$1000 range GAMING pc build for ABSOLUTE NOOB

[d3c0d3d]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: March 2012

BUDGET RANGE: $1000 after rebate ($1300 w/ monitor)

SYSTEM USAGE: Gaming

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITES FOR PARTS: newegg, I honestly don't care

COUNTRY: U.S.

PARTS PREFERENCE: I am too noob to know.

OVERCLOCKING: No, because it looks too complicated

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: no idea what this is =/

MONITOR RESOLUTION: idk? something good

ADDITION COMMENTS: Sorry I am a big noob My friend who is a big youtuber uses this setup:
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155
Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1582-AR GeForce GTX 580
Power Supply: CORSAIR Professional Series HX750
CPU : Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz Quad core
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB
-Is this setup he uses good? Will it last? Also what case and monitor do you recommend for this setup?


I am just looking for the best possible setup I can get for the price range I am in:
Primary uses will be as follows:
-Counter Strike
-Minecraft
-Fraps
-and coding games
I would like to thank anybody in advance who leaves me some advice

 

[azeem40]

OCing: Just set voltage to 1.3 and FSB to 4.5 GHz with a good cooler, and you're good to go.

 

[Cripple13]

His build is nice, but the 580 is around $500 so I doubt you can fit it into your build with your budget. Go with an i5-2400 (since you won't overclock), gskill ripjaws, a 560ti video card, asrock or gigabyte Mobo (around $125) and a psu from a decent brand (antec, corsair, coolermaster) that is around 650w. Pick out a case you like (since you will be the one looking at it all the time) such as the coolermaster haf.

cpu is around $190
mobo will be about $125
ram is around $50
case is $60-100 (depending on what you pick, look around on newegg at some of the best sellers for that price range)
psu around $90
any cd/dvd drive is about $20
video card is $300

All that is just shy of $850

You will still need a hard drive, if you have one you can reuse in this new build, do so because HDD prices are super high right now. With the rest of your money from the budget you can pick out a nice 60gb SSD and use it as a boot drive



Note: I understand you are new to this and probably don't understand all of what I said, but I'm at work so I can't go into too much detail. I'm sure someone else will throw in their 2 cents and help you better understand the terms and products we are referencing

 

[aznshinobi]

Plan a little now, but I'd wait till March to reopen another thread. By March time, AMD plans to fully release all of the 7xxx series, so with that said I'd wait until then to make decision on certain parts. Plus parts change in 2 months alone.

 

[Cripple13]

good point azn. With the release of the next-gen cards, procies will most likely drop amongst the older ones. OP- you can wishlist your items on newegg and re-evaluate in March. Don't worry about being exaclty on budget, you can probably go over $100-150 and it will even out in March when you actually purchase them

 

[g-unit1111]

OVERCLOCKING: No, because it looks too complicated

Actually it really isn't. If you get a motherboard with a graphical UEFI BIOS, most allow you to auto-OC the CPU to a set speed with just a couple of clicks. If you want to try it manually it's pretty simple math - set your multiplier to one level, your voltage to another, your memory to another and that's it. It may take a couple of tries before you get it though and every system will give you different results.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: idk? something good

Don't get anything below 1080p.

Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155
Graphics card: EVGA SuperClocked 015-P3-1582-AR GeForce GTX 580
Power Supply: CORSAIR Professional Series HX750
CPU : Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz Quad core
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB
-Is this setup he uses good? Will it last? Also what case and monitor do you recommend for this setup?

That actually is really good - everything in there is quite excellent. That system should be more than capable. As far as case goes that depends how much you're willing to spend - there's some great cases at every price level. Monitors - as long as you have a 22 - 23" with full 1080p you're good.

 

[d3c0d3d]

I really appreciate the help man!
I know his build is out of my price range, but I was thinking about it, do you think going with his build would make THAT much of a difference?
My next question is, what is and SSD and bootdrive, and why do I need that/what does it do?
Thanks again

 

[d3c0d3d]

Great info
And your description of how easy overclocking is completely threw me off
Thanks for the help man!

 

[d3c0d3d]

Plan a little now, but I'd wait till March to reopen another thread. By March time, AMD plans to fully release all of the 7xxx series, so with that said I'd wait until then to make decision on certain parts. Plus parts change in 2 months alone.

Yes, but I know...but I am really OCD about planning and being organized haha.
But what you said really makes sense and I'll do that instead.
Thanks !

 

[Cripple13]

an ssd (solid state drive) is the latest and greatest in computer storage. Think of it as a huge thumb drive (usb flash). It has no moving parts so the failure rate is very low. The organization of the files is much more efficient, and the ability to read date from the ssd is much faster than a mechanical HDD where you have platters with an arm that moves to the right one, then finds the location of the file, and then might have to go to a different platter to find the 2nd half of said file.

Using it as a boot drive means you install windows on it. It will allow your pc to boot up in about half the time, if not faster. It is also good to put your most played (and resource intensive) games on it, so the pc can find the information it needs to load that tree in the distance, etc.

All around it makes everything twice as fast and is highly recommended in any new build.

 

[aznshinobi]

Yeah, some minor planning is good now, just to get a basis of what you want to get. But I suggest starting to do the actually in depth planning during a the week of buying it. That way deals are able to be found and they last.

 

[d3c0d3d]

His build is nice, but the 580 is around $500 so I doubt you can fit it into your build with your budget. Go with an i5-2400 (since you won't overclock), gskill ripjaws, a 560ti video card, asrock or gigabyte Mobo (around $125) and a psu from a decent brand (antec, corsair, coolermaster) that is around 650w. Pick out a case you like (since you will be the one looking at it all the time) such as the coolermaster haf.

cpu is around $190
mobo will be about $125
ram is around $50
case is $60-100 (depending on what you pick, look around on newegg at some of the best sellers for that price range)
psu around $90
any cd/dvd drive is about $20
video card is $300

All that is just shy of $850

You will still need a hard drive, if you have one you can reuse in this new build, do so because HDD prices are super high right now. With the rest of your money from the budget you can pick out a nice 60gb SSD and use it as a boot drive



Note: I understand you are new to this and probably don't understand all of what I said, but I'm at work so I can't go into too much detail. I'm sure someone else will throw in their 2 cents and help you better understand the terms and products we are referencing

I am going to try to reply to you again since I completely failed the 1st time
1st off: thanks a ton for the help !
Next: if I go with that build that is a little out of my range, would it really make THAT much of a difference?
Also, what is and SSD and boot drive/ what does it do?

 

[aznshinobi]

Are you referring to your friends build? If so, no depending on your resolution. If you're going to game at 1080P, perhaps, it also strongly depends on game settings (IE AA/AF, Motion Blur, Blah blah) also for the price, he could've gotten a lot better things. I.E A board that actually supports SLI and a PSU that supports his 580 in SLI.

A boot drive is generally the same as the SSD, SSDs have faster accessing times so booting on the SSD is faster than a normal mechanical hard drive. The sacrifice is Space vs Performance. SSDs can boot windows in roughly 13-20 secs. A big variation but somewhere around there, a normal mechanical HDD can probably boot somewhere around 45sec-1min+, when I say boot, I mean start Windows and log in and starting all the start up programs.

Usually a boot drive is only 60gb/64gb to store just the OS and a few mainly used Progs (Photoshop, LR3, Games, etc.)

 

[Cripple13]

You said your budget is $1000 without a monitor, how is my suggestion out of your price range?

 

[elayman]

Your friends build is great, but not worth the money if all you play is CS. If you want to max BF3 on ultra, go with the gtx580, otherwise go with something in the $200-300 range for your graphics card and you will be plenty satisfied. 2x 4gb of DDR3 RAM is a perfect amount, don't waste your money on more, but don't cheap out on less than 8gb total as its so cheap.

I'd suggest grabbing a 120-128gb SSD, as I think that would be a good size to use for a while, especially if you don't already have a larger hard drive to use as a second data drive.

 

[d3c0d3d]

You said your budget is $1000 without a monitor, how is my suggestion out of your price range?

I meant the build my friend has, not yours.
The one you wrote was fine.

 

[d3c0d3d]

You said he could have gotten better things for what he payed - what do you mean really?
You said "a board that actually supports SLI and a PSU that supports his 580 in SLI", what does any of this mean ?
If I got an SSD how do I install programs to it for bootdrive?

Just a little off topic question:
How do you know all of this? I'm just asking all these questions because I am planning to go to college for Software Engineering and would like to know more about computers, so I am just wondering haha

 

[d3c0d3d]

Your friends build is great, but not worth the money if all you play is CS. If you want to max BF3 on ultra, go with the gtx580, otherwise go with something in the $200-300 range for your graphics card and you will be plenty satisfied. 2x 4gb of DDR3 RAM is a perfect amount, don't waste your money on more, but don't cheap out on less than 8gb total as its so cheap.

I'd suggest grabbing a 120-128gb SSD, as I think that would be a good size to use for a while, especially if you don't already have a larger hard drive to use as a second data drive.

So I can use just a SSD with no hard drive?
I plan on playing more than CS though, but I use to be a competetive CS 1.6 player and so that will be the main use when Global Offensive comes out.
Knowing that, is the Graphics card in my friends build a good one for the rest of the build or would it need a better mobo or w/e like the other guy was saying and I didn't really understand?

 

[d3c0d3d]

Best answer selected by d3c0d3d.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey