$1000 budget gaming desktop

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AlexWirtes

AlexWirtes

Honorable
Jan 21, 2014
75
0
10,630
Title says it all. I want to be able to run games like Skyrim and Secret World on highest graphics settings and absolutely no lag. It just has to be an upgradable machine that I can build up on after I build it the first time around.
 
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Rapajez
Would also be good to know if you plan to overclock. If not, you can save a few bucks to put toward other areas. If you want to have room for upgrade, you probably want to go with a SLI capable motherboard, which would allow you to add a 2nd Video Card in down the road. Something like this (assuming no overclocking):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($145.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Best...
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rockie_

rockie_

Splendid
Sep 20, 2014
6,022
0
27,960
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($248.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($120.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($349.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1067.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-16 14:28 EST-0500

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.69 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($349.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $954.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-16 14:33 EST-0500
 
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I

Isaiah4110

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2012
603
0
19,010
You have provided pretty limited information, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. For instance, do you need the budget to include an operating system, or are you already accounting for that? What kind of gaming are you planning on doing? and other quesitons along those lines. That being said, here is my recommendation for you:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($96.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($329.99 @ B&H)
Case: Thermaltake Commander MS-I ID ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $923.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-16 14:31 EST-0500


I cannot stress enough the benefits of having a solid state drive in a modern computer to hold your operating system and programs/games. No, it will not improve your game performance in terms of frame rate, but your startup time, software installs, and game/program load times will be so much faster. There is no going back once you have worked with a solid state drive.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
37,551
3,221
143,290
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Plus ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($110.49 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($329.99 @ B&H)
Case: Enermax ECA3253-BL ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.98 @ Directron)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1009.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-16 14:37 EST-0500
 
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Rapajez

Rapajez

Distinguished
Jul 17, 2014
1,087
2
19,665
Would also be good to know if you plan to overclock. If not, you can save a few bucks to put toward other areas. If you want to have room for upgrade, you probably want to go with a SLI capable motherboard, which would allow you to add a 2nd Video Card in down the road. Something like this (assuming no overclocking):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($145.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.89 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1168.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-16 19:42 EST-0500

While it exceeds the budget, it would allow you to drop in a 2nd GTX 970, and upgrade the RAM, CPU, etc...You could drop the OS if you don't need it, and drop the SSD, but if you do, I recommend at least picking up a Hybrid HDD. For only about $20 more than a regular Seagate 1TB drive, you get a little bit of the performance boost an SSD provides.

Also, what resolution is your monitor? All this may be overkill if it's 1080p or less.
 
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