Hi, I'm looking to build a gaming PC. And as you probably can understand I'm not too familiar with building computers (I'm an old Mac user!). So it would be awesome if someone could help me pick out the parts.
I'm willing to spend around $1500 or maybe a bit more!
Do you need everything btw? Like a monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset/speakers or just the PC itself? This is crucial for the budget at hand, naturally speaking :)
Right off the bat, these parts need to be good looking (i.e. to your taste) or just durable and functional and you should not settle for cheapest parts out there. It should be noted that these parts are bought for a longer period (presumably) than the other parts that you will likely upgrade over time. Pick these parts first (except for maybe the PSU and the CPU cooler), so you know what you've got left to work with.
The next parts suffer the most from progress in computer hardware. You will replace these parts quicker than the others and you should try to find a sweet spot in price (new parts are 'overpriced', old ones 'underpriced'). This is where the 'leftover budget' part really decides your choices.
Hope you can get started a bit on your own now, if you let me know what the budget should contain I could help a little with picking matching parts if you like.
Thanks for the reply! I already have a "gaming" monitor it's a BenQ and also a keyboard and mouse. :) I need to look into buying a good gaming headset.
BTW, this is how the build looks right now, would be great if you (someone else) could give me some feedback..
Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz 6MB Cache Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80646I54670
Corsair Hydro Series Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H80i
ASUS Z87M-PLUS DDR3 1600 LGA 1150 Motherboard
MSI AMD Radeon R9 280X, 3GB GDDR5, PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card R9 280X GAMING 3G
Corsair RM Series 750 Watt ATX/EPS 80PLUS Gold-Certified Power Supply - CP-9020055-NA RM750
Corsair Obsidian Series 350D Performance Micro ATX Computer Case CC-9011028-WW - Black
Noctua NF-F12 PWM Cooling Fan (2)
Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE120BW
Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop 3.5" Hard Drive
I'll be buying it from amazon (US), and right now It's about $1,185.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Sheepyy_/saved/2A00
Around $200 under your budget. If you want to, you could probably upgrade to a 4770K instead, but I dont see much point if all you're doing is gaming.
CPU: Best intel i5 out there. Great for gaming.
Cooler: Pretty much the standard by now, great overclocking potential and runs really quiet.
MOBO: Good-Great overclocking, fairly cheap. Loaded with features.
RAM: It's a combo with the barracuda, but it's really fast.
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 64MB cache 7200rpm, best hard drive price-performance, much cheaper than WD but just as good,
SDD: Really nice SSD, use it to store your OS and such. Very fast, but if you want more speed consider the Kingston HyperX 3K instead.
Video Card: Tek Synd have a video about this, great card. Once you get it ramp the memory clock up as high as it allows as long as it stays below 70-80 degrees.
or: If you wanna save money, you can get a HD 7970 instead as it is essentially the exact same thing, but the 280x has like a 3fps boost, if you are gonna go with the 7970 get the ASUS DCII, tek synd also have a vid on this.
Case: Silent with great airflow, also has a window to show off.
Power Supply: Some would say that this is overkill, but considering the 280x draws almost 400w when using furmark, I included this in case. Also it's semi-modular and has the same capacitors as a SeaSonic.
Optical Drive: The cheapest one.
OS: Get Win8, please. It has a performance boost of approx. ~2-3 in most games and is snappier. If you do I advise you get StartIsBack and check out teksynd's vid on it.
Headset: Has a microphone and 7.1 HD surround sound. Logitech make great products.
Thx for the reply man! Awesome! :)
Did you just say that the 280X pulls 400W under Furmark? You realize that even with dual 8 pin PCIe connectors, it physically can't pull more than 300W at full 12V loads?
400W for the entire system, maybe, but I would expect to see that 280x pulling around 230W on its own.
Check anand tech, I think it's the sapphire toxic that pulls 460W on furmark. Not even kidding, I thought it was BS at first.
Taking the list that Deals made and getting rid of the A-Data SSD, you could replace the R9 280X for an all new R9 290X and still stay reasonably within budget. The cards are not available just yet, a few of them were added to price lists / webshops here in the EU though, expecting deliveries at the end of the month. Just throwing it out there :) you'll loose some seconds on boot and load times, but you will gain many frames per second while playing games.
The 750W power supply is spot on btw, you don't need it for what's in there right now, but you never know what the future may hold. I don't like replacing parts that are build to last.