Need The Best Gaming PC For $1100

Hardware Build a PC
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{{PcPartPicker Link Is At The Bottom, Please Read Whole Post First}}

I want to play PlanetSide 2 at medium preset (or better) 1920x1080 with a MINIMUM frame-rate of 30fps (as in it will never go below 30 unless there is a serious anomaly)

Colors should be Red, Blue, Green, or Yellow On Black, with any shade of White, Grey or Silver, and/or mild gold accenting allowable

I'm not a brand loyalist, just nothing obscure, unknown, or pure crapola. Reliability\Performance\Price, you can only pick 2 so i pick the first 2.

And the whole Nvidia, Amd, or Intel war, i really don't care, best bang for buck/most compatibility with games

Moderately Possible 2 way CrossFire/SLI in the future

Highly probable mild to moderate overclocking

Mildly possible custom water-cooling in the future

Motherboard expansion slots need to be specific

  • PCI-E X16 GPU Slot
  • Don't Care
  • PCI-E X1 Sound Card Slot
  • PCI-E X16 GPU Slot

OR

  • PCI-E X1 Sound Card Slot
  • PCI-E X16 GPU Slot
  • Don't Care
  • PCI-E X16 GPU Slot

Or any other configuration where it will fit 2 dual slot GFX cards with an un-hindered PCI-E X1 slot for a sound card

NOTE:: Only Put The Standard Components Into The Build (CPU, Mobo, Ram, GPU, PSU, and Storage) I have a separate parts list with everything else and the Disc Drive, OS and Case are in the link

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Mr.DHbigmac/saved/RCDkcf

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$1100 in total including the allready selected parts?

Or $1100 for only the missing parts?

anyway: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q2bKK8

The Asus Gryphon Z97 board, has all the bells and whissles that you will need. 3 pci-e slots X16/x8/x4 and an X1 slot.

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Looks like the challenge is the mobo with that PCIe layout. I found this one.

http://www.ncix.com/detail/asus-z87m-plus-matx-lga1150-z87-fb-84510.htm

Put in an i5 and away you go.

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$1100 Total

That motherboard is not optimal. a GPU in slot 1 will cover the sound card slot, and a GPU in slot 2 will cover GPU slot 3. therefore it would be impossible to have 2-way SLI/X-Fire with a sound card

but other than that it looks great, do you think you could revamp it a little?

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what about this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130780

 

could you compare and contrast for me?

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Should work just fine.

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but which one is better? the asus z87 or the msi z97

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Z97 is newer, go with it.

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I like the ASUS and with a bios update it will run the new 4790k and 4690k cpus it may be a few more bucks but sounds like you want a foundation to build on for a while and the ASUS motherboards have always done me well. I have a C2D from 2008 still running great and a few others of varying age. Dont cheap out on the foundation. 

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Ok so how's this? http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Mr.DHbigmac/saved/Dwyqqs

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+1 like your build. But seeing that he wants good audio would you agree with this board? Its a ALC1150 with good Japanese audio compactors and a 600ohm amp. Most likely just as good as your card if not better. Then you can ditch it. 

 

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If you ever go SLI it will only work in the 8X slot.

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I also want to add at one point mother board audio was terrible. But with a good board these days you can find on board audio just as good if not better. If you like the loudness of the sound card. Just find a motherboard that has a good amp 250ohm to 600 somewhere in that range.

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The Msi Z97M-G43 is not an ideal mobo for crosfire. cause slot 1 is X16 slot 2 is only X4. so crosfire only at X4. not realy ideal if you ask me.

Same story with the Gigabyte Z97MX-Gaming. slot one is X16, the X1 slot will get covered, the second slot is X8, will cover the Third slot. Third slot is X4 so yeah same story.

But yeah on the otherhand, X4 gen3 is the same as X8 gen2. But still.. i would recommend an ATX case to be honnest, if you realy wanne have 2 video cards, en an soundcard. there are just no ideal m-atx boards for that.

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http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97mgaming

MSi Z97M Gaming is 16x 8x and had good onboard audio 600ohm amp.

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yes if he can life with the onboard audio, then the msi Z97M-Gaming. or Asus Maximus VII Gene would be the better choices.

Wenn it comes to the Audio, i would go for the Asus maximus VII Gene, Cause this just has great onboard audio, and great audio software feutures. But yeah you pay a premium price for it...

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Guys i'm going with The "Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5"

Very sexy look, great board and gaming features, great onboard audio eliminating the need for a sound card, and i'll use an astro mixamp or other external DAC/amp with a GOOD pair of stereo headphones to get simulated surround and chat etc.