Custom vs. Pre-built

My brother recently decided to look for a prebuilt computer for gaming purposes and I told him with much confidence that you can get a system way better if you build it yourself. Not only do you get the satisfaction of the DIY aspect but you get performance beyond that of a pre-built system. What he finally decided on was an $800 rig from Digital Storm, http://www.digitalstormonline.com/comploadc70.asp?id=676721&price=%24799

In response to what he thought was good I put a system together, http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mQ58.

Just wanted to show that you can get more if you build it yourself. Now I am fairlly new to the pc world but I'm pretty sure a 3rd gen i3 with a 7870 ghz edition beats a quad core from AMD paired with a 7750 anyday. Possibly the system I put together could be improved, what do you think?

Nerd.

often times, you can't find what you need without building yourself

Amen to that.

lol, they try to sell that tripe for $800? geez...

One thing about your build, putting a cooler on an i3 is like putting wings on a volkwagon beatle, no matter how hard you try, it isn't gonna fly. i3s don't overclock.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mOcZ

This build would out perform your build for $150 less. If you were to make use of that $150, you could add an SSD for a big performance boost in load times. 

Are the new AMD cpu's that good?

Try this on for size: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mSIL (just updated)

The new FX chips take the performance point away from the i3 on pretty much all fronts, the chips are able to be clocked up to 4.6GHz-4.8GHz fairly easily with this setup. The king of gaming chips still belong to the i5 2500k/3570k, but they are significantly more expensive then the FX6300.

There is nothing better for the money... However, for around $200, the i5 is still king... Also, Intel's new i3 is pretty epic but I haven't tried it yet. 

the question is, are you going to Overclock?

Couple things about that build:

  •  The extra $20 for the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 is well worth it, check the stats between the two, its such a bargain for the specs if has
  • The Deckstars seems to have a notably higher failure rate than the Caviar blues/blacks
  • There is no reason to be suggesting an more expensive Rosewill PSU over the XFX 550W, they have the same specs but the XFX one is cheaper and backed with better service and a better warrenty (3 year vs 5 year)

Not necessarily planning on overclocking but I added the cooler because the cause was small and didn't want snything to get hot. The power supply is also blowing hot air directly over the cpu. Also I do live in Texas where the humidity and pure HOT is just... yeah.

Probably should have explained the reason I put the cooler there earlier. Is it needed or a waste of money?

ONLY 4.8? that's conservative

Not overclocking is much bigger waste of money. You can get about 20%-25% more performance out of the FX 6300 and you don't even have to try all that hard.

Could you recommend a mATX motherboard that performs as well as the asus I posted or almos as good and provides similar features?

Forgot to mention, I'm going mATX because of comfinement issues around my desk... :/

you do realise that m-Atx is only shorter not slimer right, so m-atx would not help your issue, A better solution is to set it on the floor underneath (go foot rest) or on the floor to the side, surely standard 6ft cables will reach

I do realize that. But I don't see how you're going to fit a atx board in a matx case... My issue the the lack of space for a bigger rig on/around my desk... not inside the case itself.

that's what I'm getting at, m-atx cases are only shorter not slimer, so you wouldn't get anymore deskroom, they are just as long and just as wide, they are literally 2 inches  shorter

used Skullabyss's as a base

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mSXE

doesn't get much better than a 7970

if ya want small, go mini itx

Using CloudScorpions' case that he recommended, it's a good 1.5" wider and 3 " deeper.