$850 Rig Advice Needed (1080p Gaming)

[Vairfoley]

Hi! I'm helping a friend out with building a new computer. He'll be playing games like Skyrim, Batman Arkham Night, Minecraft, and Garry's Mod.

Here's what I have so far:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YmrxBm

For $850 dollars, I feel like the graphics card is a little underpowered. I was thinking of getting a GTX 960 instead or a better AMD card but I'm not sure. Also, to bring down the price to afford a better card I could swap out the CPU for a FX-8350 or something... but I'm not really sure.

Any suggestions are appriciated, thanks!

 

[synphul]

Here's the same build but with a better quality power supply, reduced the ram from 16 to 8gb which gave enough room in the price for the 960. You're right, the 270x is a bit underpowered for that build. Also included a cooler that should fit no problems, the thermaltake v3 case isn't quite big enough for a 212 evo cooler to fit without touching the side panel trying to close it. The h7 cools a bit better and is much shorter with 0 ram interference issues. That way your friend can overclock the cpu a bit if they wish since it's paired with a z series board. The stock cooler is barely sufficient for long hours of gameplay at stock loads and isn't suitable for overclocking temps.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($93.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($68.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($189.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $861.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-15 21:53 EDT-0400

Better to stick with the i5 for those games, skyrim and minecraft especially. It will easily outperform the fx-8350.

As an alternative, you could go with a locked i5 like the 4590, an h97 mobo, drop the hdd to 1tb (which would be a sufficient starting point). Another drive could easily be added later if needed. This allows it to pair with a gtx 970 if your friend would rather have that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($183.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($308.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($97.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $863.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-15 21:59 EDT-0400

 

[Vairfoley]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think it's pretty awesome you can build a computer with an i5 and a 970 for $850, that'll destory games at 1080p. I was going for 16gb of ram since that's what most nice systems have these days but I think 8gb should do the rick for now.