A friend and I are going to be building a new computer in the next month. We have not yet picked out all the parts we needed, but we noticed that the i5-3570k, which we knew we wanted to use, was for a good price at Microcenter and so we went to pick one up today before I leave town for about a month for the holidays. When we were there, the sales associate told us that buying the motherboard with the processor gives you a $40 discount, and that if I return the processor within the 15 day return period I can just repurchase it with the motherboard at said discount. As my friend's not leaving for the holidays, she offered to do the exchange for me, assuming that I figure out precisely which motherboard I need, so here I am.
Budget: In theory, I don't have a strict budget. I'd rather spend less than $1000 (not including peripherals), and preferably even lower than that if possible. I was thinking that the 790 build from here (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Sample-Builds) would probably be sufficient for my needs, but since Marest's descriptions of what the 790 and 870 builds, for example, are capable of are very similar I'm not quite sure which one, if either, is the best choice.
MoBo: ASRock Z77 Pro3 – $94.99
CPU: Intel i5 3570k – $229.99
RAM: G.Skill 1600MHz 2x4GB – $33.99
GPU: XFX Radeon 7870 – $229.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB – $69.99
PSU: XFX ProSeries 450W – $62.99 Review
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi – $69.99
Resolution: I hadn't really thought the monitor through yet, probably 1920x1080 I suppose.
Games / Settings Desired: Nothing super intensive. LoL, maybe some of the current MMOs, Starcraft 2, some old games, etc. If at all possible I'd like to be able to play some of the latest games at at least medium to high settings, but I'm not expecting to play Crysis 3 on maximum or anything like that. Let me know if you need a more specific list of the gaming I do.
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc): No. Except for gaming and the usual (browsing, word processing, movies, etc.) the only other software I use frequently is SPSS for my research.
Country: USA
Parts that can be reused: The i5-3570k I mentioned earlier
Do you need an OS?: Yes.
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)?: Yes, but I'm not overly attached to picking them out right now unless someone knows a particularly good set for a decent price.
As I said, the motherboard would be the most pressing issue at the moment. Is a computer like the 790 build going to be sufficient? Is there any value to adding in an SSD?