$1000 First Time Gaming PC

[terraguy]

Hi guys. I'm looking for advice on a computer build that I could use a couple of suggestions for:

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Almost certainly this week, perhaps even in the next few days.

BUDGET RANGE: $1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Essentially, I want to be able to play most games that are out/will be coming out, and also for school work.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, case (Antec 900), PSU (XFX 650W Power Supply Extreme Edition)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg or Amazon, but if there's a better site out there, please let me know.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: Please see the Additional Comments section.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Not at the moment, but I want the option in case I decide to add an additional GPU.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 max

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: So, I currently have picked out the Intel i5-750 as my CPU, and I also have figured that the Gigabyte 1GB nVidia 460GTX will be sufficient for my needs. I'm willing to budge on the brand of the GPU, but I want to stick with the nVidia 460.

My concerns, right now, are which motherboard and RAM would be a good fit to the rest of the items here. Is there a specific motherboard/memory kit that may be optimal for this?

Also, is there a hard drive you guys would recommend? I'm currently looking for 2 hard drives (I want to set them up in a RAID 1 configuration), with the hard drives preferably about 1TB large at 7200 RPM.

Thanks very much!

 

[Guillotine]

Good choices on the CPU and GPU. As for the mobo and RAM, all you need really is a P55 motherboard supporting 2xPCIe lanes at 8gb of bandwith for your possible future upgrade into SLI. As for RAM, Tom's Hardware seems to be a big fan of Crucial's DDR3-1333 4gb kit, since its one of the cheapest while having great overclocking value.

A few boards you could take a look at are: MSI-GD65, Gigabyte P55-UD4P, and Asus P7P55D EVO to name a few. They're all excellent, and any one of them would complement your build with everything you need. The MSI-GD65 even has an OC Genie button, which automatically overclocks your build without having to fiddle in the BIOS at all, and it's quite good at it as well (well, not as great as manually doing it yourself, but it's very neat to those who don't want to take a chance in messing anything up by doing it on their own).

For storage - the Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB is a fantastic drive, and reasonably priced as well. I suggest, though, if you're already getting a powerful gaming build that you also consider getting a small-capacity SSD drive, and just install your OS on it. It's the one thing that you'll really notice making a difference in your build (honestly, even upgrading from a duo to a quad core gives you barely any perceivable difference). Prices have dropped a bit, so I think it's somewhat affordable these days.

 

[terraguy]

Good choices on the CPU and GPU. As for the mobo and RAM, all you need really is a P55 motherboard supporting 2xPCIe lanes at 8gb of bandwith for your possible future upgrade into SLI. As for RAM, Tom's Hardware seems to be a big fan of Crucial's DDR3-1333 4gb kit, since its one of the cheapest while having great overclocking value.

A few boards you could take a look at are: MSI-GD65, Gigabyte P55-UD4P, and Asus P7P55D EVO to name a few. They're all excellent, and any one of them would complement your build with everything you need. The MSI-GD65 even has an OC Genie button, which automatically overclocks your build without having to fiddle in the BIOS at all, and it's quite good at it as well (well, not as great as manually doing it yourself, but it's very neat to those who don't want to take a chance in messing anything up by doing it on their own).

For storage - the Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB is a fantastic drive, and reasonably priced as well. I suggest, though, if you're already getting a powerful gaming build that you also consider getting a small-capacity SSD drive, and just install your OS on it. It's the one thing that you'll really notice making a difference in your build (honestly, even upgrading from a duo to a quad core gives you barely any perceivable difference). Prices have dropped a bit, so I think it's somewhat affordable these days.

Thanks for the input!

For the Crucial Memory, I'm still slightly confused as to the different brands of RAM they have. There's their Crucial kit, the Crucial Ballistix, and Crucial Ballistix Tracer. Is the difference between prices (at least the Ballistix and Ballistix Tracer) really just due to their LEDs?

Also, I'm curious to what you guys think about G.Skill memory. One of my friends recommended it, and it seems to do well for its price.

Otherwise, I really appreciate your advice. I'll take a look at the mobos you've recommended. At the same time, I'd like to get some other opinions too, so thanks in advance!

 

[terraguy]

Best answer selected by terraguy.

 

[Mr Pizza]

wow that was fast, you should wait for more people to give you input,

I would go with this GTX 460,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127512&cm_re=cyclone-_-14-127-512-_-Product

and get an i5 760

 

[Mr Pizza]

and this ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231279&cm_re=g.skill_1600_4gb-_-20-231-279-_-Product