Gaming PC build? I'm clueless.

robskis

Reputable
Nov 19, 2015
1
0
4,510
I've read a ton of articles, wikipedia pages, and what each part does for a PC. There's just too many numbers and letters for me to retain any of it. I might just be a noob, but it's a lot to take in.

This is my first time posting on any PC site, and this one appeared to be active. I apologize if I'm posting in the wrong forum entirely, but I didn't really see a Building forum. I figured the people in this one would be of most assistance. I've looked at past threads like this, but most were looking at spending less than $1000 and had tons of people arguing about 'better options' in the replies. I'm aware that there's always going to be a better option and I'm willing to accept that no PC is perfect in my price range. :)

Being said, I'm trying to build a gaming PC that will last me a few (3+) years of gaming, but I have no idea where to start. I'm looking to spend $1500 max. If you can provide a full build, that'd be awesome. I'm willing to read and learn from what you suggest. Any information (such as pros/cons) to the build you suggest will be extremely helpful.

Two of the most common questions I saw on threads were:
(1) "What do you already have?"
A: Nothing. I have no screen, no OS, no case. When I say nothing, I mean nothing.
(2) "Is the case a big deal for you?"
A: No. As long as it holds everything and won't implode, melt, or overheat, I'm not picky about its appearance.

ANY help or information will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)
 

noobgamer40

Reputable
Jun 25, 2015
531
0
5,160
Option #1

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($95.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card ($399.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1234.48
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 14:04 EST-0500


I suggest this, for now it will be more than enough and will run everything at ultra settings at hopefully 60+ fps, I could go a little cheaper with a standard motherboard and a 600w power supply, but since you want it to last longer I got a crossfire supported - overclocking supported motherboard and an 850w power supply in case down the road you want to add another graphics card in crossfire..

I also added an ssd so you can have a crazy fast boot time.. :)

So you got:
- 60+ fps ultra settings @1080p
-Crossfire support
-Overclocking support
-Blazing fast boot time thanks to SSD
-OS
- A very decent case


Option #2

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($95.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB STRIX Video Card ($654.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1533.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 14:10 EST-0500


Now this all out the "best" performance I could squeeze out of your budget, it's even more future-proof, but a bit overkill at this moment..
It can Ultra-60+ FPS @ 1080 or even 1440p on most games.
The only thing I changed is the motherboard and video card, the motherboard so it can support SLI, and the video card is the best in the market..

so you get:
-The best GPU out there in the world
-Motherboard that supports SLI

that's pretty much the only difference..

I personally would take option #1, it's really more than enough AMD because Option #2 is a bit overkill, but if you want to game at 1440p or 1080p at ultra with guaranteed performance and want it to last even longet get option #2..

Sorry if this is a bit messy..


P.S. Welcome to the community! :)
 
Was going originally to go skylake but for a quality monitor as well it tipped a little over budget.

Thrown this together well under budget & pretty much rebate free.

Monitor can be changed - you may want bigger/smaller - its a fairly solid 1440p IPS number though.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: RAIJINTEK THEMIS 65.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($60.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($95.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($323.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Deepcool KENDOMEN Red ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($90.99 @ NCIX US)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($17.75 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer G257HU smidpx 60Hz 25.0" Monitor ($259.99 @ B&H)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($28.66 @ Amazon)
Total: $1432.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 14:27 EST-0500
 

noobgamer40

Reputable
Jun 25, 2015
531
0
5,160
If you want a monitor also included get this:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($95.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card ($399.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($117.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC G2460PF 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1494.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 14:51 EST-0500


144hz FREE-SYNC 1 ms 1080p screen, perfect for you, totally worth it since this graphics card supports free-sync
 
Pros:
Best GPU on the market, run everything at ultra settings and get 100+ FPS.
Easy to setup, all plug and play.
Red and black theme consistent throughout.
High quality powersupply

Cons:
Can't overclock the CPU
No wifi (you didn't say you need it)
Can't use faster ram
Can't use more than one GPU (not advised anyways)


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($215.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card ($659.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($90.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: AOC E2476VWM6 60Hz 23.6" Monitor ($129.99 @ Micro Center)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($28.66 @ Amazon)
Total: $1494.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 14:56 EST-0500
 

noobgamer40

Reputable
Jun 25, 2015
531
0
5,160


OP will be using it for at least 3 years, and he wants a future-proof build, if you can't overclock the CPU or add another graphics (since Pascal will be coming out) it won't last that much..

Other than that it's good, I was gonna suggest something like that, though I at this point it's better to get an i5 4690k since it's overclock-able , but as I said I chose those parts to be "future-proof". I might be taking a bit too far though lol
 


CPUs have been having decreasing importance for games for years, so i'm not worried about it. It's extremely unlikely the 6600 will have any games it can't handle in the next 3 years.

SLI/CF is a crapshoot anyways, and normally not worth it. A 980ti will also very likely last beyond 3 years since it's a top of the line modern day card with far more power than games "need" currently.