go for the i5 3570k processor and ASUS HD7770 video card. I found those to be pretty good quality for their prices when I was lookin around.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121642
this is a pretty good motherboard too http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837

apparently u get farcry 3 free with the vid card too as an extra incentive

don't forget to suggest what motherboard too

since you are a video editor, cpu would help alot

^editted in

I'd get a 3570k and 8 GB RAM for sure, if you do decide to upgrade. AMD's FX-8350 doesn't perform as well in TF2 (ask rays), and I assume it's because the 3570k is better per core.

SSDs are nice, get a 120+ GB one though.

Power supply will probably be reusable.

For the video card, I'd look at the 7870. I have a 6870 and it's been good to me. I can run BF3 pretty well on it, although that will probably change when I get a new monitor. I'm sure people will recommend some Nvidia cards too. (Edit: 7770 is probably better for the price, and for TF2)

Also, if you don't have one already, you should get a 120+ Hz monitor. I currently use a 100 Hz CRT (was testing it, plan on getting the Asus VH248QE) and it's amazing. I love being able to see scouts.

CUDA cores are used when rendering videos as well, does AMD cards have something similar?

if butdget is of no object then go for a 3960x and 2x 7970 so you can absolutely use that 144hz on EVERYTHIGN X]

Budget isn't an issue, but I'd rather not have to save for half a year for a beast computer. I think what I'd like to do is upgrade my current GPU then save. My only real concern with my current PC is my GPU I would say. Upgrade that, save for a couple months or so and I should be set on building. Might sound like a waste of money but it's not a huge bother.

OpenCL.

If you guys don't know, the FX-8350 beats the i5-3570k in most games AND streaming

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4et7kDGSRfc

Anyways, I recommend this build

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.69 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($118.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.47 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Case ($66.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $779.09
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-02 20:27 EDT-0400)

Thanks a lot, man. Will this build be able to run recent games at high settings? It's not that important but I'd like to be able to do it.

My suggestion would be to first upgrade the video card and power supply. See how that upgrade treats you and if you are satisfied with the performance.

If you aren't, then you can look into overclocking so long as you have a good motherboard and RAM. If you have a board that cost less than $100, overclocking probably isn't an option as you risk damaging the board. But if overclocking is an option, you should be able to boost your processor to at least 3.5 GHz and also boost the northbridge speed from 2 GHz to at least 2.6 GHz. Of course you'll want a decent heatsink to do this, so if you don't have one then get one and make sure it's compatible with newer sockets as well.

Adding/upgrading more RAM would also be an option too if you have DDR3. If you have DDR2 it's not worth it.

If after all of that you still aren't satisfied, then upgrade to a new CPU/Motherboard.

Oh and and SSD will be a great addition to your current build or a new build.

The Radeon HD 5770, while still enough for TF2, is becoming older and it was only a mid-high range card when was released 3 years ago. An HD 7850/7870 or even a 7950 would be preferred on the AMD side, or GTX 660 Ti/GTX 670 for NVIDIA. Your CPU will probably hinder some of these cards to an extent in some games, but a little overclocking (assuming your board has a decent voltage regulation section and a heatsink on the MOSFETs) can alleviate that a bit. Any chance you could get the make and model of your motherboard?

Also, a *good* 500w PSU is plenty for a single card setup. We really need to know who made your PSU and what model it is. The CPU and motherboard can be upgraded later at your choosing, along with the RAM.

I found a 7970 that was $450. I think it was a package deal that came with games and whatnot. How cheap can this card get? I read the system requirements in terms of power supply is 500W at least, which is what I believe I have. I don't think I'll go about upgrading that if it's not necessarily needed.

CPU-z tells me my power supply right? I'll have to redl

In terms of the CPU, I would suggest the AMD 8350 over the Intel 3570k. I own and run a 3570k and even it chugs with decent streaming settings. The 8350s 8 actual cores is a huge plus if you want to do any level of streaming.

Plus, its a bit cheaper and still a power house in and of itself.

You need to open your case and get the information off of the label on the PSU. It will tell us your motherboard, though.

On tech forums, a reference cooler 7970 goes for around $300 used, but that's with the annoying stock cooler. Honestly a 7950 is only about 3-6% slower yet great cards go for $300 new, such as these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414

I believe that's what Rays has, and he said he feels like he's not getting great framerates (as in, not as good as people who have 3570ks). Some TF2 specific testing would be nice, I've only seen newer games (like Far Cry 3, Crysis 2, BF3) used to test, and I think all of those use more than 2 cores, while I've heard that TF2 only uses a max of 2.

Each processor has their caveats. Intel CPUs are expensive, but they are power efficient, have awesome single threaded performance and you don't need a board with a crazy VRM section just to get a decent overclock without killing the board. AMD FX CPUs are cheaper, but they are designed more for multi-threaded workloads more than anything. Single-threaded performance is relatively poor, they are power hungry and Windows 7 cannot schedule threads efficiently on them due to the shared module architecture (Windows 8 does a little better, though). I personally prefer Intel i7 CPUs as they are efficient and they work very well with my distributed computing hobby. I'm more than willing to pay the extra upfront cost and save the money in electricity and air conditioning (Florida) to keep quite a few computers going 24/7 under full load.

I'll open my case and check tomorrow.

You have to remember that people with an i5 3570k won't have the exact same stream settings. Besides, Rays IS streaming at 60 FPS, so that really drops his frame rates down.

Intel's newest Haswell processors are going to be released within the next month or so. That might be something interesting to check out.

Upgrade to an 8350, a 7970, add a 120 GB sad, and get an 8x2 kit of 1600+ ram. If you wanna upgrade your board, go for an m5a97. It's the board I use and it's great for the price and in general. Also, if I'm wrong and you aren't a movie editor, go for 4x2 instead

You can get that much out of browsing a few pages of /r/technology and /r/worldnews

This is probably expected from creating this thread, but I'm getting a lot of different "what to do's". There are some things people equally agree on but some parts differentiate between posts. Considering I'm not super computer smart, I'll probably stick with #10's suggestion unless enough people can agree on what should be different and why.

Forget a new build just grab an 8350 at microcenter (if one is by you) or online, 4 more gigs of ram(make sure it's the same frequency if it isn't 1600, get some ddr3-1600 as it is fast and cheaper), a nice cpu cooler for overclocking(preferably water cooling H80i or H100), and a 650 ti or 660 (light boost, 3d, physx, cuda, etc.)

#10 suggested a 750W psu which is just wasting money. The 500w you have should be fine if you don't plan on getting the 7870 + decide to crossfire later on. If you really want a new PSU get one from corsair that is 600W or 650W the extra 100W would be unused and unnecessary.

Its a solid build list if you don't wanna go into the fine details and conflicts. Gets my vote.

If you have a Microcenter near you, you can get a good deal on motherboard & cpu. and you can get a ssd for like 20 dollars off too for buying a cpu or mobo

I got 750W because I got an AMD CPU AND GPU. AMD products are usually power hungry, and if he ever wants to crossfire/overclock, he can do so. Also, with 750W, he can upgrade to a 7970 if he wanted to or possibly get a new AM3+ CPU that AMD might never make.

EDIT: The 650W of the PSU I recommended is actually the same price on newegg, so yeah.

So a 750W if I'm getting a 7970? Is it necessary to have 8 gigs of RAM rather than just 4? I currently have 4 gigs of DDR3, but I'm not sure if it's this "1600" that's being mentioned :x

I don't think I'll bother overclocking.

8 GB isn't necessary, but it is beneficial. Given that you do video editing, I would definitely invest in 8 gigs. It's worth it.