I am soon going to try to build my first PC. I am only slightly familiar w/ computer hardware and rules i guess haha. I wanted the price to be >700. I want to get into PC gaming. I dont mind if i cant run everything on MAX. I just want the bottom price to run everything smoothly on medium to high settings. Give me so details and realistic ambitions. All help is welcomed... Thanks guys!
With only $700 to spend, you're limited on options. You can't build anything with an FX or an i5 within that range (without cheaping out on other components). So here is what I had to work with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GPqvkL
ok cool, and this will reliably run all games at decent settings??
I think that this will be the best you can get in your budget but you should run games fantastically with this. If you have any questions and or concerns feel free to ask.
The Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cz3xQ7
This will be able to max just about anything at 1080p. I should know. I have the same cpu and gpu.
So I'm just going to throw this out there not out of fanboyism but out of facts the 280x is a better card than the 960 IMO. With the 280x you get higher fps, more vram, and a wider memory bus than the 960, so overall I would go for the 960.
Also @gLi_h the 4440 has crappy thermal paste and it causes really bad temps on non-haswell refresh processors.
I'm sorry are you referering to the paste that comes on the stock cpu? I'm not aware of any other location where it would be used, or that the cpu dissipates heat out poorly to the cooler?
He is referring to the tim between the die and the heatspreader. That was a problem across all of haswell, barring the death valley refresh as that was the main thing their changed (along with clock speeds). However, seeing as how the 4440 is locked, the temperatures aren't a problem at all. I have a 4430 with the stock cooler and have never had an issue with the thermals whatsoever. Now, if you were to get a 4670k and try to overclock it with the stock cooler, then you would run into some issues really quickly. However, for a locked processor, it shouldn't be a problem at all.
ohhh alright I wasn't clear if he was talking internal.
It should be fine but it's still worth mentioning just in case the OP doesn't want to take a chance on it or he decides to upgrade later on.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sjWkP6
i5, 8gb ram, r9 290, 1tb wd blue, fractal case, gold xfx psu.
- save up and get a ssd - samsung - includes dead simple migration software for your os.
haswell cpu's at stock are fine with the standard heatsink btw.