Building a dream machine and working within a budget requires knowledge, luck and discipline — the knowledge to choose the right parts, the luck to find the best deals and the discipline to stay within a financial range. It's easy to get carried away when the world's best CPUs and video cards cost nearly $1,000, but creating an affordable machine capable of running the most advanced games on the highest settings can be a reality.
CPU
Processors are a middle-road item for gaming machines. You don't need to splurge on an i7 Extreme Edition, but going too cheap and purchasing a Core 2 Duo will hurt in the long run.
Intel Core i5-3570K ($220, Amazon)
Intel's i5 series has been a popular choice for years and gives gamers a lot of power for the price. The 3570 is a quad-core processor running at 3.4GHz with the ability to safely overclock (that's what the 'K' stands for). Just don't skimp on the sink and fan as overclocking does put out extra heat.
AMD FX-6300 ($120, Newegg)
For $100 less than the Intel option, the FX-6300 packs six cores running at 3.5GHz and is a great alternative for the budget builder. The catch? Intel's processors seem to perform better alongside high-end graphics cards. But, for this mid-level build, the quality difference is extremely minimal.
Video Card
This is where the money needs to go. GPUs are the heart of every gaming rig. If you want yours to compete for more than a year, this is where the spending should happen.
Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD ($310, Amazon)
Chipset: Radeon HD 7970
Like processors, gamers are often partial to brand regarding video cards. Fans of AMD's Radeon chipset will be happy with Gigabyte's setup. The card hosts 3 GB of memory, a 1GHz core clock and is capable of four-way Crossfire in case they send you three more by accident. It should be noted that the FX-6300 and Radeon HD 7970 won't necessarily run faster in the same machine because they're both manufactured by AMD. It doesn't work like that.
Gigabyte GV-N770OC-4GD ($450, Amazon)
Chipset: GeForce GTX 770
The chipset by NVIDIA is comparable to the Radeon HD 7970, but the extra money is going toward 4 GB of video memory and a 1.14GHz core clock. Games like Battlefield 4, which use the Frostbite 3 engine for advanced physics, recommend at least 3 GB of video memory for optimum performance. So the extra space could mean the difference between smooth gaming on high and ultra-high settings.
RAM
Corsair Vengeance (2x8) ($150, Amazon)
There's no reason to have anything less than 16 GB of RAM in 2013. Eight is enough to play any game released this year, but 16 makes the difference between a full frame rate at ultra-high settings and graphics choppier than the Atlantic ocean. In a few years, 32 GB of RAM will be the new standard for excellence in gaming, so don't fall behind now.
Hard Drive
Samsung 840 Pro Series 128 GB ($130, Newegg)
Like RAM, solid state drives are now extremely affordable and their performance over traditional spinning hard drives is night and day. This drive from Samsung has a 6 Gb/s data transfer speed and will run your OS and games like lightning. If storage capacity is a concern, add a 1 TB hard drive for extra room.
These parts, including extras like a case, power supply and accessories, will put your final build at a little more than $1,000. If you already have a PC and are merely upgrading, the final tally could be even less. Either way, when it's all put together, you'll have a machine than can handle any game released this year.