Gaming pc $1000 Jan 2014

[jjjay999]

Hi. As the title implies, I'll be building my first gaming desktop! The budget is $1000 (slightly over or under is ok). The pc will be hooked up to a 1080p HDTV. I'd like the best bang for the buck possible, the pc will also be used for typical pc tasks like web browsing/email/music/and movie watching. I'm not partial to amd or intel but amd cpu's do seem to be a bit more budget minded. A large HDD would be great, and if within budget, a small SSD/ or caching SSD for the OS would be great too but not a must. Also, an OS is needed, win7 or 8 is fine. My current laptop runs win7. An optical drive too. A blue ray player/DVD & CD burner would be perfect. Case doesn't matter as long as it does the job, I don't want or need anything fancy. Also, a mobo with SLI or Crossfire support for future upgrades, and a wireless mouse/keyboard. I primarily play games using a game pad, so the m&k doesn't need to be for gaming. I think that about covers it, if there are any questions, let me know! Thank you and I look forward to hearing from the forum users! This is a great site and I'm excited about building my first pc!

 

[lucasz]

Do you want to overclock?

 

[jjjay999]

Also, CPU overclocking isn't a must, and if within budget, 8 GB of fast RAM (1600 MHz or more) would be awesome!

 

[jjjay999]

I don't really know much about overclocking the CPU and does it really matter that much in gaming?
Wouldn't overclocking the GPU be better for gaming?

 

[jjjay999]

This will be built late Jan-early Feb 2014.

 

[lucasz]

Sorry for the delay, here's what I built. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2GrJ2

 

[jjjay999]

Thanks lucasz! Anyone want to propose an amd and/or ati build?
Also, is that site (pcpartspicker) reliable as far as if I choose a certain part, say a CPU, will it then only show me mobo's that will work with that CPU, and so on? Sorry for all the questions, but we all have to start somewhere, right? I just don't want to screw this up is all.
One more thing I forgot to mention: the first build will be going to my sister, and her family. Yes, my sister and my nieces' play video games and I do not just mean stuff like candy crush or angry birds. Then, I plan on building myself the same or similar setup about a month after I build their PC. Although I'm considering getting a vidock or making my own external GPU for my laptop rather than a new pc as well, but that's another thing entirely. Thanks again!

 

[jjjay999]

Also, while I do appreciate it lucasz, the build you proposed doesn't have blu ray nor does it leave any headroom for a wireless mouse & keyboard. I meant if it includes those things and is slightly over $1000, that's fine.

One more thing to add: since they seem to be cheaper, a mobo with no onboard graphics is fine too.

 

[lucasz]

Is 1TB okay? I'm going to revise the build with an AMD processor and Mobo but to make things cheaper I want to know if you can settle with 1TB instead of 2TB. The 1TB hard drive I want to add is a SSHD which means it will have the boot times and quickness of an SSD but you also get 1TB of storage

 

[lucasz]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2HmwN

 

[jjjay999]

Nice! Sorry it took a while to reply. That's a great build with headroom for the mouse/keyboard! I'll leave this unsolved for just a bit though. I'd like to see what other builds anyone on the forum can cook up. Thank you lucasz!

 

[lucasz]

It wont get much better than that, but no problem!

 

[jjjay999]

It wont get much better than that, but no problem!

That mobo doesn't support SLI but it does support CrossFire. Is there a comparable ati GPU to that nvidia card?

 

[lucasz]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2HVJ2
Changed the GPU to a R9 280X which is slightly less powerful than a 770 but still a great card. If you want to get the 770 and sli in the future, step up to a 990 chipset motherboard.

 

[jjjay999]

Sorry for so many questions and replies, but I don't want to screw up is all. Would it be better to go with a 270x or 280 and upgrade the CPU to an 8350, then add in another graphics card in a couple months when I can afford it? It seems the 770 is a better card than either of those, but I can live with graphics settings scaled down a bit until I can get the second GPU.

 

[jjjay999]

Whoa that was fast. Lol. Thanks lucasz!

 

[lucasz]

No problem. The 8320 is only slightly slower than a 8350 (the 8320 is just an underclocked 8350) so you won't see any performance gain really. Here's a build that has an SLI capable motherboard and a 770 so you can add another 770 later if you want: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2HW4L

 

[jjjay999]

This is odd. I can't mark this thread solved.....

 

[lucasz]

This is strange... I can't pick a solution either