Want to get a gaming PC for around over 1.000$.

[FirePrince]

I want to buy myself a new PC, gaming-oriented. I'll be constructing it myself, and I won't be needing a new power supply, since I recently bought a OCZ Fatal1ty 550W since my old one broke.
The budget is a bit over 1.000$. Any help would be apreciated, since I haven't been paying attention to PC parts since I made my current machine in 2007.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

You can do a lot with $1000, assuming that PSU is good at pumping ~500W.

There:

 

[FirePrince]

Hmm, is this build without a Hard-Disk Drive? Isn't that a bad idea? And how much will a case that fits all this set me back? Everything else looks pretty stellar, besides the fact that I can't seem to find the RAM available for purchase in my area.

 

[Grall]

No casing or OS license in that list, but perhaps the original poster can recycle that from a previous system... (No heatsink either, but could always use the Intel retail sink I suppose, even though it's noisier - and certainly less efficient - than most aftermarket sinks.)

HDDs tend to be dirt cheap these days. Also, the brand of the RAM is not that important, although buying brand name memory can help. Kingston, Corsair, Crucial and so on are all good stuff, 1600MHz DDR3 is the most cost-effective these days I think? Faster can mean measurably higher performance, but also costs more money of course.

 

[FirePrince]

The case I currenly have Foxconn TLA-570, and I think it maybe too small for what I want to be - it's allready rather cramped, and my 5770HD I could barely get inside.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Hmm, is this build without a Hard-Disk Drive? Isn't that a bad idea? And how much will a case that fits all this set me back? Everything else looks pretty stellar, besides the fact that I can't seem to find the RAM available for purchase in my area.

I assumed you're coming from an older build already so you wouldn't need a case or OS.
An acceptable ATX case should go for around $40-50, unless you want nifty stuff like sidewindows, hot-plugging 5.25" drives, embedded card readers and other stuff.

There is a good 240GB SSD in there for the OS, some applications and games. Again, assuming you're upgrading from a build where you could still keep the old HDDs for documents, videos, pictures, etc.

The RAM I chose is the cheapest I could find, but there's plenty more 2*4GB kits at 1600MHz CL9 at around that price. I think that for a Haswell that will be using a discrete GPU there's little point in spending much more in the RAM unless you're doing video editing or other stuff that could use more RAM (16GB?).



If you want to lower the price, you could set back on the CPU a little (CPU requirements for games are likely to go down for the next couple of years), so a non-K ~3.4GHz i5 Haswell could suffice. Going to a B85 motherboard could also make little practical difference but you'll lose some USB 3.0 ports.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

The case I currenly have Foxconn TLA-570, and I think it maybe too small for what I want to be - it's allready rather cramped, and my 5770HD I could barely get inside.

You're right, it wont fit.

What I would do is cut away the aluminum plates that serve little purpose unless you'll want to put 5 hard drives in there or something:

Or you could buy a new case. Since I'm a cheapskate, I'd do the cutting thing.

 

[FirePrince]

I do have a 500 gig Hard-Drive, so I guess sure can do.
Also, I would much rather not do the cutting thing and get myself a new case. Thanks for all the help.

 

[snarfbot]

i got a nzxt source 210 on my last build, it was mad cheap and its absolutely exquisite.

for the money i dont think you can get much better, its got tons of cooling provided you have 120mm fans lying around, it doesnt come with many iirc but its got room for them all over the place. it also comes with a usb 3.0 bay if you need such things.

anyway its very solid, has room for some decent cable management and most importantly theres no sharp edges inside.

im using cheapo antec fans in mine and its pretty quiet to boot, i recommend it highly.

 

[Wynix]

240GB SSD for $90 after $20 rebate, if you need to cut costs; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178720

Height - 7mm
Weight - 80g
Max Sequential Read - Up to 510 MBps
Max Sequential Write - Up to 320 MBps
4KB Random Read - Up to 60,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write - Up to 45,000 IOPS
MTBF - 1,000,000 hours
Power Consumption (Idle)0.1W
Power Consumption (Active) - 5W

Seems good value.(edit) It also comes with a 3 year warranty.

GPU: GTX 770 4GB ASUS DC2 for $312 delivered.

 

[homerdog]

Are those PNY SSDs good? Haven't heard anything about them. Certainly great price.

This is microATX which is plenty big.
The Xeon E3-1230V3 is comparable to the i7-4770 for $60 less.
You can reuse your 500GB HDD and apparently don't need a PSU.
Could save more with a B85 motherboard and bargain hunting like the GPU link Wynix posted.
Would get a GPU with at least 3GB GDDR5 these days.

I made sure to select a motherboard with 4 RAM slots so you can add another 8GB in the future if necessary. That's a good idea IMO.

If you want I can email you this cart.

 

[Blazkowicz]

You can do a lot with $1000, assuming that PSU is good at pumping ~500W.

There:
http://i.imgur.com/V2n1KRb.png

Just a little thing, if you've choosen a 4670K then you've already paid half the overclocking tax, so you should get a Z87 motherboard with it. Else that's a neat $1002 total and set of hardware.
Don't forget to save for the power bill with that GPU.. the GPU is efficent by the way, it's simply that the level of performance comes with high power draw due to laws of physucs. At least modern stuff like it uses few power when idle or at the Windows desktop. (same thing roughly if you get the GTX 770 instead of the R290)

If you want to lower the price, you could set back on the CPU a little (CPU requirements for games are likely to go down for the next couple of years), so a non-K ~3.4GHz i5 Haswell could suffice. Going to a B85 motherboard could also make little practical difference but you'll lose some USB 3.0 ports.

Not sure about CPU requirements going down, you will get efficiency improvements with Mantle, DX12, OpenGL >= 4.4 but devs will simply use them up. (And more efficient multi-threading means CPU resources will be easier to use leading to high resource usage).

 

[FirePrince]

Thanks for the amazing responses people, just 2 more questions and I think I'm done.
What's the deal with overclocking? I've never done out of fear that I might break components, but everywhere I see people seem to recommend it more or less.
Also, how does cooling work? I've always had to resort to a 3-rd party one since my other computers where all basically furnaces up until the point of me buying a cooler, with GPU's pumping around 80-100 degrees Celsius.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

First of all, I would never switch a R9 290 for a GTX 770 based on the old GK104.
The 290 is in a whole other league of performance and will be between 30 and 50% faster than the 770. The GTX 780 based on GK110 is the competition for Hawaii R9 290, not the old GTX 680/770.
Bargain hunting would make sense if the graphics card didn't fit the budget. But the truth is that it fits, and this is a gaming PC so it doesn't make much sense in cutting corners on the graphics card TBH.

Wynix's proposal for a lower cost SSD seems pretty good.

Just a little thing, if you've choosen a 4670K then you've already paid half the overclocking tax, so you should get a Z87 motherboard with it.

Actually, in Haswell pretty much all chipsets can overclock the unlocked CPUs (changing the multiplier). The only thing they can't overclock is memory which isn't very important for gaming performance.
The chipsets vary mostly around I/O like available USB 3.0 slots, SATA3 connections and PCI-Express lanes.

Not sure about CPU requirements going down, you will get efficiency improvements with Mantle, DX12, OpenGL >= 4.4 but devs will simply use them up. (And more efficient multi-threading means CPU resources will be easier to use leading to high resource usage).

Maybe, but I'm willing to bet an arm and a leg that the CPU requirements won't go over a ~3.2GHz Haswell i5 for many years

Thanks for the amazing responses people, just 2 more questions and I think I'm done.
What's the deal with overclocking? I've never done out of fear that I might break components, but everywhere I see people seem to recommend it more or less.

Overclocking can be done pretty easily and safely with the Intel K-series and the AMD Black Series. A mild overclock could be done without changing voltages at all.

However, if you fear you might break something, then you're better off not doing it.
The Xeon E3-1230V3 that homerdog suggested seems to be a great alternative to the i5-4670K if you're not overclocking. The CPU won't reach the same >4GHz speeds when overclocked but it'll have Hyperthreading.

Also, how does cooling work? I've always had to resort to a 3-rd party one since my other computers where all basically furnaces up until the point of me buying a cooler, with GPU's pumping around 80-100 degrees Celsius.

If you buy an Intel retail CPU and you won't do any overclocking (i.e. the E3-1230V3), just stick with the bundled cooler. You'll have nothing to worry about with the new Intel CPUs as they have low TDP and lots of high-temperature safeguards. It won't go over ~65º with the bundled cooler.

The R9 290 should also be fine as long as you buy one with a custom cooler (like that MSI model). Stay away from the regular R9 290 models.
Regardless, 80-90º on load is pretty normal for a high-end GPU nowadays.

 

[FirePrince]

Thanks, I don't really plan on overclocking and I think I'll go for the Xeon E3-1230V3 and the 290.

 

[FirePrince]

Crap, sorry for double posting, but I don't seem to be able to find the R9 290 that you guys found at the same price, it's like 80 or 60 bucks more and I can't go that much sadly. Any good replacements, maybe a bit lower priced?

 

[Wynix]

MSI Radeon R9 290 GAMING 4GB - $430 after rebate

It's only 2 slot.

 

[homerdog]

The GTX770 is not as fast as the R9290 but it is also less expensive which is why I recommended it. Still is a fast card. Also the R920 is still selling above its original MSRP.

If you do get the R9290 be sure to get one with a non-reference cooler since the reference cooler is loud and limits performance. Seems most of them on Newegg are non-reference which is good.

 

[Grall]

The GTX770 is not as fast as the R9290 but it is also less expensive which is why I recommended it. Still is a fast card.

The 770 is great, a really nice, fast GPU actually even though it's not anywhere near new by now. I like ASUS cards, their DirectCU cards are solidly built with metal shrouds and backplates, and high-quality power components. The 770DCU-2 OC boards are quite fast and quite nice, and much cheaper now compared to when they launched last spring.

If you do get the R9290 be sure to get one with a non-reference cooler since the reference cooler is loud and limits performance.

For sure! The R9 290 is power thirsty like no other card out there right now (and no other card since the GTX 480/580s), and thus puts out major heat. You don't want to be stuck with AMDs super crappy blower reference cooler. It is both super loud and super bad.