Thoughts on this rig?

[poopgoblin]

So I'm thinking about building my own rig to play games like Skyrim and BF3 on. I'm using ibuypower, and building around their Gamer Mage D415. This is what I'm currently looking at:

 

Processor

AMD Phenom™ II X4 925 Quad-Core CPU

 

Memory

8 GB [2 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand

 

Video Card

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti - 1GB - Single Card

 

Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 -- AMD 970

Motherboard USB / SATA Interface

Motherboard default USB / SATA Interface

 

Power Supply

700 Watt -- Standard

 

Primary Hard Drive

1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive

 

Optical Drive

24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black

 

 

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit

 

 

 

This will run me around US$720 (and it includes stuff I didn't list).

 

Is this a good price for what I'm getting? And will it run Skyrim and BF3 (totally different games, I understand) smoothly on respectable settings. I'm not looking to have graphics that are so good that I can taste them, but I want to save the Minecraft graphics for Minecraft.

[hoofhearted4]

yep, that will run you just fine one medium-high settings.

 

what other stuff are you getting?

[poopgoblin]

Most of the extra price is just peripheral stuff like a keyboard and speakers. One thing I've been wondering though: if I down to 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module instead of my current, I can save about $50, which I could invest in a better graphics card. Is this a good idea, or will I need the extra memory?

[hoofhearted4]

holy crap they are charging that much for 8gb? if you were to build this PC on your own, it only costs $50 for 8gb. nvm saving 50.

 

but no keep the 8gb. the more RAM you have the faster your PC will run.

 

honestly, if you built this PC from scratch, you could prolly build it cheaper....maybe. itd be close.

 

do u already have a monitor or keyboard or anything?

[poopgoblin]

I already have a monitor, so that takes care of that. I also have a mouse and I could potentially get a keyboard for free from a friend.

 

EDIT: My other course of action would have been to get 4GB then upgrade to a GTX 560 2GB video card.

 

Would that upgrade have even made a difference?

Edited September 28, 2011 by poopgoblin

[hoofhearted4]

again, get the 8gb.

 

and if you can get a 560 1gb. you only really need multiple gbs if you have a multi monitor set up.

 

just pieced it out on newegg, going slightly better with an 1100t AMD CPU, GTX 560 and a slightly better mobo (though you could deff go with the one you picked out no problem) and its $800 for the pieces i picked out. so basically its gunna be just as cheap to piece it out as it would be to buy it from ibuypower it looks like.

Edited September 29, 2011 by hoofhearted4