Hi guys im really excited to get things underway and take my gaming to the next level. I finally feel like i have the budget to part take in pc gaming and want to start off on the right foot. So what better way to do it than to come to the professionals lol. I have a budget that ranges from $500-650 and i would like it if i could not only play games at high to ultra but also use the pc for video editing and streaming. I have a few ideas for parts but im not well versed on them and im sure that you guys will steer me in the right direction. Thanks for your time and patience :)
To be honest, you have a relatively low budget and thus you should probably lower your expectations for what you can expect to achieve with your build.
I'd start by prioritising what is more important to you, what games you hope to play. At that price point, I'd be aiming for an entry level 1080p gaming system, with basic level streaming and editing capabilities.
I just spec'd you a system really quickly without too much thought. You'll noticed there is no hard drive storage, just an SSD. I've no idea what your requirements are and if you can re-use any parts (e.g. case, powersupply, OS etc) but this would be a decent entry level system in your price range...
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ppwf4D
Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card
Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Thanks for replying to my thread dude! The reason why i set my budget to what was stated in my original post was because i watched techsyndacite create a gaming pc for 600 bucks and i believe that he eluded t other fact that you could do editing/streaming and play on high to ultra settings. I also found a vid on youtube where a guy creates a rig for the same price tag and he claims that his rig can accomplish the same goals. The rig from youtube is as follows...
AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card
Rosewill Galaxy-03 ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
I wanted to gather some ideas from this site because that would give me a few points of reference and allow me to compare parts and give a head start on understanding how important each part is to ultimate goal of a pretty efficient gaming rig. If you see any flaws ect feel free to point them out, i am a sponge :)
At best, I think you'd get mid-to-high range, with mid being your average. And if you're streaming, you're gonna take harder performance hits, unless you're using a separate rig to record and process the stream. For the sake of your budget, I wouldn't go for an SSD. If you're doing hybrid gaming/streaming/editing, you'd definitely want more storage over speed of storage(imo, at least).
Don't let it discourage you though, and I'm sure other people can help you better than me.
Cool deal dude, im taking everything in. What price range do you think i will need to hit if i want to go high to ultra and have the ability to stream? Also if i cut the goal of streaming and just wanted to go with making say vids for youtube with editing capabilities would my price range seem more reasonable?
It's the capturing process that hurts your performance. I'd say maybe $200 more might be able to record med-high. I'm mostly only going on personal experience.
Just gaming, I think you can do with the $650. But you might wanna go up a little more for game capture.
This is what I would do.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gwvFT
or
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GXvtdC
You can edit on any PC. it will only render faster with a faster PC. I would say go with the 8350 since it will be a better all around CPU where the i5 will be faster at single tasks. I would also skip on an SSD right now since I still consider them a luxury items(nice to have but not required to have an optimal experience). putting that money into a better GPU would be the smarter way to go. its always something you can get later down the road as prices drop more.
Just for refrence I spent 750 including windows on my pc and it can run gta almost maxed out on 1080p aside from some of the advanced sliders being turned to 75% instead of 100%, and that is only so I have a mostly consistant vsynced 60fps, if I turned them to 100%, then I would would get 30-40, and I can't handle that anymore. I got it so cheap because I got a 7970ghz for cheap on the buy/sell section of the forums. I would reccomend looking there. If you are buying a gpu and you want it to last for more than a year, then make sure that they werent used in mining. Oh and my CPU is an fx-6300, however due to the cheaper mobo price of the i5, i would stick with that.
Here's my build that I've just started on https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/lexyboy/saved/#view=Pj3MnQ it's under £400 (UK) So not sure what the US cost would be. Should handle most games on good settings and you always have the option to upgrade the graphics or CPU when you can. Good luck
Im absolutely loving all of the responses guys, i even found a=out today at work that my coworker i builds pc's! so i can save a little bit of cash in that area. You guys are speeding up my learning curve and im very grateful
Alright guys ive put together a rig on pcpartpicker.com im really pleased with the parts and price and would love to hear what you guys think. As originally stated this pc is meant for pc gaming and video editing. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mfNVXL
This is a great build except that there is no hard drive and an SSD with only 120gb of space will not be enough to hold and your games and recordings. If you will be recording a lot you will need a LOT of space, maybe 2tb. Fit a hard drive in and that is a nice build.
I have to agree.
OP, you may want to also be sure you have room to slap another 8gb of RAM in the motherboard down the road. 8gb is really the bare minimum these days for a gaming/streaming/editing rig.
Might also want to set aside some scratch for an AIO water cooler, as if I remember correctly, AMD CPU's can get a bit toasty.
Worth watching.
You guys are definitely right about the hard drive being paramount in this build, i realized the mistake a little later than i would like to admit lol. Thankfully you guys are around to correct my mistakes im really excited about the build and the ability to game which is my passion and the abilty to stream./ record. This summer is going to be amazing lol