New to the site, 800-900 Dollar build advice?

Welcome to PC gaming. You've made the right choice.

Something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $909.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-18 07:28 EDT-0400)

Would destroy a console pretty much. Don't know if you want an optical drive, keyboard etc.

Or this if you want to stay under 900:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($283.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $863.47
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-18 07:31 EDT-0400)

And yes Win 8 is fine for gaming; after you get past the weird and stupid stuff like having

to install "Games for windows" or whatever it's called, before installing the actual game.

Would be helpful if you gave examples of the types of games you play or want to play.

This build is also really good; yet I don't know what you play. But it'll provide a solid base to start from:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $883.46
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-18 07:36 EDT-0400)

Screen included.

Also, OC'ing isn't needed. But it can be fun and helps you learn about your system.

You might also squeeze a bit more out of your hardware, so you get more for the money.

Yes it can damage the hardware, but there's many guides on how to go about it.

It can both be easy to OC (just changing a few settings) and difficult (getting things to a stable state, while

giving you something in return, besides higher numbers such as "3.5Ghz" up from "3Ghz" or whatever).

As for the extras like keyboards, I can recommend getting a "mechanical" keyboard, for a more comfortable

typing experience. Those with the "switchtype" of "Cherry MX Blue" make a nice click sound when you press

a key. There's other switchtypes too. For a mouse, you'll want something with a decent DPI; I'd say at least

over 3000-4000. But then, it depends what you play; as everything does in your build. The screen included should

provide for some nice colours, at Full HD (1920 x 1080p) and at a reasonable size. When time comes to upgrade,

you should consider getting an SSD drive of either 128GB or 256GB in size. It's like a faster HDD. More expensive too.

Besides this, getting a "Full Tower" case up from your "Mid tower" case will provide more space for upgrades and what

not. It's personal preference though; although a good case can last several builds.

Sapphire is fine he picked AMD because it is FAR better for budget builds.

When it comes to gaming your cpu is not that imortant. You want to spend most of your money on the gpu since that is what is used most when gaming. Games only use 2 cores at the moment but since the new consoles have 8core games will be made to run better on multi cores and that amd has 6cores which is perfect.

Edit: If you can take x79 first build as the 7970 is such a nice card. It will beat the ass off the 650ti and the gpu is the most important part for a gaming pc. Build two is also pretty nice

Another example with Intel:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B75A-G43 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($78.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $915.49
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-18 08:40 EDT-0400)

No optical drive. If added the price is 933$.


This is also an option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3330 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.97 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: MSI B75A-G43 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($78.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $899.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-18 08:42 EDT-0400)

Slightly lesser i5 and 500GB HDD instead of 1TB. Still top-notch CPU and GPU.

The games will run perfectly I expect. As in, ultra settings and whatever at full HD.

The FX 6300 is capable. Probably best when OC'd.

Still no optical drive. But when you buy a game, sometimes you can simply type in the

code that comes with it, into something like Steam, in order to get a digital version.

The i5 is still quite more expensive than the fx-6300. You are going to get more performance with a fx-6300 and a higher end gpu than if you take some money out of the gpu budget to get an i5.

Edit: Also it never hurts to have the option of OC if you want to increase your preformace later on once your system starts to age.

You're welcome to go with Sapphire too.

It's just to show you how much you can stay within budget.

I prefer Sapphire over Powercolor, but both brands have lots of supporters I think.

I would also go with the Sapphire since i had a 4870 in my old budget build with a Phenom 965 be and it still gets 50-60fps in bf3 on med.

I couldnt even begin to count how many hours I have been gaming with my 4870 for. I have over 2k games of LoL played with it, 3weeks of codmw2, 3weeks of bfbc2 and a few days of cod5,7 and bf3 plus arround 100hrs on gw2 and i could also say another 3weeks on other games . Im pretty sure it it out or warenty but has never had a problem. But its up to you if you want the extra security.

Its probably going to blow when i get home 2day after saying that

If you pick a card like the 7950 then you also get some games too I think.

It might have to be a card from that level. So either 7950 or 70 (or 7990 but that's stupid).

Then you get some games with the GPUs. I think it's 4 games for the 7970 and 2 for the 7950.

Then 8 for the 7990, but it's stupid to get one, as it has too high of a frame latency and price. Also size.

Those games have value and can be sold. It's not like you'll be unhappy if you go for a 7870 though for

instance. Either way, you're going to have a much smoother experience than you were ever used to on

consoles I'm sure. Get a good monitor remember.

Alrighty.

Well I'm actually not a part of their marketing department (surprise surprise)

So I'm not paid to remember such things.

In general, the 7950 is definitely worth it over the 7870.

Also look at the 7870XT which is partway between the two in strength.

Same here. It's the consequence of a lack of that makes things sound more edgy than intended.