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US) 
  • Total: $352.96
  • (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
  • (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-11 15:37 EDT-0400)

 

I've got a maximum of $380 for just these parts. Already have case and PSU. Im going to pair this with a 7850 or 7870 xt depending on the availability when I go to buy this in a couple weeks. Primarily a gaming pc, BF3, GTA IV, Minecraft, Civ V. I know the 3570k is only 40 bucks higher but it goes over my budget unfortunately.

2

I'd go with an AMD 8350 and an AM3+ mobo.  Better performance, cheaper.

3

the 8350 is $30-$40 more and doesn't perform as well. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/702?vs=697

4

Those are purely synthetic benchmarks. If you had watched the videos the TekSyndicate crew released, you would know that the 8350 has higher real-world performance than the 3570k.

5

I was looking at skyrim and diablo III benches, also I did watch the video. I don't think I'd be able to overclock an 8350 to 5ghz with my budget.

6

Looks okay to me, although in all actuality, with that motherboard, you wouldn't really see a huge benefit from having an unlocked multiplier on your CPU, because that board doesn't have  enough power phases to sufficiently smooth the power. If you can find one and afford it, the Radeon 7870 XT is SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than the Radeon 7850. Now then, the only thing that I would try to change: The RAM. I don't know if your case has a side panel window, but I do like knowing that the RAM inside the system looks nice. Try to find some Patriot Viper 3 clocked at 2133MHz. You can usually find that stuff for the same price as the RAM you already chose.

7

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J3BE

You should really go for the 8350!!! It's more for your money.

Total:386 $

8

Nah, no window but I like nice ram too haha. I chose the cheapest ram that met my requirements and wasn't just pcb so I think I'm good with this. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get a 7870 xt but I play at 1366x768 so I think I'll be fine.