Need help with building my own Gaming Desktop

[imogen]

Hi everyone, i'm new to these forums here, wondering if you guys would be able to help me out.

I'm looking for a desktop to game in, I'm an about-average game user, so I don't need top-of-the-line processors/graphics or such. My main purpose for the desktop would be for it to run most games like COD, Warcraft, Sims3 smoothly without hiccup, and one that hopefully would be able to carry me into the next couple of years - service-wise.

My budget would be around $1500 and below, i know it's not much, but sadly i don't earn very much as well.

I've done a bit of reading, and a number have recommended that building one's own desktop could be the better and cheaper option as compared to buying a ready-made one.

So I was wondering if anyone could recommend a list of products and hardware (their prices as well pls) I should be looking at that would fit my purposes and hopefully be under $1500.

Thanks in advance and cheers!

 

[gkay09]

^ For that price, you can actually get a very powerful gaming rig...It would be better if you open a thread in the New System build section
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-31-322.html
and read this sticky once
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice

 

[rooseveltdon]

lol 1500 dollars would get you an i7 rig beefed up,but for your needs you won't have to spend that much money at all. Luckily for you ,there is a lot of options out there and the games you listed are not graphically demanding, I am always conscious of my budget so i don't like to waste money on hardware just for bragging rights, in your shoes i would go with an am 3 mobo, a 720 BE, 4 gigs of ddr 3 ram (1333 mhz), a 500 gb hdd or higher, something greater than 500 watts as my psu and a 4870. Such system would be a good multi tasker,great over clocker,and good gaming machine and offer some future proofness as well....now if you are an intel person i would probably go with the i5, a cheap p55 mobo, 4 gb of ram and still a 4870. None of the games you listed is graphically demanding enough to go beyond a 4870 and even the most demanding games can be played on high with a 4870 as long as you game at or beloe 1920x1200 resolution. Personally i would go with the amd build it makes more sense financially as it gives you the best value for what you do, but if you can spend up to 1500 dollars and dont mind spending it then a nice i5 rig with perhaps a 4890 (i wouldn't see the point) wouldn't be a bad idea it really depends. Your needs could be easily met and surpassed by the amd build i gave you but the i5 gives you bragging rights i suppose.

 

[imogen]

Hi, thanks for the replies. I'll open a new thread in the correct forum. Also, a slight error on my part, I don't live in the US, so after the conversion rate, my budget is actually about US $1000-$1100.

 

[nun]

still a lot of money