Will this build play the games I want it to?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PoCW

 

I wanna be able to play games like Battlefield 3, Far Cry 3, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, SimCity, ArmA 3(Alpha), ArmA 2(mainly just the DayZ mod), Skyrim, GTA4, Fallout 3 & New Vegas. All I wanna know is if this build will be able to play those games on at least high, I can drop to medium if I need to but Id perfer to play on High or even Ultra in some of the games.

budget?

I glanced over your build and dont think your going to have any trouble playing those, looks solid. If I could find a suggestion to make, I would spring for a mid tower board, since your dropping it in a mid tower case(although that's more of a personal preference towards astethics. But as far as functionality goes, your case will still provide good airflow regardless of the board. You sunk a good portion of your budget into a decent graphics card which will make all the difference in your framerates(provided you dont have a bottleneck, but with a core i5 your not going to have to worry about it limiting your GPU)

Awesome! All the info I needed! Thank you very VERY much! I do have one question though since Im not fully versed in the PC world just yet, could you recommend a good mid tower board for my build?

Yeah that should do fine. Did you forget the HD in the build?

Have you considered a bit cheaper AMD build instead?

AMD build:

[url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PrsW]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PrsW/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PrsW/benchmarks/]Benchmarks[/url]

[b]CPU:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd6300wmhkbox]AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor[/url] ($132.49 @ Amazon)

[b]CPU Cooler:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2]Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler[/url] ($24.99 @ Newegg)

[b]Motherboard:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-970extreme4]ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard[/url] ($99.99 @ Amazon)

[b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2kit4g3d1609ds1s00]Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory[/url] ($51.20 @ Newegg)

[b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex]Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive[/url] ($74.99 @ Newegg)

[b]Video Card:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100354oc2l]Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card[/url] ($224.99 @ Newegg)

[b]Case:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-case-challengeru3]Rosewill Challenger-U3 ATX Mid Tower Case[/url] ($49.99 @ Newegg)

[b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb9]XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply[/url] ($59.99 @ Newegg)

[b]Optical Drive:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lg-optical-drive-gh24ns95]LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer[/url] ($17.99 @ Newegg)

[b]Total:[/b] $729.41

[i](Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)[/i]
[i](Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-09 00:50 EDT-0400)[/i]

* CPU OC's easily and perfroms quite well for most things.
* Mobo supports front USB 3.0 ports and has plenty of options.
* CPU HSF allows better cooling and more OC'ing room, if you desire that.
* Case has 2 x USB 3.0 front ports (which yours only has 1 x USB 3.0 ports).
* PSU can support any single GPU solution out in the market w/44A on the 12v rail! 

do you need a hardrive?

I have a couple hard drives already that are left over from older PCs. Nothing major. A 500gb and a 320gb. But let me ask this, would the AMD build be better than the Intel one I posted? I mean I go back and forth on this whole AMD vs Intel thing. I hear good and bad things about both. Which one will serve me better?

The FX-6300 is more than enough and indeed does have signifigant room for overclocking, but if intel is your chosen path than I have heard good things from this board(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157304) good features, not too familiar with overclocking potential, although you dont really need heavy OCing to enjoy games

AMD vs Intel arguments are as old as the day is long, I like AMD because of it's signifigant headroom for overclocking, low price, and quality parts for the money. My father boasts his 3770K like it was some sort of god, although the arguments are long, they both accomplish the task quite well, and for gaming the FX-6300 is quite capable, I was Playing BF3 on high and Crysis 3 on low(although that's my graphics card, your 7870 will be able to beat mine out easily)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/PrBp

heres another option, Same basic parts, but I got a noctua in

actually go with Plexis build and use my ram, its more stable and g skill has never failed me

So would you recommend this AMD FX-6300 over that i5-3470? Im not stuck to one brand or another I just wanna get the best performance I can for the money Im spending. If AMD is gonna be better for me on like the DayZ mod since I hear DayZ uses more from the CPU than the GPU but will still allow me to run the other games I mentioned with the GPU I picked on high-ultra then Ill go AMD. 

I say amd is better until Sandy bridge E budgets imo which is usually >$1000

keep in mind this is my personal opinion

Price per performance the AMD is a cheaper option, although you would get better performance out of the 3470 http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-3470-vs-AMD-FX-6300

maybe try to fit a 7870xt in there

 

Just a few points of concern for me with your build:

* The Rosewill PSU only supports up to 350w (~30 A on the combined 12v rails), so it is probably a 380-400 PSU in all actuality. It also isn't 80 Plus certified, which concerns me as far as efficiency. It also only has a 1 year warranty, which most reputable PSU's come with at least a 3 year warranty or more.
* The NZXT case is good, but only comes w/1 x USB 3.0 front ports, so it won't take advange of the 2 x USB 3.0 onboard port that is on the mobo (not usually a big deal, just pointing it out).
* The low voltage RAM sticks aren't always the best option, IMHO. Not all boards will be friendly with them, not that they won't work, but the extra cost isn't worth it, IMHO.

Yeah that is on stock clocks, which Intel in synthetic benchmarks will usually win (most of the time). So if you OC the AMD (which the Intel version won't) you will either equalize the differences or even exceed the Intel chip.

So you guys recommend the FX6300? 

That's the beauty of AMD, buy a decent motherboard, PSU and cooler and you could get the same performance, although with stock clocks I'm not doing too bad with that particular chip. Good performance, good value, more potential for overclocking. Pretty good selling points. 

I would boil it down to this, if you want to spend the money and get the intel, your going to get better performance out of the gate. But if your willing to Overclock the AMD build then the cost of having a system with the same power as an intel would be cheaper. But it has risks...