First Time Build, Gaming/Development, $1000 Including Monitor

[BlueAgave]

I'll soon be attending a 2 year college, living in a dorm or apartment, studying web design/development. I have plenty of money to spend, but I'm trying to stay around $1000 or less, including the purchase of a monitor.

I'll be using the computer for gaming, development, graphic editing (using adobe software, dreamweaver, photoshop), and watching video's in 1080p. I'm not an intense gamer, I mostly play strategy games like Rome: Total War 2, and adventure games like Skyrim. I doubt I'll play first-person shooter multiplayer games. While I want to play these games on HIGH setting, I don't need to play them on MAX setting's.

I want to have 2 hard drives. Probably a 128GB SSD for the operating systems, and 1.5-2TB HDD. I'm going to be dual booting Linux and Windows(already purchased) operating systems. I'm pretty clueless about the hardware currently available and as to what specifications I'll need considering this is my first build and first time I'll own a real gaming computer. I'm especially clueless about motherboards, but I'll be doing research as questions and answers come in. So help me build this thing! Thank you ahead of time!

 

[DonkeyOatie]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($120.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.44 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Azza SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC i2367Fh 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($13.93 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($26.99 @ NCIX US)
Headphones: Cyber Acoustics AC-100B Headset ($4.89 @ Directron)
Total: $1097.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-15 05:24 EST-0500

Here's the sort of thing that will work well. If you have any bits and pieces, that will reduce the cost. This includes rebates and discounts. I realize that it is over your budget, but I;m hoping that you have a mouse, keyboard, and headset already and, based on your feed back, there are a few places to trim.

 

[BlueAgave]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($120.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.44 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.85 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Azza SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC i2367Fh 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($13.93 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($26.99 @ NCIX US)
Headphones: Cyber Acoustics AC-100B Headset ($4.89 @ Directron)
Total: $1097.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-15 05:24 EST-0500

Here's the sort of thing that will work well. If you have any bits and pieces, that will reduce the cost. This includes rebates and discounts. I realize that it is over your budget, but I;m hoping that you have a mouse, keyboard, and headset already and, based on your feed back, there are a few places to trim.

Thank you for your help. I'll be taking a better look at it tonight. I want to ask, you don't happen to have experience with that monitor? I'm going to be recieving one as a gift for christmas but I have to tell her which one to get, but there's many to choose from and they vary a lot in price but I haven't had the time to research yet. That is the around the price I want for one though.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

I do not have specific experience with that monitor. It is IPS, 60Hz more than 250 nits, and 5ms for 23". It hits all the things I would like and I would buy it if my wife's 21" monitor died. (I'm using a 26" 1080p monitor/TV.)

 

[BlueAgave]

I do not have specific experience with that monitor. It is IPS, 60Hz more than 250 nits, and 5ms for 23". It hits all the things I would like and I would buy it if my wife's 21" monitor died. (I'm using a 26" 1080p monitor/TV.)

That CPU comes with a cooler, do you think it will be an adaquete cooler or will I likely have to buy a seperate one? Also, do you think 16GB of RAM will be over doing it? I'm guessing 8 might be iffy, and if I got 12, I might as well upgrade to 16 since it's going to be 2 seperate one's anyway? As for the case, I have I pair of headphones that require a bigger audio port, so I'll probably have to find a special case for that.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

You have asked for a hybrid gaming/graphic processing system. I have addressed that with the 4 core + Hyperthreading Xeon CPU (non-overclockable non-iGPU i7) and the 16Gb of memory, both of which are more than gaming needs. For what it is worth, the board will take another pair of those stick for 32GB!!!!

The stock cooler will work fine.

Cases are a personal choice. The one I selected is inexpensive, and well rated. Did I mention inexpensive

This is a bit of a 'better safe than sorry' build.