$1000 Gaming PC First Build

Hello everyone,

     For my 16th birthday, I will be building a PC.  I have been very interested in doing so for quite some time, and I am pretty good at building things.  However, I have never really done something like this in my life.  I will probably have about a $1000 budget in total (I may have to resort to having it be an early Christmas present too, but it's totally worth it).  I have done some research over the past month and have a pretty good idea on how to actually build the PC.  However, I am not quite sure if the parts I selected are at the right price to performance ratio.  Here's my list of parts:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2329R

     I live in Michigan and there is a MicroCenter nearby, so I prefer to just pick up the parts there.  I also have a decent monitor that is 1080p, which I hope to play my games at that resolution.  I bought a mechanical keyboard and already have a mouse and plan to just use headphones, so all of my peripherals are covered.  Like I said, I will do a lot of gaming with my PC, hopefully playing games like BF4, Minecraft, and other newer games.  I love games with great graphics (who doesn't?), so I would like to know what you guys think this PC could run, settings-wise (High/Ultra on some hopefully).  Also, I do the occasional video editing using Adobe Premiere Elements 9, and I might get into Adobe After Effects at some point.  For overclocking, I will probably do a slight overclock of the i5 to about 4.2 gHz, as I heard that is quite obtainable.  I'm not sure how exactly to do this, but I'm sure I could figure it out.  Also, I haven't really looked into overclocking my graphics card, as I was going to figure that out once I built my PC and set everything up.  I don't really plan on getting watercooling for my system.  Lastly, I want to get Windows 8.1.  I've heard mixed reviews, some saying it is awful, because it was designed for tablets, which I can kind of see.  However, it does come with major speed improvements (so I've heard), and I will be purchasing Start is Back to gain access to the start menu again.

     For gaming, I think that anything above 30 FPS for most games should be fine.  However, 60 FPS would be perfect to me; I'm not looking for outrageous numbers I don't think.  I would prefer to have 30 FPS with better graphics, than high FPS.  As stated previously, I'll be playing on a 1080p monitor, and I like to play Minecraft, Battlefield, and Call of Duty.  However, I'm very interested in getting more games once I build my PC.  Before, I just played on an Xbox 360 and usually played Call of Duty all the time.  Hopefully this will change.

     I'm kinda nervous about picking the right parts for my build, as I want to get the most out of my money.  I've never done this before, and I know there are people here that know a lot more than I do.  I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Griffin

Im doing a crapple replacement build on black friday for around 1k.  http://pcpartpicker.com/p/20meM

Here is a build im looking at doing myself at the 1k price point http://pcpartpicker.com/p/233IJ

It is a little over budget but will be able to play any game out there at high settings if not higher.  

The i5 is fine if that's all you want, but it wouldn't cost much more for an i7 ($80)...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1884773&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=CP6Ktf716LoCFXBo7Aod7GkAWg

Get rid of Windows 8 and put Windows 7 on it... I hate Windows 8 with a viking passion...

SSD's are nice but impractical for size of storage at the moment... I'd just use a 500GB WD Velociraptor to base build...

GPU can be replaced with a cheaper version that's got great performance...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-102-998&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=2&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo

I'd also be willing to pay the extra $10 for GSkill RAM... nothing against what you picked out its just personal preference....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568

 

that'd get you an awesome gaming pc for little more than what you were planning on... i mean look at your options beyond what I suggest... but I'd sport that build in a heartbeat

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2376T I tried to keep it on budget but you said you wanted to overclock and it gets hot when you do that, best damn air cooler you can get too. The case is the one Logan uses and the psu is platinum yet affordable. You don't need more than 8 gigs of ram for gaming and that ram can overclock too if you feel the need(fast anyways). If you pirate the OS you'll save 100 bucks but that one is up to you. Haswell is the same damn price and is better if you don't already have a ivy or sandy. The HDD's you want to get to avoid failure and headaches more often is Western Digital and Samsung so that's why I picked those.

Thanks for the response.  Sorry for what is probably a dumb question, but do AMD graphics cards work with Intel graphics cards and motherboards?  Probably, since you have both in your list, but I've always been confused with that.  Also, I'll probably pick up the 7850 instead, as it seems like a great offer.  Thanks for the help.

Yes, they work fine in Intel based systems... I run a AMD Radeon on my system with an Intel CPU, it's a custom CyberpowerPC build (which if you didn't want to build from scratch, has some fairly powerful options under $1000, something worth checking out)... AMD makes a great GPU, I'm not a huge fan of their CPUs... but to each his own...

It's a good build but unless you really need the shpeed of an SSD, I personally would remove the SSD and spend 20$ more on a 2TB HD. After all, SSDs are getting cheaper.

Alright, thanks for the confirmation.

I figured I'd give an SSD a try, as I'd like the fast start up, shut down, and overall speed of them.  And if I ever need more space, I could always buy another hard drive when I get the money.

Alrighty then.

If you want a quiet case that has been recommended by just about everyone then just go with the Fractal Design R4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352020 .

you can also adjust the fans with the controller thingy in the front of the case

Lowered the budget a little bit.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23UZ2

Hyper 212+ is maybe 1-2c warmer than EVO.  The difference is almost indistinguishable.

Cheaper SSD, and in general, faster and more reliable.

Cheaper HDD, and works well.

If you can pick up this HD 7950 when it comes into stock, you're getting quite the bargain.  This is the lowest I've ever seen it.  I picked one up this week when it went down to $180, and now it's even lower.

The PSU is a decent budget power supply.