Building my first gaming PC.

[Ponyone]

Hello, was wondering if any of you fine chaps or chips can help me get a good gaming pc for around 700. Something that can play today's graphic intense games at full settings. If this can be accomplished for around that price.. could you give me some pointers on what to buy? I mean I know the list of what I need, but don't know where to start with brands or cores or buffer sizes and RISC technology and booting in to a Gibson etc. Thanks for any and all help and sorry if this type of thing has been posted before. couldn't find anything.

[Berserker]

Figure out what processor you want and what video card you want, and build the rest of your system around that.

Tom's Hardware frequently puts out articles on what they think are the best cpus and gpus for the money at that given moment. Checking PC building communities can be helpful to get a vague idea of what's what, but take everything with a generous amount of salt as those guys tend to spend way more than what you're going to want or need for a basic gaming PC.

Oh, and make sure that the stuff that you're getting fits together with the other stuff that you're getting.

[kupomogli]

One thing is that even when you get everything you want. Don't skimp out on the motherboard. Motherboards aren't all that expensive so make sure you get one that does everything you want or everything you might want to do in the future. If you end having a video capture card you want to install or get one in the future, something might prevent you from being able to do so with graphics cards taking up three spaces now(two spaces plus the fans for most.) I learned this from experience.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Make sure you get at least 8 GB of RAM. You might think it's a lot, but it's better to have more than less.

[Ponyone]

Thanks everyone so far

[FFStudios]

A lot of the things you're going to see in the specifications tab of a lot of computer hardware is a bunch of superfluous junk that doesn't really mean anything.

Processor: Go with Intel, preferrably an i7 series processor because you'll get the most bang for your buck.

Motherboard: Again, you'll need an Intel LGA 1133 type motherboard to fit one of those nice i7 chips. Try to find a motherboard that says Z77, because you'll be able to take advantage of all the performance enhancing stuff in the processor.

RAM: 8GB is almost necessary. You can get by with 4 if you're really stretching your budget and need a quick money drain, but I highly advocate against this.

Hard drives: 1 x 1TB drive. I don't know how extensive your gaming collection is, but 1TB for everything is more or less well balanced for everything.

Graphics card: This will be the biggest money hole. If you're looking for gaming performance, I would stick with Nvidia rather than AMD only because their architecture is significantly different. AMD chipsets are great for video editing and rendering because of the raw power they produce. Nvidia's cards are finely tuned towards gaming, and while their price reflects that, they are certainly much better bargains for what you're getting.

Sound card: Don't bother unless you're an audiophile. Your on-board sound is 7.1 certified and will serve you just fine.

Optical drives: Two DVD+RW/DVD+ROM burner drives is a must in any gaming PC.

EDIT: I built my computer more advanced than this and it came out to under $675 including the case and aftermarket fans.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Optical drives: Two DVD+RW/DVD+ROM burner drives is a must in any gaming PC.

Uh. Why?

[FFStudios]

Because they're dirt cheap (that should be reason enough) and there are a ridiculous amount of uses for two drives.

[WCP]

You should get a GTX 760 video card (Nvidia). Easily the best bang per buck video card that is out there (or coming soon). I think they go in the $260 or so range. But well worth it. I'd go with an intel i5 3570k cpu. Best bang for the buck CPU as well. As far as motherboard is concerned, I honestly wouldn't buy an expensive one that is capable of all kinds of tricks, because you'll probably just use it as is, with just one GPU, so no need for the all the extra bells and whistles. Having said that, still get an Asus, they are usually decent.

You can survive with 8 gigs of ram, but it might be cheap enough to just throw 16 gigs in there.


Make sure you get a decent power supply. This is one thing I've seen people try to pinch pennies with, and it's a very bad idea. Gotta have a solid PSU that can handle your GPU at full load.

[CatTehBus]

Newegg is a good site to order computer parts and pre-built systems from. A good route to take would be to eye out a pre-built system on their site, pick out all of the parts individually, and build it yourself.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Because they're dirt cheap (that should be reason enough) and there are a ridiculous amount of uses for two drives.

You can use the twenty bucks that the second drive would cost on something you'll get much more use of. Like more RAM, a better mouse, or something.

I doubt the average person, let alone a gamer, will burn two DVDs at the same time or do a disc to disc on the fly copy.

[Guyra]

Yeah, I really wouldn't recommend buying two optical drives either, unless you know you're going to actually copy discs. Because that's basically the only use for two optical drives. Or reading from one whilst the other is burning, or reading something else. I don't really see the necessity for it. In fact, I hardly see the necessity for optical drives on modern computers at all. I don't have a single one on my personal computer. These days I feel like their main use is for installing the OS, and then that's it.

As for something completely unrelated to that, make sure you're getting a decent SSD drive and use that to install your OS of choice on.

[WCP]

make sure you read this thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509570


Read the OP, and then read the last 20 pages or so, and that should give you a very good idea of what the best bang for the buck components are.


In your original post, you said you want to play todays graphic intense games at full settings. It can be tempting to want to sink $400 into a very high end GPU so you can run everything at full tilt, but I think it's a much better idea to spend about $260 on say a GTX 760, and not go too overboard on the GPU. A GTX 760 should cover you very well for the next 18 months. If you really want to go hardcore into PC gaming, and you like playing the current triple AAA games at the highest settings, then you're going to have to understand that about every 18 to 24 months you're going to have to buy a new GPU.

That's just the way it is. Basically, think of it like this, every 18 to 24 months have another $280 or so set aside to get the newest bang for the buck GPU to add to your system and you should be fine for a number of years before you need to worry about the CPU or motherboard. I built a new gaming PC a little over two years ago, and the GPU that I went with at the time was a GTX 560 Ti. I still have that GPU in my PC right now, and it's been past 24 months now, and I should probably be upgrading, and I'll most likely grab a GTX 760, and that should hold me another couple years.

[FFStudios]

You can use the twenty bucks that the second drive would cost on something you'll get much more use of. Like more RAM, a better mouse, or something.

I doubt the average person, let alone a gamer, will burn two DVDs at the same time or do a disc to disc on the fly copy.

Okay? There are plenty of classic games that require two or more discs to play and I don't know why you think DVD drives are used for burning and copying only

[Kitsune Sniper]

Okay? There are plenty of classic games that require two or more discs to play and I don't know why you think DVD drives are used for burning and copying only

I have never encountered a single multi-disc game that will read game data from two different disc drives in over fifteen years of PC gaming - and this includes games made BEFORE I began using PCs to play games. There may be some out there but I've never encountered any in all this time. And yes, there were some games that used two floppy disc drives at the same time, one for data and one to save games. But never CDs or DVDs.

So unless you plan on doing disc to disc copies (which ... is pointless, why not just do an iso copy and then burn it?), I see no reason for anyone to have more than one DVD drive on their PCs these days. And even then, you can get away with having -no- optical drives, especially since you can install your OS from a USB stick. Snazzy.

Edit: However having a DVD burner and a Bluray drive might be a good idea if you want to use your system as a media center.

[Gamevet]

$700 is a pretty tight budget. I'm more of an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU user, so I'm going to have a more biased build that would be slightly above that range. You can start with this solid Intel Build, and add whatever video card and case you want.

i5-3570k for $219

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504


8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 memory for $59

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104360

Corsair CX600 600 Watt power supply for $66

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Builde...x+power+supply

ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M motherboard for $130

http://www.amazon.com/ASRock-DDR3-24...therboard+1155


You can save some money by buying an AMD FX-8320, but I prefer the per-core performance of Intel, over the brute force of 8 logical cores being offered by the AMD CPU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113285

If you're not too weary of buying a used CPU, you could probably get a pretty good deal on an i5-2500k or i5-3570k.

Processor: Go with Intel, preferrably an i7 series processor because you'll get the most bang for your buck.

Motherboard: Again, you'll need an Intel LGA 1133 type motherboard to fit one of those nice i7 chips. Try to find a motherboard that says Z77, because you'll be able to take advantage of all the performance enhancing stuff in the processor.

The board would be an 1155 socket, not 1133.

You don't need an i7 for gaming. A good quad-core CPU will be more than enough for several years.

[FFStudios]

1155, sorry. I sometimes get the 3 and 5 mixed up. I was only trying to futureproof his system, I got a 3570k and it wasn't THAT expensive. I build systems for a shop in town and I'm used to trying to balance performance and bargain. He/she could do well with an i5 or even an i3 if they really wanted a budget build. I'd recommend sticking with the 1155 socket and the Z77 motherboard chipset, though.

[Gamevet]

1155, sorry. I sometimes get the 3 and 5 mixed up. I was only trying to futureproof his system, I got a 3570k and it wasn't THAT expensive. I build systems for a shop in town and I'm used to trying to balance performance and bargain. He/she could do well with an i5 or even an i3 if they really wanted a budget build. I'd recommend sticking with the 1155 socket and the Z77 motherboard chipset, though.

I think the i3 is a little too weak. It'll work for most current games, but we're already seeing titles that really need a true quad-core to perform at their peak.

I upgraded from an Intel Q9650 (C2Q) @ 3.6 Ghz, to an i5-2500k ($159) that I've overclocked to 4.7 Ghz on an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard. It was a really cheap upgrade for me, since I got the motherboard as an open-box item for $40 and used my 2 GTX 460s in sli, up until I got an EVGA GTX 670 FTW at $325. I think I'm set for awhile.

[BetaWolf47]

I think the i3 is a little too weak. It'll work for most current games, but we're already seeing titles that really need a true quad-core to perform at their peak.

I upgraded from an Intel Q9650 (C2Q) @ 3.6 Ghz, to an i5-2500k ($159) that I've overclocked to 4.7 Ghz on an Asus P8Z68-V motherboard. It was a really cheap upgrade for me, since I got the motherboard as an open-box item for $40 and used my 2 GTX 460s in sli, up until I got an EVGA GTX 670 FTW at $325. I think I'm set for awhile.

Just going to point out that core count isn't everything, especially for gaming. The 1155 Core i3 CPUs can go neck and neck with many of AMD's more expensive, higher core count CPUs as far as gaming is concerned.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/289?vs=699
Scroll down to gaming benchmarks. You might be surprised :P

[Gamevet]

Just going to point out that core count isn't everything, especially for gaming. The 1155 Core i3 CPUs can go neck and neck with many of AMD's more expensive, higher core count CPUs as far as gaming is concerned.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/289?vs=699
Scroll down to gaming benchmarks. You might be surprised :P

I already talked about the importance of Intel's per-core performance, but I also noted that some current and future games are going to utilize more cores, which will limit the i3. Take Metro Last Light as an example.

http://m.techspot.com/review/670-met...nce/page6.html

If he's not comfortable with overclocking his CPU, there are cheaper non-k versions of Intel's quad-core CPUs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115234

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0093H...tag=cpuboss-20