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Gaming PC For $1200

J

John_1991

Banned
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Just gaming

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$1200-$1300

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Intel Fanboy

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Using keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

No overclocking yet, most likely in the future

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

23" 1920x1080p

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.


ASAP

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

No
 
mistersprinkles said:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/stzkcf

I put this together for you for $1400. You can trim it down by going to an R9 280X GPU ($300) and a Corsair CX600 PSU ($60). At $1400 though, you get a monster of a machine.
Future upgrades could include 16GB of RAM (currently useless for gaming) and an SSD.

BTW the CPU wont be out for another couple of days. It's worth the wait.
Click to expand...

I dont need an OS...

How about this?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6YTxbv

Intel Core i7-4790K
Cooler Master Hyper 212EVO
MSI Z97S SLI +
8GB G.SKill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600MHz Memory
250GB Samsung 840EVO SSD
1TB Western Digital Black
EVGA GeForce GTX 770
Corsair 200R
Corsair TX750 Semi Modular Power Supply
$1292.04

A little over my budget, but how is the Logitech G710+? Need a new keyboard soon, because my current one is getting old.

I see an ad for EVGA Z97 motherboards in the left corner of my screen, how are they?
 
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mistersprinkles said:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/stzkcf

I put this together for you for $1400. You can trim it down by going to an R9 280X GPU ($300) and a Corsair CX600 PSU ($60). At $1400 though, you get a monster of a machine.
Future upgrades could include 16GB of RAM (currently useless for gaming) and an SSD.

BTW the CPU wont be out for another couple of days. It's worth the wait.
Click to expand...

There's no sense at all buying a $550-600 video card for 1080P, especially when it's clearly over budget and comes at the cost of an SSD. Other than that it's a pretty solid build.

OP, you could also look at mfenn's suggested $1000 build and make improvements here and there as you see fit. On your budget there's no reason not to have an SSD for your boot drive.

Edit: Your post got in right before mine.

- I wouldn't personally buy an SLI motherboard and PSU unless you're intending to increase your monitor size in the near future. SLI isn't needed for that resolution and 550-600W is more than plenty for a single graphics card build. Also, for a computer that's just for gaming I would stick with an i5 like mistersprinkles picked out. The dough you save (which will make very little difference in gaming) could buy you a nicer case like the Fractal Design Define R4, or go toward your new keyboard, or whatever.
 
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I have a Microcenter 15 minutes from my house, so should I go buy all my parts there?
Click to expand...

On your budget, at the very least you'd be crazy not to take advantage of their CPU/MoBo combos. I would also probably scout their prices for other components, and if they were very close to newegg/amazon et al I would consider purchasing those from MC also.

Edit:
A couple of notes on your build above:
1) I like the Evo...I don't like it at $135 vs. the similar capacity crucial mx100 at $100-110.
2) The RAM looks a bit expensive. I might try this this ADATA set for $70 and save $10.
3) If you're just using the WD black as a storage drive, I think it's not worth shelling out $80 for it. I'd pick up a WD Blue at your nearby MC for ~$60 or an equivalent Seagate.
4) The GTX 770 looks good...there is a really good deal for Sapphire's Tri-X R9-290 at Tiger Direct . I don't know anything about the PSU they include (it seems like its probably garbage) but the deal is actually pretty good regardless of that.
5) Upgrade to the 500R if you can buy soon. If you can use the newegg gift card for your gpu (or any other part!), it's a VERY nice upgrade to the 200R for only $10 more!

Here's what that might look like:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling ACFZ13 36.4 CFM CPU Cooler ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($139.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X Video Card ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $795.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

+ CPU/MoBo Combo at MC. Right now you can get the i5-4670k or i7-4770k for ~$310 or ~$380. I'd expect the 4790k combo to be around $400 when it goes live. So that puts you at about $1200.
 
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1. I heard the EVO is the fastest, and apparently you can overclock it for faster speeds.
2. I heard G.Skill and Corsair are the best, hot is AData?
3. Not only does the Black have a 3 year longer warranty, but apparently game maps load faster in the Black. On the SSD, I have a lot I applications, such as Photoshop, MS Office, Some Antivirus, Windiws, and my most used games. All those are used a lot. My other games will be put on the black (not racist).
4. I heard NVIDIA is better because of the GeForce Experience, Less Power, and Quieter.
5. Does the 500R have 2.5" bays?
 
1. No such thing as overclocking an SSD, perhaps you're thinking of the software Samsung includes where you can tweak and enable something they call RAPID mode. I turned that off about a week ago and haven't noticed any difference at all. For gaming purposes and your budget, I would not consider it necessary to spend the difference between MX100 and the Evo, you'll end up sacrificing something else in your build to obtain a drive with identical (gaming) performance

2. I wouldn't worry too much about RAM manufacturers, usually decent 2x 4GB costs ~$60, that's what I'd pay.

3. I wouldn't bother paying another $20 for a HDD that might have marginally better load times. Both drives will seem equally sluggish when you get used to the SSD.

4. The 770 is a pretty mediocre card, and with only 2GB of VRAM is not exactly futureproof. A 290 would be a much better choice if you can fit it into your budget, which really shouldn't be a problem if you make decent decisions on the other parts. For instance, settle for 8GB of RAM rather than 16, go with the MX100 and a WD Blue. That should pretty much cover the price delta between 770/290.
 
John_1991 said:
1. I heard the EVO is the fastest, and apparently you can overclock it for faster speeds.
2. I heard G.Skill and Corsair are the best, hot is AData?
3. Not only does the Black have a 3 year longer warranty, but apparently game maps load faster in the Black. On the SSD, I have a lot I applications, such as Photoshop, MS Office, Some Antivirus, Windiws, and my most used games. All those are used a lot. My other games will be put on the black (not racist).
4. I heard NVIDIA is better because of the GeForce Experience, Less Power, and Quieter.
5. Does the 500R have 2.5" bays?
Click to expand...

Freddy1765 answered 1,2,3 as well or better than I could.

4) There are pros and cons to AMD and Nvidia cards. But for most people, the best metric to consider is price/perf. As far as quiet goes, the reference coolers on the highest end Nvidia cards (780/780Ti/Titan/the-mythical-770-with-a-780-style-cooler-that-everyone-uses-in-pictures-but-I-have-never-actually-seen-for-sale) are quite a bit better than the reference coolers on AMD cards. But I'm not recommending a reference R9-290, I'm recommending a sapphire tri-x R9-290 that has three fans, and a larger heatsink. It should be quite a bit cooler and quieter than the stock R9-290.

5) The 500R uses Corsair's standard tool-less bays. They are stock config'd for 3.5'' drives, but by removing one of the thumb screws, they turn into 2.5'' bays. I'm using a 500R and mounted my SSD in one of them without any trouble.
 
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DNLLwP

Intel Core i5-4690K
Cooler Master Hyper 212EVO
MSI Z97 SLI +
8GB of DDR3-1600Mhz G.Skill Memory
Crucial MX100 256GB SSD
1TB Western Digital Blue
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB GDDR5
Corsair 500R
Corsair HX750
Samsung Optical Drive

$1312.68

1. My friend said I should get 16GB of Memory because I use Photoshop frequently.
2. Is the Black WD the same speed as the Blue?
3. Is the Crucial MX100 faster than the Samsung 840EVO?
4. What is the difference between the 200R and 500R? The 200R comes with 2 fans, does the 500R come with fans? Are they LED lit?
 
The 500R comes with 4 fans: two 120mm front intake, one 200mm side intake, 1 rear 120mm exhaust. The front and side fans have white leds, but there is a front panel button to turn them off.
 
Any difference between the Blue and Black is negligible compared to the difference between either one and your SSD. You simply aren't going to notice it whether it's technically there or not.

If you are planning to do real Photoshop work I would definitely recommend 16GB. If you just diddle around every once in a while and don't manipulate large files (or lots of files at once) then maybe don't worry about it.

Once again I'll make the point about your resolution. By today's standards 1080P is a pedestrian resolution. I don't mean that in a derogatory way (heck I'm still playing on 1680x1050) but it's the bog standard nowadays. Graphics cards and video games are designed with that understanding in mind, so any good graphics card will be able to play any game at 1080P. It's unnecessary to spend $500 on a graphics card for a system like this unless you intend to increase your screen size in the near future.
 
DSF said:
Any difference between the Blue and Black is negligible compared to the difference between either one and your SSD. You simply aren't going to notice it whether it's technically there or not.

If you are planning to do real Photoshop work I would definitely recommend 16GB. If you just diddle around every once in a while and don't manipulate large files (or lots of files at once) then maybe don't worry about it.

Once again I'll make the point about your resolution. By today's standards 1080P is a pedestrian resolution. I don't mean that in a derogatory way (heck I'm still playing on 1680x1050) but it's the bog standard nowadays. Graphics cards and video games are designed with that understanding in mind, so any good graphics card will be able to play any game at 1080P. It's unnecessary to spend $500 on a graphics card for a system like this unless you intend to increase your screen size in the near future.
Click to expand...

Just a thought, will a GTX 760 suffice?
 
I disagree that a 780 or R9 290 is overkill for 1080, especially when you can get a 290 for $400. Upcoming games will almost certainly not run well maxed out on a 770 or 760. You can either wait until the fall when all the new games are released and make your decision then, or make a decision now that you won't end up regretting in three months.

Now, it obviously depends on what kind if gaming experience you're looking for; some people are perfectly happy running games on medium settings with 40 fps in which case $400 GPUs make no sense, but if you want 60 fps and all the eye-candy, don't skimp on the graphics card.
And when you're building a gaming PC on a $1300 budget it's just plain silly getting a mid-tier GPU.
 
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VirtualLarry said:
Intel 730 family SSDs are overclocked.
Click to expand...

Overclocked in the sense that Intel has validated the controller beyond what the manufacturer says is OK. They're covered by warranty stuff. That's different than overclocked in the sense that the end user is taking the risk of voiding his warranty and losing data.
 
Freddy1765 said:
1. No such thing as overclocking an SSD, perhaps you're thinking of the software Samsung includes where you can tweak and enable something they call RAPID mode. I turned that off about a week ago and haven't noticed any difference at all. For gaming purposes and your budget, I would not consider it necessary to spend the difference between MX100 and the Evo, you'll end up sacrificing something else in your build to obtain a drive with identical (gaming) performance
Click to expand...

Turning on RAPID is a pretty bad idea IMHO, good that you disabled it. RAPID has two parts:

1. 1GB static DRAM read cache. This is pretty silly because it takes memory from your other OS processes, and the OS already caches reads in RAM anyway. The difference is that the OS is much smarter about managing the cache and can get rid of it if programs need the memory.

2. DRAM write-back cache. This means that your data isn't actually written to the SSD when the OS thinks that it is, but instead hangs around in RAM. A sudden power loss or OS crash equals instant filesystem corruption.

Overall, RAPID is a marketing tool designed to increase benchmark performance at great risk to user data.

Freddy1765 said:
3. I wouldn't bother paying another $20 for a HDD that might have marginally better load times. Both drives will seem equally sluggish when you get used to the SSD.
Click to expand...

Agree. Any money that would be spent on an expensive, marginally faster HDD should be put towards getting a bigger SSD.
 
Freddy1765 said:
I disagree that a 780 or R9 290 is overkill for 1080, especially when you can get a 290 for $400. Upcoming games will almost certainly not run well maxed out on a 770 or 760. You can either wait until the fall when all the new games are released and make your decision then, or make a decision now that you won't end up regretting in three months.

Now, it obviously depends on what kind if gaming experience you're looking for; some people are perfectly happy running games on medium settings with 40 fps in which case $400 GPUs make no sense, but if you want 60 fps and all the eye-candy, don't skimp on the graphics card.
And when you're building a gaming PC on a $1300 budget it's just plain silly getting a mid-tier GPU.
Click to expand...
I understand where you're coming from. If playing on High/Ultra settings is a priority then going with a $400-500 video card is where it's at.

I just have never felt like the difference between Medium and High settings makes a difference to me once I'm actually playing. I'm way more focused on the game situation than whether I can see another player's freckles.

If you're like me and are willing to play on Medium (for what it's worth, a midrange card like my 7950 still gives perfectly smooth framerates at a mix of medium and high settings on BF4) then I think a $250-350 video card is a wiser purchase. It still allows for smooth, nice-looking gaming and saves some money for other parts or for other hobbies.

Either way you're going to end up buying a new card in 2-3 years to maintain the same play experience, which is another reason I don't like to buy the top of the line.
 
DSF said:
I understand where you're coming from. If playing on High/Ultra settings is a priority then going with a $400-500 video card is where it's at.

I just have never felt like the difference between Medium and High settings makes a difference to me once I'm actually playing. I'm way more focused on the game situation than whether I can see another player's freckles.

If you're like me and are willing to play on Medium (for what it's worth, a midrange card like my 7950 still gives perfectly smooth framerates at a mix of medium and high settings on BF4) then I think a $250-350 video card is a wiser purchase. It still allows for smooth, nice-looking gaming and saves some money for other parts or for other hobbies.

Either way you're going to end up buying a new card in 2-3 years to maintain the same play experience, which is another reason I don't like to buy the top of the line.
Click to expand...

I agree when it's games like BF4 or other FPS where you are in the sh!t at all times. But a game like Skyrim or Far Cry where you aren't fighting 24/7, you might want the eye candy to pop out as you walk around and enjoy things.

I sure as heck wished I was running 60fps Skyrim on Ultra. Sadly, I could only get good frame rates on lower settings and I feel like I missed out a bit on the graphics.

That's why it's important to buy a card to target the games you have in mind. If all you do is play TF2 and games like that, then there's no reason to spend top dollar on a GPU.
 
z1ggy said:
I agree when it's games like BF4 or other FPS where you are in the sh!t at all times. But a game like Skyrim or Far Cry where you aren't fighting 24/7, you might want the eye candy to pop out as you walk around and enjoy things.

I sure as heck wished I was running 60fps Skyrim on Ultra. Sadly, I could only get good frame rates on lower settings and I feel like I missed out a bit on the graphics.

That's why it's important to buy a card to target the games you have in mind. If all you do is play TF2 and games like that, then there's no reason to spend top dollar on a GPU.
Click to expand...

Yeah fair points. The best way to make the decision is to specifically seek out benchmarks that include the games (or at the very least the kinds of games) you intend to play.
 
OP, you dont need a full, $1250 system in order to max out almost every game at 1080p. Here is what I came up with (hopefully I hyperlinked it right).

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K: $240
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO: $35
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 280X: $250
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Pro3: $100
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3-1600Mhz Memory: $72
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB Hard Drive: $85
Solid State Drive: Crucial MX100 256GB: $112
Power Supply: EVGA Supernova 750 G2 10 Year Warranty 80+ Gold: $123
Case: Corsair 500R w/ $20 Newegg Gift Card: $80

$1097.00

With that price, you can afford your keyboard.
 
YankeesFan45 said:
OP, you dont need a full, $1250 system in order to max out almost every game at 1080p. Here is what I came up with (hopefully I hyperlinked it right).

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K: $240
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO: $35
GPU: XFX Radeon R9 280X: $250
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Pro3: $100
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3-1600Mhz Memory: $72
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB Hard Drive: $85
Solid State Drive: Crucial MX100 256GB: $112
Power Supply: EVGA Supernova 750 G2 10 Year Warranty 80+ Gold: $123
Case: Corsair 500R w/ $20 Newegg Gift Card: $80

$1097.00

With that price, you can afford your keyboard.
Click to expand...

It's interesting that you went for value with a lot of the parts and then picked out an overspecced, expensive PSU that is almost double what he should expect to pay for a PSU in a midrange system.

That note aside, I agree it's a very solid system at a great price.
 
DSF said:
It's interesting that you went for value with a lot of the parts and then picked out an overspecced, expensive PSU that is almost double what he should expect to pay for a PSU in a midrange system.

That note aside, I agree it's a very solid system at a great price.
Click to expand...

That Power Supply keeps jumping in price. Last night, it was $89.99 and I ordered one for my new computer. I heard it was a very solid power supply and scored a 9.8/10, which is very impressive. OP, just wait a few days and you can get it under $100. You can get it for $90 at NCIX.
 
YankeesFan45 said:
That Power Supply keeps jumping in price. Last night, it was $89.99 and I ordered one for my new computer. I heard it was a very solid power supply and scored a 9.8/10, which is very impressive. OP, just wait a few days and you can get it under $100. You can get it for $90 at NCIX.
Click to expand...

Ah, OK. I didn't mean for my post to be snarky. It just stood out to me as very out of place with the rest of the parts. That makes more sense.
 
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