AnotherDumbNoob :
I was thinking about building my own gaming PC once i get my tax check.... Well now i'm having second thoughts.
I've read countless forums from not even a year ago trying to decide what GPU to buy, and people are talking about how cheap this and that is.. Such as AMD 7950 for $200!?!?!??! Using the link provided, it took me to Newegg damn thing is $429 right now!!!! What the hell happened?
To a total noob like myself, i am quickly starting to think building a gaming PC isn't as cheap as people say. A CPU and GPU good enough to handle games at MAX settings and a few mods already put you at $500-600.... No thanks.
You really don't need that powerful of a machine to run on max settings. I put roughly $600 into building my gaming rig, and any game I have played has run smoothly and on max settings [Including but not limited to; Skyrim, Starcraft II, WoW, SWTOR, Elder Scrolls Online, Thief (2014), and more].
Graphics Card: $154 Radeon HD 7850 (1GB 256-bit GDDR5) , which has been awesome. Everything is smooth in any game. I honestly think you can go even a little cheaper ($130-ish) and still have decent performance on max settings. I decided to go bigger and spend 190 on a 2Gb 256-bit GDDR5 Radeon something, to see if there is a difference. I notice a little better FPS, but overall it runs close to what I could before. My wife runs games on max with a $99 Radeon HD 7750 (128-bit GDDR5 1GB) on max settings by her preference, but you DO notice the performance difference. It does not meet expectations for me, but for her, it is good enough. It definitely has to be turned down for online gaming. I would not suggest that cheap of a card.
Motherboard: $45 A micro-ATX, instead of a normal ATX size. This can be considerably cheaper and still provide great performance.
Memory: $42 2x4GB DDR3 RAM running @ 1600. You might not even need more than 4GB, unless you do a lot of multitasking. Going up with speeds, though, can certainly help. Do not go more than 8GB, though. That is just overkill for games and very unnecessary.
CPU: $290 Intel Core i7-4770S @ 3.1 GHz. the price difference might be $30 or more from 3.1-3.4 GHz (or higher), and you probably won't even notice the difference. I always go with Intel, because my experience has always been good. I also do a LOT of multitasking, so I went for the i7, instead of the i5. I do not have an i5 machine, so I cannot compare performance, but it is much cheaper, and you might have all that you need, depending on your uses beyond gaming. I would make sure you get the quad-core, instead of the dual core, i5 if you chose to go that route. I have not had as good of experiences with AMD systems, so I put the money into this by personal preference. You might be able to get good max-performance settings with an AMD CPU for $100 bucks less, I just won't guarantee it from my own experience.
Power Supply: $37 Kingwin 650W. This is a lower-end PSU in comparing to brand-names like Corsair or Thermaltake, but I have been using it for over a year now with no hiccups whatsoever. I feel I have gotten my money's worth, even if it died out today. Most cheap to mid-grade graphics cards don't even require higher than 500W-550W.
Storage: $23 Refurbished 250GB Western Digital 7200 RPM 8MB cache SATA 6 GB/s (I already had a 1TB 5400 drive, so I got a smaller cheaper one for a little faster speeds). You can get 1TB with the 7200 RPM and 6 GB/s for around $60 on a good deal.
CD/DVD-Rom: $15 24x DVD-R 48x CD-R. Anything better is honestly pure convenience if you watch DVD's on your machine, as most games nowadays do not even require a disk to read as you play. It might just take 10 minutes to install a large game, instead of 7 minutes lol.
Case: I just used my old mid-tower case that was running a really old rig. I have, however, put between $40-$50 into my wife's machines and it has been running just fine for 3 years without falling apart. They do are not quite as sturdy, though, so just be gentle with the cheaper cases. I would suggest looking for steel over aluminum cases.
Cooling: The case already had sufficient air cooling, and I already had a liquid cooling system, so this may be more cost to you. I would especially consider liquid cooling for your CPU. I have a cheaper one for about $50 that keeps my CPU around 45-50 degrees F that I have been using for over 3 years now. Air fans are not that expensive.
Keep note that this was not a machine that I just bought everything at once. I took my time and waited for good deals on almost every component (CPU for 289 instead of 309, and 154 instead of 179, RAM 42 instead of 65, Motherboard 45 instead of 69, for examples). These prices do also include any mail-in rebates that came besides the instant discounts. They take forever, but can make a difference in the overall price when it comes down to it. You may find only $10-$30 difference in each component, but it adds up. I also keep my eye out for refurbished parts.
When looking at graphics cards, the GB size is important, but not as important as other specs like whether it runs at 256-bit or 128-bit. The biggest thing I look for is the memory type. Get GDDR5 and NOT DDR3. No matter how big of DDR3 memory a graphics card has that I have seen, it is pale in comparison to GDDR5 with half the memory. Also compare core clock, streaming processors, effective memory clock, etc. Newegg keeps a good detail on such things.
If you have more and are willing to spend it (using my machine components about), I would put more into the motherboard and get some faster RAM. Also, that 7950 you mentioned is going for $220 with a $20 rebate from Sapphire on Newegg. It has 3GB of 384-bit GDDR5 memory. That sounds insane to me, but could be an epic choice. If you got something like that, you could most certainly go with a lesser CPU.
You really don't need a $1,000 machine to run games on max with smooth performance. If you are considered an "enthusiast," which it sounds like not, you might notice a difference. You might notice a difference in super competitive online gameplay. For those who are heavy and casual gamers, but not the elite enthusiasts, you will honestly not notice much difference between a $650 rig and a $1200 one.
As mentioned by other posts, "max settings" can be a difference in opinion. You can have everything to the max, and have lower FPS but still looks good and smooth, or have everything to the max and high FPS, looking good and smooth. I will update with the FPS that I get on different games.The link below is a good comparison of 30 FPS vs 60 FPS. You notice it with smaller quick motions, like when the Battlefield 4 example hits the ground after a jump. It is not AS noticeable otherwise.
http://gearnuke.com/30-vs-60-fps-can-eyes-tell-difference/
I am building an AMD-based system from scratch for a total of $500, including a case and a higher-end CPU fan. I will see how well it fairs.
(Going to go SLI 780 ti or something else in the next year and a 9590.) Or I may just wait for DDR4 and new nVidia GPUs with lessened wattage to performance. But back to your question, with peripherals and cooling and OS...etc, I think I paid ~1400. And retail without coupons and what not it would of cost 2500. But somethings are cheaper now.
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