I have been working on a few lists... and can not make up my mind what to do. Part of my wants to keep it on the cheap.. yet the other part of me thinks why bother if you're not going to at least get something decent...
My initial cheap build would be....
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $534.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-06 16:08 EST-0500)
Though, I would prefer something along the lines of...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $674.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-06 16:12 EST-0500)
Which is about $140 more... Is it really worth that extra $140? I'm sure it might be... but by how much? As far as going cheap.. I know as well if I considered AMD I could bring the price down once again, maybe free up some funds to put towards the GPU, but I have not built Intel in some time, and would like to go back for this build if possible....
So, thought?
And thank you!