Hardware Thinking of Building A Gaming PC

[I am r4ymond]

I'm looking to build my very FIRST custom gaming PC as a replacement for my 7 year-old desktop. I'm not quite entirely familiar with which components are considered "good," but I generally would want to keep it on a tight budget of around $750 for now; however, I highly recommend it if the total price is cheaper.

I'd prefer to play my games on High graphics with a stable FPS of 60 or better.

My Personal Preferences for the Components...

• CPU: Intel i5 Quad-Core (I've been using AMD processors my entire life, so I wanna try the Intel processors this time)
• GPU: Any NVIDIA graphics card (Again, I've been using Radeon graphics cards, my entire life want to try NVIDIA this time)

The CPU and GPU are the only things I've done a bit of research on for building my own PC. I'm unsure about the rest of the components (sound cards/fan/etc).
Please let me know if I'm missing any other essential details necessary to determine the parts for me. I'd appreciate any help I can get! Thanks

 

[Duo8]

I'm looking to build my very FIRST custom gaming PC as a replacement for my 7 year-old desktop. I'm not quite entirely familiar with which components are considered "good," but I generally would want to keep it on a tight budget of around $750 for now; however, I highly recommend it if the total price is cheaper.

I'd prefer to play my games on High graphics with a stable FPS of 60 or better.

My Personal Preferences for the Components...

• CPU: Intel i5 Quad-Core (I've been using AMD processors my entire life, so I wanna try the Intel processors this time)
• GPU: Any NVIDIA graphics card (Again, I've been using Radeon graphics cards, my entire life want to try NVIDIA this time)

The CPU and GPU are the only things I've done a bit of research on for building my own PC. I'm unsure about the rest of the components (sound cards/fan/etc).

Please let me know if I'm missing any other essential details necessary to determine the parts for me. I'd appreciate any help I can get! Thanks

AMD and Intel aren't very different when playing games, but Intels are far better in emulation and probably many other CPU-intensive tasks. Check the i5-4570 (which I'm using right now).

 

[Ethevion]

What games are you looking to play on high graphics?

 

[Hedgehogofchaos]

Does this budget include an OS? Case? Power Supply?

 

[palasx]

Core i5-4570 or 4570k
any x87 motherboard from gigabyte, asus, asrock
any 450+ watt, 80+Plus bronze certified PSU from Corsair, Super Flower, Seasonic, Sirtec, TWC, Flextronics
"Geforce 650 Ti BOOST 2gb" Make sure it says boost in the name.
any 8gb of ram in 2x4 config. corsair, gskill, whatever. dont get patriot.
any sata hard drive. no SSD on a budget build.

total price if you deal hunt a little should be under 600. recomend looking at barebones kits on newegg and tiger direct. search for info on slickdeals.net

 

[Duo8]

Core i5-4570 or 4570k
any x87 motherboard from gigabyte, asus, asrock
any 450+ watt, 80+Plus bronze certified PSU from Corsair, Super Flower, Seasonic, Sirtec, TWC, Flextronics
"Geforce 650 Ti BOOST 2gb" Make sure it says boost in the name.
any 8gb of ram in 2x4 config. corsair, gskill, whatever. dont get patriot.
any sata hard drive. no SSD on a budget build.

total price if you deal hunt a little should be under 600. recomend looking at barebones kits on newegg and tiger direct. search for info on slickdeals.net

Get the K version if you could.
PCs are so cheap in the US. I had to pay ~$650 for a build 75% of that.

 

[chyyran]

Get the K version if you could.
PCs are so cheap in the US. I had to pay ~$650 for a build 75% of that.

If you get the 4670K, get a Z87 mobo so you can overclock it. It overclocks really well. I'm pushing mine to 4GHz from 3.4GHz stock using a cheap ($30) aftermarket cooler, it's not that much, but it's stable as hell, and Super Mario Galaxy with LLE audio in Dolphin is all I could ever ask for. I'm sure you could get it up to 4.5GHz with some tweaking, using only fan cooling.

 

[Duo8]

If you get the 4670K, get a Z87 mobo so you can overclock it. It overclocks really well. I'm pushing mine to 4GHz from 3.4GHz stock using a cheap ($30) aftermarket cooler, it's not that much, but it's stable as hell, and Super Mario Galaxy with LLE audio in Dolphin is all I could ever ask for. I'm sure you could get it up to 4.5GHz with some tweaking, using only fan cooling.

There's an overclocking option in my B85...

 

[Ericthegreat]

Does this budget include an OS? Case? Power Supply?

OS lol, OS are free....

 

[Originality]

OS lol, OS are free....

There are certain advantages to paying for your OS.
On the other hand, free is free, even if you get less.

 

[Lanlan]

I know you said you wanted Nvidia but I think it'd be dumb to not consider a 7950. They can be had for $200, and will outperform any Nvidia card at that price point. Not being a fanboy, that's just how the market is right now.

 

[chyyran]

There's an overclocking option in my B85...

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/07/25/intel-overclocking-block/1

Better not update your BIOS then.

 

[trumpet-205]

There's an overclocking option in my B85...

Some motherboard manufacturers found exploit to allow overclocking on B85, but you DO NOT want to overclock on motherboard other than Z87.

B85, H81, and H87 are not designed with overclocking in mind, so corresponding motherboard does not use VRM that can withstand overclock demand.

 

[I am r4ymond]

To address a few things...

I'm currently running on a laptop with an AMD A6-3400M APU right now, and I've been using it for 2 years so far. I tend to play games for long periods of time, so I need a computer for a budget of at most $650 if possible. The games that I'm currently playing right now are Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3, League of Legends, and some other games that aren't quite demanding, but my reason for getting a good GPU that may be well more than enough for these games is that I want to run the graphics on High.

Hedgehogofchaos Yes, my budget also includes a Case, PSU (power supply, right?), a bang-for-your-buck fan or any other equivalent, and other essential parts necessary to build a computer.

I'm currently using Newegg to search for parts right now, and I'm liking the i5-4570K. I was looking at the GPU Benchmarks the other day and saw the GTX 660 Ti, GTX 660, GTX 650 Ti BOOST, and the Radeon HD 7950. I don't know which one to get for the GPU. If I do manage to stick with the i5-4570K and one of the video cards I listed, the total price would already jump up to around $450. Can someone give me a full list of components that I should buy (good bang-for-your-buck items)?

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the comments and patience

 

[Andman315]

I find this website pretty useful, it shows around an average price for parts, and total cost including the case depending on the tier you want. If you click on the part, it also links you to where you can purchase the part.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

 

[Chhotu uttam]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2013/08/22/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-august-2013/2

Bang-for-your-buck ?
If you still have some money left , I suggest upgrading the mobo to z77 or even getting an i5 if possible.Or maybe an SSD?

You should also look/hunt for deals on various online shops and locals shops(you can save shipping here).
example: The rough price for 7850 1GB is quoted $160, just after doing some 'research' ---> here $139 after rebate and 2 games free.You can sell those games for maybe $10?

 

[I am r4ymond]

Do the following items that I have so far work well together? Or are there some items that need to be substituted?

http://imgur.com/ZVT7vuR

Also, can someone help me choose a fan and motherboard that works well for the items I have right now?

 

[Lanlan]

That card isn't the greatest. I'd upgrade that if you want "High graphics with a stable FPS of 60 or better".

 

[Originality]

Swap the power supply for a 450-550W power supply from a better brand. E.g. Corsair or Seasonic.

 

[I am r4ymond]

Swap the power supply for a 450-550W power supply from a better brand. E.g. Corsair or Seasonic.

Okay. A 450-550W power supply would be sufficient, right?

Lanlan Okay, I'll take note of that. For now, I want to get a better idea of what the total price is going to be before I switch out the graphics card.