I've been trying to make a $900 gaming PC and this is what I have made:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hKLvYJ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hKLvYJ/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($93.75 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (Blue/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.99 @ NZXT)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($47.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.75 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($38.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: NZXT Air Flow Series 83.6 CFM 140mm Fan ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $935.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-01 13:07 EST-0500
I would like to know how I could change this build, if it's easily upgraded, and how it will perform.
First off digital juice sells legit windows 8.1 pro keys for $25 here. Also if I were you I would build something like this. The kingston v300 series are as slow as an hdd so don't use them, also the 960 just sucks as it only has two gigs of ram. I don't recommend using wireless for gaming because ethernet is faster and more reliable.
https://payivy.com/v/Windows%208point1%20Pro
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8Ys6Lk
FX 6300 and Gigabyte GA970A-UD3P and you are set with 6 physical cores... Yeah, the games from 2 years ago, that use one core may run worst then on i3, but tomorow, when the game come to 2008 and start using more than 2 cores then i3 will drop performance line autumn leaves...
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3p
After last week's things about Nvidia, i would simply go with R9 280X and have HUGELY improved graphical performance, then the 960. And the price difference of the motherboards may allow you to pick a nice 280X, like XFX - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9280xtdfd
If you are thinking about power consumption - get R9 285 for less and have the same performance. On top of that you have saved some money from the MOBO and the GPU and have basically the same system with more cores for better multy threaded games.
XFX R9 285 - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9285acdfc
And lose the kingston SSD... However, the recommended case from LinuxForYou is a pain in the A hole for cable management, so stay with H440 witch is silent, better looking and kind of my favorite case of all freaking times...