$1500 Budget, advice!

So my classmate came up to me the other day and told me that he had $1500 to spend on a new PC, and wanted to pay me to build it for him. After collecting my jaw from the floor, I hastily agreed and set to work. Then, I realized I've been out of the PC building scene for awhile, the last one I built used an AMD 955 and Radeon 5770. Not all THAT long ago, but still, your help would be appreciated.

Here's the drill:

Budget must include a decent monitor, Windows and a keyboard.

He likes the Antec 900 case, wants an SSD, needs to play BF3 spectacularly, as well as handle some video editing (Nothing super serious, he fancies himself a "youtube director")

Finally, he'd prefer to save some of the budget for games (Not to mention my fee!). Also, to any of you who have done this kind of work, how does it usually go down? Order the parts to your house and assemble them there, then take the completed thing to client's house? And what kind of commission is fair? Do you provide your own tech support?

Feel free to ask if I left something out.

Thanks!

My build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/5cJy

Could drop down the SSD and get a better gpu

You'll want to determine exactly what he considers a "decent monitor" because that can vary widely. If he's interested in going with either a 120Hz TN or IPS monitor than you'll need to budget more ($350ish).

CPU: i5 2500k is just an insanely good chip for the money. It'll be destroying games for years.

Ram: 8gigs, faster the better

GPU: Wait until April (if you can) when the Kepler line from Nvidia ships. You'll see how well they perform and their older cards will likely be reduced in cost.

Case, HDD, etc are really just personal preference

So my classmate came up to me the other day and told me that he had $1500 to spend on a new PC, and wanted to pay me to build it for him. After collecting my jaw from the floor, I hastily agreed and set to work. Then, I realized I've been out of the PC building scene for awhile, the last one I built used an AMD 955 and Radeon 5770. Not all THAT long ago, but still, your help would be appreciated.

Here's the drill:

Budget must include a decent monitor, Windows and a keyboard.

He likes the Antec 900 case, wants an SSD, needs to play BF3 spectacularly, as well as handle some video editing (Nothing super serious, he fancies himself a "youtube director")

Finally, he'd prefer to save some of the budget for games (Not to mention my fee!). Also, to any of you who have done this kind of work, how does it usually go down? Order the parts to your house and assemble them there, then take the completed thing to client's house? And what kind of commission is fair? Do you provide your own tech support?

Feel free to ask if I left something out.

Thanks!

Roggirek

I'd recommend an i72700k. It may only be a little faster in games right now than the 2500k but you never know whena futuregame will have support for more than 4 threads. I'd also recommend at least 8GB DDR3-1333 1.5v. No need for anything faster than DDR3-1333 if he getsa Sandybridge if he want the pc to run within specifications because Sandybidge only officially supports up to DDR3-1333 1.5v and the speed increase over DDR3-1333 on Sandybridge is very small unless it's a synthetic memory benchmark. For the video card, a Radeon 7950 2GB or a 6970 2GB are good for gaming at 1080p. A 120GB SSD should be plenty for gaming and I recommend Intel or Kingston Hyperx.

You'll want to determine exactly what he considers a "decent monitor" because that can vary widely. If he's interested in going with either a 120Hz TN or IPS monitor than you'll need to budget more ($350ish).

CPU: i5 2500k is just an insanely good chip for the money. It'll be destroying games for years.

Ram: 8gigs, faster the better

GPU: Wait until April (if you can) when the Kepler line from Nvidia ships. You'll see how well they perform and their older cards will likely be reduced in cost.

Case, HDD, etc are really just personal preference

Bruin1986

The i5 2500k and all the other non-E Sandybridge chips officially support only DDR3-1066 and DDR3-1333. Running RAM faster than 1333 is runningoutside of specifications on Sandybridge.

I just want to add that if he has to get a slower video card to get the i7 2700k then it would be better to get the 2500k with the faster video card for gaming. An i5 2500k with a Radeon 7950 is better than an i7 2700k with a Radeon 6970 for gaming.

I'm using an Antec 900 right now, and I have to say it collects tons of dust.