Sub $1500 Gaming PC Build Help

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RileyP

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Normally, I don't mess with building my own computers, for fear of dropping money and potentially messing things up. Recently I have been talking with a buddy of mine who is big into computers and the workings, just not the gaming type. I have been looking to him for questions on computers, but he doesnt have the particular knowledge for this niche. However, he can help with putting it together for sure, no worries there.
I expected this to be a fairly time consuming process with all of the research, but I feel I may be in over my head at the moment! A couple weeks I've been searching around, but it's hard to jump in. I certainly would like to streamline this process by asking people who know what's what with this dynamic industry.
I expect to have around $1000-1100 from a current seasonal job, along with a few hundred from selling my current computer. (Alienware M14x - I know, it's a rookie purchase mistake!)
Although I have a laptop, I do want to make a stationary tower for reliability and cost effectiveness. I believe that I should be able to make a pretty powerful machine with this price, the problem is that I have no clue what I am doing, with this being my first build! Can you guys throw some configurations at me to get me started?
My max budget will probably be around $1500-1600 when all is said and done. Of course saving a few bucks would be nice, but it is certainly not my priority. Thank you for your time!
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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Jul 19, 2013
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Here you go:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 3 113.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($148.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1412.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-24 17:39 EDT-0400

This PC is very powerful, it will be able to play any modern game on Ultra settings @60fps. It's also overclockable if you're into that sort of thing

It's built around a white and black colour scheme but can be changed for different colours if you wish.

The R9 290 is a very powerful card, more powerful and yet cheaper than a GTX 780, and sometimes it's on par with or outperforms an Nvidia GTX Titan.

The i5 CPU is more than enough for gaming, Intel performs very well in most games, games like Skyrim see a huge benefit from having an Intel CPU.

The CPU cooler is a nice looking sleek black BeQuiet cooler that fits in with the white and black theme, it will allow for a good overclock whilst still being quiet (hence the name...). It can be downgraded to the CM Hyper 212 if you want to save some cash, the Hyper 212 is still a quite good cooler.

The motherboard is a high quality Asrock board, allowing you to get a good overclock and also fitting in with the colour scheme.

The memory is some pretty standard DDR3 - 1600mhz Kingston RAM, picked for it's white colour which helps with the overall white + black theme.
8GB of RAM is more than enough for any modern game, and for any game for years to come.

The SSD is one of the new MX100 Crucial SSDs, 250GB is enough for the OS and most/all of your programs, as well as a few games.
It can be upgraded to a 500GB (250GB will still fill up quite quickly), however this will set you back an extra $100.

The HDD is a very popular WD Caviar black 7200rpm, 1tb is more than enough for many games and any extra media you want to hold. WD hard drives are well known as some of the most reliable drives available.

The case is the new H440 from NZXT, this is the white and black version (other colours are available), it comes with many useful features and looks great, with a window on the side to display your build.

The PSU/Power supply is a 650W 80+ Gold rated PSU from EVGA, this PSU is highly efficient, good quality, and has plenty of room for upgrading in future.

The OS is Windows 8.1 64bit, and can be easily changed to Windows 7 depending on your preferences.



Feel free to ask if you have any questions :)
 
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RileyP

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Jul 24, 2014
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That looks very nice! Thank you! One thing I've been back and forth on is NVIDIA vs. AMD. I know the R9 280x is supposed to really kick some butt, but how does the GTX 770 compare? Would it be worth it to drop to 8GB RAM, slightly downgrade processor to grab the GTX 780 for a bit more? I know the 780 Ti is probably a bit out of range.
 
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RileyP

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I really dig the color theme you have going. I did see some places that AMD GPUs tend to run hot, will that pose a problem down the road?
 
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zeyuanfu

zeyuanfu

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Well, You could go down to 8 GB and a fan cooler and get the R9 290/290x. It outperforms the Geforce GTX 770 and probably the 780, although I'm not sure about the 780 Ti, but that is effectively a bit out of reach. As I said, consider getting the AMD GPU and mine cryptocurrency for a year, Bitcoin for example and you can spend it at Newegg, as they accept BTC now.



 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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For the money you can do much better than an R9 280x. It's the sort of card you see in mid/high end systems, whereas for $1500 you can easily get something pretty high end.

About the heat, AMD Gpus don't run especially hot compared to Nvidia, it depends on the partner that makes the actual cooler for the card. Reference AMD coolers are pretty bad and often run hot, but nobody buys reference cards except if they can get them for really cheap, they are, as the name suggests, for reference design only.
The on I added in my build has a cooler made by XFX, who tend to make pretty nice coolers, and you won't have a problem with it getting too hot unless you try some insane overclock, but you would have heat problems on any card if you tried an insane overclock.
Or, you might have heat problems if you crossfired the GPU, but this GPU is more than enough to run any game @Ultra for years to come, and crossfire is a waste of money anyway, by the time you needed to crossfire an R9 290 you might as well just buy another, newer GPU anyway.
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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I never mentioned the CPU, I was talking about the GPU, which has a cooler made by XFX.

True about the R9 290, I was just trying to clear up RileyP's question about whether heat would be an issue. The 650W EVGA PSU should still be more than enough to power the R9 290, it's pretty power heavy, but most of the time it shouldn't be a big issue as a 650W PSU is pretty cheap.
 
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TheBigTroll

TheBigTroll

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normally speaking, when talking about coolers, its almost always talking about the CPU rather than the GPU. if a card is made by a certain company, its obviously going to have a cooler from that company. just clearing up misconceptions here.

its not about whether the power supply can deliver the power, its more about power consumption in general. generally speaking, with an increase of power consumption, you generally pump out more heat. the temperature of the R9 290 may remain cool due to an efficient cooling design, however, the heat is still released into the case and it will, cause other components to subsequently heat up as well
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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Oops yeah, you're right about the cooler, it was kind of vague the way I wrote the comment about the cooler, and was unclear which cooler I was talking about.

As for the poser consumption, that's true, and to be fair the H440 doesn't have that great airflow if you're doing all air cooling. It will still be fine if you're only overclocking a little or not at all, and it really won't pose much of a problem, however if RileyP is really worried about airflow we can recommend a more air freindly case. The H440 should be fine though, you can also add in 2 extra 120mm fans to exhaust out the top of the case, for a total of 6 fans, so it should be fine with 3 intake and 3 outtake fans, or even with just the 3 intake and 1 outtake fan that are supplied with the case. Also, the BeQuiet CPU cooler is pretty high performing, so CPU temps shouldn't be a worry.
 
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RileyP

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Cooling is a pretty high concern, but it seems like you are confident with the cooling fan and the case. I'll poke around for a nice quality case with good airflow so I can just not worry about it, like I know I will. I'm willing to drop a bit more money on a case if it means having little to no issue with heat. Other than that, all of you have been very helpful! I'm still a bit torn on some decisions, but I have a couple of weeks to continue looking into things. Thank you!
 
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CAaronD

CAaronD

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X Video Card ($379.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT H440 (Orange/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($98.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($95.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1285.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 00:36 EDT-0400

This is a $1,300 build with identical performance to moozilbee's build but for $100 cheaper :) Also I tried to make a nice colour scheme! You could also add NZXT's sleeved LED orange kit for a full orange glowing PC! If you like orange that is :p Also cooling is NO problem here. Enough space for 4+ GHZ OC :) Hope this helped!
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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The extra $100 for my build is still worth it, because of the much bigger SSD (trust me, 120GB is not enough), and the much better CPU cooler.
The Hyper 212 evo is good, but it's a lot louder and worse performing than the Dark rock 3.
WD is generally considered more reliable than Seagate, but if you want to save money then the Seagate is fine.
The motherboard you picked is a better option because Asus tend to be pretty high quality and it's slightly cheaper but should perform about the same.
Graphics card is the same card, so performance won't really differ, and with the mail in rebate the XFX card I had is a little cheaper.
RAM really makes no difference in gaming and either is fine.
Also, why did you make my build cheaper and then spend a lot of money on a overkill PSU? Not doubting your decision, it just seems like an odd waste of money. 650W is more than enough.


Anyway, RipleyP, don't worry about the cooling in the H440 case, I should never have brought it up :) unless you're going for a massive overclock, you will be completely fine with the H440. Completely fine. Your PC isn't going to overheat, ever. You just won't be able to overclock as much as you would with a case with good airflow. But unless you plan on overclocking a ton, it really doesn't matter.
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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Here is a slightly updated version of my build, using an MSI card I found for slightly less, MSI tend to have very good coolers so this card is your safest bet. It also includes CAaronD's mobo, to bring the price down a little.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 3 113.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($369.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1383.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 11:05 EDT-0400
 
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AznGOD

AznGOD

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Will play around with this list

 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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What?
 
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