Looking to build a Battlefield 4 recording rig at around $900 (Please Give Feedback)

[Dylan Sutro]

Hello, I am looking to build a high end affordable gaming PC around $900. I would like to 3d render, playing and recording battlefield 3/4, using photoshop, and everything in between. I have fairly little experience building PC's, but have spent many hours on the web and have compiled quite a few builds on PC part picker (https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/). Currently, I rely on a high end laptop for all my needs, but it has a low end graphics card and often lags most resolutions on battlefield. My price range goes from $750 to $1000 and I am looking to buy my parts on Black Friday so if you have any stories about other times you might have hit a sale jackpot please feel free to tell me about it.

As far as hardware preferences go, I am always looking for feedback, but am leaning towards AMD for CPUs as it is affordable, overclockable, and has eight cores which is great for rendering and battlefield. If anyone has Intel suggestions I am always open to feedback and I will include a few builds using Intel CPUs. In my rig I am looking for: SSD, Overclocking, and above all, upgradability. By upgradability let me explain what I mean. I would like to have my build be SLI/Crossfire compatible and would rather spend my money over time (ie start with eight Gbs of RAM and upgrade more if needed.) The ability to easily upgrade also means that I can also add parts to increase build quality making it last longer and not become obsolete of three weeks. Aesthetically, I am more concerned about functionality so while cool LEDs and unnecessary water cooling looks cool it also is expensive.

Even though I have done a lot of research on all of the aspects of a computer build, I am always looking for your guys's input/experience. Some things I would like to discuss with you guys include: Best SSD (I would say Crucial M500 takes the cake,) Best RAM, DDR3 1600 vs 1866 vs 2000 performance difference, AMD R9 280x vs nVidia GeForce 770, and the most debated, AMD or a intel. Other topics are also appreciated so please throw your thoughts out there.

Finally, My Best Builds (Please give as much constructive feedback as possible)

AMD High End Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/67LFf7
AMD High End Build 2: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/Dvn9TW
Intel High End Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/H2ddnQ
AMD Medium Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/Lm88TW
Intel Medium Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/QQZXsY
AMD Budget Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/6LDQzy

YOLO: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Dsutro/saved/B8kWGX

Do Not feel obligated to view all my builds, below is the one I think is the best bang for the buck

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hQcMXL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hQcMXL/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.66 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.49 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($295.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex PWM 70.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($13.73 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Cougar Vortex 64.5 CFM 140mm Fan ($10.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $852.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-11 20:33 EDT-0400

 

[jimgreene]

Well written.
I think you went 150%+ over the maximum allotted characters allowed if you want a response. ;}
I am in somewhat of a similar situation, so I do not have real experience to input here, but I would like to read responses.
Two other factors I have included in my search are quiet and lower temps.
My goal is to play BF4 at near all max settings. So unfortunately quiet and temperature are relative in context to something in the 280x 3GB or 770 4GB range. (I had a good quiet, cool solution with 280 3GB or 760 4GB, but it was just that much farther away from max settings for BF4 … and all other high demanding titles of today and next 6 months.)
Maybe consider breaking your build into individual components and discussing them in the individual forum areas? Thus downsizing the question into smaller parts that might elicit responses in a simple, focused manner.

Come on people! Give this guy some answers.

 

[Dylan Sutro]

Bought my computer about a month ago, it SCREAMS:
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/8nCypg