Build Budget Cut

[Kopesetic]

This past week has been a sad one for me. The IRS and H&R Block are working their hardest to make sure I don't see my refund any time soon. I work very hard all year, I elect to have more with-holdings so that at the end of the year it's like a small bonus to play with and I never have to worry about having to pay them. This year, my refund has been delayed so much that now my bills are behind and I'm close to a week away from losing Power and Communications because of the delay. Sadly, this has caused me to cut my new build budget that I was so happy to finally be able to afford.

Thankfully, I will still be able to build a new system, however I have to compromise on performance in certain areas. This is where I need you guys help. I need suggestions for CPUs and GPUs that could play certain games like WoW:MoP, SWTOR, and GW2 at very high, if not maxed out settings @ 1920 x 1080 without bottle-necking either.

I'm currently looking at the FX-6300 because the price seems fair and it can handle a nice overclock. I want to go with an Intel i5-3570k but I don't think it will be in the budget now. I certainly want to keep the liquid CPU cooler to handle the overclock and newegg is having a sale on H80i's at the moment.

I'm looking at either a GTX 660 or HD 7870 for the GPU. I do plan to SLI or XFire either card I choose in a few months. I know the 7870 outperforms the 660 but not by a noticable amount in the titles I'm building the system to play, or atleast that's what I've read in reviews. I'm looking at the GTX 660 because it is cheaper than the 7870 and I cannot use the V.me discount through newegg with the 7870 according to the details, and that will be a $50 discount off the top.

So want do you guys think. My budget is now around $900 and I want to get as much performance out of this budget that I can. If you guys have certain build setups within my budget that you would like to share, please do. I know I'm being picky with the Liquid cooler but I just don't feel comfortable OCing on anything less.

Additionally, I should note that I should be able to afford an i5-3570k on this budget and the reason why I cannot is because I will not settle with a cheap MB or PSU.

So, going with an FX-6300 I would be using an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 and a Corsair AX750. I chose these because the PSU will be able to handle an SLI or XFire config later and the motherboard will be able to handle the OC and I would mostly likely not be replacing either anytime soon.

 

[UkGouki]

900 us you could still get a 3570k build with a corsair h80i but do you need any other extras like power supply case harddrives etc??

my build is an example £657 uk = $831usd i got this but i didnt need a keyboard mouse, opsystem or harddrives >>

case bitfenix shinobi
i53570k
msi z77a g45
8gb corsair vengance ram
radion hd7950 gpu
600w corsair power supply
sata dvd drive

with the $70 left over you could get an ssd for for your os or get windows 8 pro and a 500gb hardrive for now.. or drop to a 7870tahite le gpu even a 7850 will hapily play the games you listed at 1080p if you want a storage drive opsystem and ssd

 

[Kopesetic]

900 us you could still get a 3570k build with a corsair h80i but do you need any other extras like power supply case harddrives etc??

It's going to be a complete build. Here are the extras that I'm planning atm:

Case: Corsair 200R
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600 8GB ( 2 x 4 )
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB Sata III

Main Components

CPU: FX-6300 w/H80i & MX4 TIM
MB: Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
GPU: EVGA Superclocked GTX 660
PSU: Corsair AX750 Gold

This places me @ $932 so far. I could possibly stretch the budget to $1000 if my refund happens to come by monday.

update/
Ok, so I've narrowed my choices down, but there are 2 setups that are starting to appeal to me even more for the money and want to run them by you guys to get some input.

FX-8350 & EVGA Superclocked GTX 660
or
FX-6300 & EVGA GTX 660 ti

Now, before anyone recommends intel or a 7870+, they are not in my budget. Yes, I understand the 7870 is cheaper than the 660 ti but since it comes with games as a free gift (which I cannot opt out of recieving) I cannot use the V.me Visa discount which would make an nVidia setup cheaper in the end.

I just need to know which would give me the best gaming experience. I would think that going with the GTX 660 ti would be better but I would like to have a slightly better processor. I do plan to SLI in a few months. I also understand that in gaming, 8 cores are of no help, but for BF3 6 cores are used. I plan to use 1 25" HDMI monitor @ 1920 x 1080 with the highest settings I can achieve with smooth gameplay. I will be OCing the CPU with an H80i to the highest stable OC with temps not exceeding 45-50c @ 100% load. Either option will be powered by an AX750 Gold PSU.

Also, would I be fine with just an FX-6300 & EVGA Superclocked GTX 660 (non-ti) to play most titles atleast at high if not maxxed? Excluding games like FarCry 3, Crysis 3, etc... I would save a little money to go towards upgrading to a case that can hold an H100i.


--Edit: Looks like I might be in luck to actually go with an i5-3570k setup hopefully. Not only did some prices drop on Newegg, but according to my tax preparer and the IRS, I should be receiving my refund by Monday morning. Now, I'm not holding my breathe since I have been lied to at every turn this tax season but if this is true I will be able to stretch my budget to $1,000 and afford a z77 and i5-3570k setup with a 7870 OC GPU. So, fingers crossed this happens and the price drops don't go away before I get my refund. However, incase this doesn't come to pass, I could still use some input on the above questions.