Building first gaming pc with a $800-1300-ish budget

lakajd · Jan 27, 2015

Hello, there, I recently decided to give building a PC a go, and was wondering what would be a good build. I'm not into overclocking or anything like that, and as of now, I don't think I want to get into that, since I hear it can damage your equipment, and it just seems too technical for me to worry about at the moment.I just want to get something that I won't have to worry about upgrading for at least the rest of the console cycle(3-6 years? Depending of course on how knowledgeable I become on this stuff later on. I'm not a super hardcore gamer).

As far as any other preferences I have, it seems that the GTX 970 seems to be a pretty good card, unless anyone can make a case for any other ones.I don't care for 4K(at least not until it becomes standard). I just want to run things at 1080p or so with no problems

For memory, I feel that maybe 1tb is overkill. I'm considering either a combination of a smaller HDD and SSD, or just a bigger SSD by itself.

I know quiet PC's don't tend to go together with gaming, but it would be nice to at least have it be quiet when I'm not gaming, and it would be helpful if I decide to eventually do some light home recording later on.

Lastly, I will definitely need an OS factored into the price, and possibly a monitor, depending if I'm giving up an important component(s) or not. I don't care about fancy LED cases or anything like that.

Sorry if this post was long, I just wanted to be specific, since that tends to be encouraged. I did some looking around on various sites before, but I don't know what components need prioritization and which ones don't. Here are some builds that i was looking at earlier, which I was already thinking of tweaking(but then again, I know nothing of what''s compatible and what is not). http://elitegamingcomputers.com/top-gaming-computers/#20

Thanks in advance

moistmossyroc · Jan 27, 2015

since you are only going to be gaming until the end of this console generation most likly and you arent a heavy gamer i say go with a 2tb WD black hard drive. and for your the amount you are willing to spend you can get a really good system just built my own for around that price, im getting back into PC gaming. so ill price it all out for you and include tax on the items i recommend-(tax in my area is 8.5% so that is what im going off of for tax)

2 terabyte WD black- $118 on amazon($128.03)
gigabyte gaming 7- $175 newegg($317.91)or spend another 25 and get gaming GT 30 dollar rebate making it 199 on newegg
intel i7 4790k-$300 amazon($643.41)
msi gtx 970 gaming- $350 newegg($1023.16)
corsair HX750-$120 newegg($1153.36) 20 dollar rebate going on right now but not including rebate
PNY XLR8 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz- $60 amazon($1218.46)
Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus - Mid Tower- $60 newegg(1283.56)

then one question i have for you is are you wanting to use 1 monitor or more? also the new gtx 960 would do just fine wich would lower the cost down but as it is now you can throw whatever you want at this thing and itl work like a champ. not familiar with AMD processors and motherboards only intel so not sure if there would be a price difference or not but this is basicly what i have for my set-up and i love it any game max settings on my samsung smart 1080p 120hz TV when gaming then when im not gaming 2 samsun 1080p 60hz monitors i got on black friday. cant tell you how impressed i am with it. also im assuming you already have windows so you could just reinstall onto this comp and if you wanted you could use your HDD most likly

moistmossyroc · Jan 27, 2015

oh forgot to include that if you dont like the case i recommend sticking with cooler master for breathablility with the case not an expert on fans though so not sure if the ones with the case would be enough or not, you would just have to see if it gets to hot or not and judge form there is my best advise on that.

the case im using is the cooler master HAF stacker got it for 100 dollars after $20 rebate, got that case because i see it as one of if not the most future proof case there is out there on the market as of now

Nolanrock100 · Jan 27, 2015

moistmossyroc :

since you are only going to be gaming until the end of this console generation most likly and you arent a heavy gamer i say go with a 2tb WD black hard drive. and for your the amount you are willing to spend you can get a really good system just built my own for around that price, im getting back into PC gaming. so ill price it all out for you and include tax on the items i recommend-(tax in my area is 8.5% so that is what im going off of for tax)

2 terabyte WD black- $118 on amazon($128.03)
gigabyte gaming 7- $175 newegg($317.91)or spend another 25 and get gaming GT 30 dollar rebate making it 199 on newegg
intel i7 4790k-$300 amazon($643.41)
msi gtx 970 gaming- $350 newegg($1023.16)
corsair HX750-$120 newegg($1153.36) 20 dollar rebate going on right now but not including rebate
PNY XLR8 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz- $60 amazon($1218.46)
Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus - Mid Tower- $60 newegg(1283.56)

then one question i have for you is are you wanting to use 1 monitor or more? also the new gtx 960 would do just fine wich would lower the cost down but as it is now you can throw whatever you want at this thing and itl work like a champ. not familiar with AMD processors and motherboards only intel so not sure if there would be a price difference or not but this is basicly what i have for my set-up and i love it any game max settings on my samsung smart 1080p 120hz TV when gaming then when im not gaming 2 samsun 1080p 60hz monitors i got on black friday. cant tell you how impressed i am with it. also im assuming you already have windows so you could just reinstall onto this comp and if you wanted you could use your HDD most likly

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Nolanrock100/saved/WYZXsY

hftvhftv · Jan 27, 2015

Unless you are wanting to overclock don't bother with a "K" CPU, an i5 4590 is Devil's Canyon and it will eliminate any bottlenecks for shore.

hftvhftv · Jan 27, 2015

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/hftv/saved/WZgp99

moistmossyroc · Jan 27, 2015

sounds like he might overclock though once he learns more about computers

also that is a good build you have only thing i would change though is motherboard because of limitations on not being able to do sli/crossfire and not being able to get faster DDR3 ram, the sweet spot is 1866 gets the best performance from what i have seen

lakajd · Jan 27, 2015

moistmossyroc :

*When I mentioned for this console gen, I meant that I want to be set as far as gaming goes for the rest of this gen at least without having to worry about upgrades.
*The reason I said that a 1tb hard drive was too much is because I feel like I won't be installing that many games at the same time. I feel that an SSD for the OS and HDD for storage would be better, or a 500GB SSD. 2tb just seems humongous. Does the space really fill up THAT fast?
*I will need to buy a windows OS
*I'm not interested in multi-monitor

moistmossyroc :

What motherboard would you recommend ? Again, I know very little about some of the components

moistmossyroc · Jan 27, 2015

the build that i put on here will run this entire generation, i recomend 2tb because the gigs do add up faster then you would think and lets just say a game once every 2 months depending on the size of the game could be a gig, 20 gigs and sometimes more and if you are like me who doesnt want to delete any games that they have installed that you like then youll use up 2TB by the end of the console generation and that includes all documents and other files you have.

and since you wont be doing multi monitors then just the gtx 970 will do still, i would say the 980 but the cost per how much "power" your getting makes the 970 a better choice, look up some benchmarks between the 2 and youll see what i mean. and if you are interested in an ssd with 120GB would be good and you would put your OS on there and most frequently used files then games onto the HDD.

and the motherboard i would recommend is the gigabyte gaming 7 since you are only going ot be using 1 monitor so doing sli you wouldnt need to worry about i dont think. but either one would be good if you ever decide to go for more monitors and also is all around great quality board especially for its price range, the GT is what i have but im going to be doing multi graphics cards and monitors. either one though is a very worthy choice and gigabyte has good customer service. an asus board is also a good choice but they can be pretty costly at times.

and if you are going to buy a windows OS get windows 8.1 and what will make it even better is that the moment windows 10 is released all windows 8/8.1 users will be aloud to upgrade to it no extra cost at all wich is awesome but only for the first year after release asfter the year is up then people who have windows 8/8.1 will have to pay to upgrade

lakajd · Jan 28, 2015

Yes, I decided on the 970 because price/performance ratio seemed much better.

Thanks for the info, but2TB still seems a bit too much to me, especially since I can't imagine I'll ever need a bunch of games installed at once. I have about 9 games on my laptop(which i'm returning in order to build a pc) with 256GB SSD and it's taken me a while to get to get every game. I'll consider 1TB, though.

Speaking of SSD's, I see differences, like MSATA,SATAIII, etc. I see these descriptions, and I'm not sure if it's important to know if you're building a PC

Lastly, I've been thinking of getting certain components refurbished. Just as a general rule of thumb, what products SHOULDN'T ever be bought as refurbished? As of now, I just thought of getting a refurbished screen, since it'll open up for better display options at a cheaper price, and even if something goes wrong, it won't screw up the pc itself. Thoughts?

moistmossyroc · Jan 28, 2015

the things i wouldnt get refurbished are graphics cards motherboards and processors not worth the risk on them unless they have a good warranty. the SSDs dont matter much for speed they are already so fast at around 1ms so you wont see much of a difference with them. and the SSD that i had for a little was the WD black 2. thought that was the problem with my comp so stupidly returned it and got the 2TB hdd only to find out i had a bad motherboard, but by the time i had realised it was to late to go and get it again, the deal was gone.

the WD black 2 is ment for windows has 120GB SSD where you put all important files then the rest on the HDD wich is 1TB. and since you dont have that many games or care to keep many on at a time it would be perfect. i plan to get just a standard SSD soon because have a HDD already now.

the price of it is $130 wich is a real good deal for SSD and HDD, and the way it works is different then all other hybrid drives they are actually 2 separate drives, you just activate it after you install your OS onto it but that is the storage to buy for the best money worth because a terabyte HDD alone is 50-75 and 120GB of SSD is around 60-100 youll be saving money in the long run.

a monitor though i would feel safe purchasing refurbished but make sure there is a warranty on it first also dont get anything lower then 1080p youll hate yourself for it later down the road if not early on. but the features you want to look for as a minimum are this-
1080p(not 1080i) or higher
60htz preferably higher but doesnt matter that much just a nice added feature and youll be getting more out of the GPU
then LED backlit,

i always stick with samsung for monitors and if you dont get samsung doesnt matter just my personal preference for color/resolution i think they look the best and if you have any other questions ill be glad to answer them

lakajd · Jan 30, 2015

I noticed Nolanrock100,hftvhftv, and you(moistmossyroc) posted some different specs for a build. What differences am I seeing here(pros and cons of those)? I mostly want o know not about the more obvious components, like the processor and graphics card, but more of the no so obvious ones.

moistmossyroc · Jan 30, 2015

in sinple they are using diferent components that would be cheaper but the build i posted you could say is more future proof and if you realize you like PC gaming more then console(i do both) then you have the capability of expanding,as in multi graphics cards more monitors ect.

also they both posted different speed ram, the best from what i have seen from benchmarks is 1866 after you reach a certain speed instead of more performance you are not getting as much as you would with lower and has to do with latency. there are videos on youtube that explain it in real simple details. but faster speed doesnt necessarily mean better performance.
here is a video that i think explains it well- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4

but from what i can tell the motherboard is the main difference but the gaming GT or gaming 7 youll be very happy with trust me on that, and in general the quality of the components.

hftvhftv · Jan 31, 2015

Please let me set you straight. My updated build :http://pcpartpicker.com/user/hftv/saved/WZgp99 is at your $1300 budget and offers the i5 power but it isn't a "K" CPU so it's multiplier is locked, but for the average user, trying to save money, overclocking is not really needed especially with this Haswell CPU. The 980 is the most powerful single GPU card on the market allowing you to play almost any game maxed out with above 780 Ti performance. And for a monitor, either downsize your SSD and go with a 256GB MX100 and then harvest a old drive from another PC or just save a few extra dollars.

moistmossyroc · Jan 31, 2015

hey im curious as to why you choose the i5 4590 instead of the i7 4790, is it the cost?

also the asrock MB rather then the gigabyte that could support 1866 ram wich is the best for gaming and you could say is more futureproof?

sorry if not coming across correctly im curious about your choices not trying to be rude

hftvhftv · Jan 31, 2015

moistmossyroc :

4790 costs a ton and 8 threads are not nessisary for gaming. And 1866mhz being "future proof" is just a lie. DDR4 is the closest to future proof if you can even call a gaming computer that. 1600mhz will do you just fine just as long as it's above 1333. Plus the ASRock is a good board.

moistmossyroc · Feb 1, 2015

i see what you mean, for me i got the 4790k because i use this comp for more then just gaming and plan to overclock later on when things start to slow down. not a fan of overclocking at first i see the benefits but not worth abusing your hardware like that i dont think unless it is older. but the board sense he said he might be interested in doing a little more with PC once he learns more about em do, wouldnt it be better to get the MB with 2 PCI express 3 x16 slots so he could add another GPU without having to buy a MB with an additional one.

hftvhftv · Feb 1, 2015

moistmossyroc :

Just for measure, I wouldn't tell someone to overclock if you've never done it before. I own an FX 8350 and I've overclocked it, I see the benefits, but the vast knowledge required to do so, is really not worth the performance/heat/lifespan decrease for the average gamer, and I know plenty of idiots who up the multiplier, don't boost the voltage, and don't stress test, I don't want anyone to be that person who thinks they are taking advantage of their K CPU. Just get a normal i5 and be done with it, you save time/money and your CPU will last longer.

hftvhftv · Feb 1, 2015

moistmossyroc :

Also what graphics card do you have?

moistmossyroc · Feb 1, 2015

i got the msi gtx 970 gaming because of cost to performance didnt think it was worth another couple hundred dollars for not much more, but if it offered a good amount of performance more then i would have bought it

hftvhftv · Feb 1, 2015

moistmossyroc :

Okay, just checking if you were one of those guys with an i7 and a 750 Ti, thank you for not being one.

moistmossyroc · Feb 1, 2015

those things are complete rip offs, i guess if you have money to spend but still performance over price lol. i try to save as much as i can but still get the most powerful i am able to, the one i have now got 90 dollars back in rebates and got my PSU hx750 silver for free. patience pays off alot

lakajd · Feb 8, 2015

With the current scandal with the GTX 970 anf the 3.5 GB issue, is it still worth the price?

hftvhftv · Feb 8, 2015

lakajd :

I'd say so, I have a 4GB and the most I've used is 3.2GB, and you aren't exactly paying a ton of money compared to a 980 for it so go ahead.

moistmossyroc · Feb 10, 2015

i would actually hold off on buying the gtx 970 for now and see what the amd 390x will offer the leaks sound good but you never know and you cant always trust them but since itl only be about a month about until it is released might as well wait to see if the leaks were true or not. and then again if they are then the gtx 970 would have to lower price but if not then would be about the same but dont see any harm in waiting.

usually wouldnt say wait but this time seems promising since so close to release, unless though you are in a hurry to get it put together then go with the 970 right now

hope progress on your comp has been going well

always exciting to put one together from scratch

Building first gaming pc with a $800-1300-ish budget

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