Gaming PC advice

Christine

New Member
I have a budget of about $1200 to spend on a gaming PC. What can I get for that much money? I'd like as much speed as possible.

Christine.
 
I'm not really good at picking out parts for people except for myself, everyone has their own preferences and some people can find better deals. This is the CPU you could afford and offers the highest speed for your buck. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901

I would go with an Antec PSU 500 watt minimum and a 600 series video card. Maybe the GTX 670. 8 GB of RAM should be sufficient.

Are you in the US?
 
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^ That's not terribly helpful advice. The 600 series cards are outdated. Also, I'd get an i5 instead of an i7 and spend more on the graphics card.

For $1200, I'd look at maybe getting the following:

Intel Core i5 4670K
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC
8GB or possibly 16GB DDR3 1866MHz
Nice case such as the NZXT Phantom (or Phantom 410), or Fractal Design Define R4 or something from Corsair
128GB SSD - Samsung 840s are good drives
1TB or 2TB 7200 RPM HDD - look at Seagate
Corsair power supply in the 600-700W region, look at the TX 650 V2 or the CX 600M perhaps
Graphics card wise: Aim for something around R9 270X performance, maybe even the R9 280X. Or, if you prefer NVIDIA, look at the GTX 770 or 780.
Then just get a DVD-RW or Blu-Ray ROM depending on if you want to watch Blu-Rays or not.
An OS if you need it

I don't have time to go and link you to all the parts on a site at the moment, but have a look at Newegg.com if you're in the US or Newegg.ca if you're in Canada and see what you can find based on the suggestions above.
 
^ That's not terribly helpful advice. The 600 series cards are outdated. Also, I'd get an i5 instead of an i7 and spend more on the graphics card.

For $1200, I'd look at maybe getting the following:

Intel Core i5 4670K
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC
8GB or possibly 16GB DDR3 1866MHz
Nice case such as the NZXT Phantom (or Phantom 410), or Fractal Design Define R4 or something from Corsair
128GB SSD - Samsung 840s are good drives
1TB or 2TB 7200 RPM HDD - look at Seagate
Corsair power supply in the 600-700W region, look at the TX 650 V2 or the CX 600M perhaps
Graphics card wise: Aim for something around R9 270X performance, maybe even the R9 280X. Or, if you prefer NVIDIA, look at the GTX 770 or 780.
Then just get a DVD-RW or Blu-Ray ROM depending on if you want to watch Blu-Rays or not.
An OS if you need it

I don't have time to go and link you to all the parts on a site at the moment, but have a look at Newegg.com if you're in the US or Newegg.ca if you're in Canada and see what you can find based on the suggestions above.

What AMD vs Pentium? Also if I go with i5 can I upgrade to i7 later?
 
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This comes to $1217 (USD)

Intel Core i5 4670K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128594
8GB RipJaws-X 1866MHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125475

Corsair CX600M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048
NZXT Phantom 410 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146087
ASUS DVD-RW drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Samsung 840 Pro 128GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192
Seagate 1TB HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

If you need an OS, then you'll spend a little more and get Windows too.

I don't know what OS you like, so I'll suggest Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Windows 7 Home SP1 x64 - fine if you want to stick with 8GB of RAM, but if you plan on upgrading to 16GB, then only 13GB will be recognized by Home since it is limited to 16GB including graphics card memory (and that's a 3GB card) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 - will be fine with 16GB+ RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992

Windows 8.1 Pro x64 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416778
 
This comes to $1217 (USD)

Intel Core i5 4670K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128594
8GB RipJaws-X 1866MHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125475

Corsair CX600M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048
NZXT Phantom 410 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146087
ASUS DVD-RW drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Samsung 840 Pro 128GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192
Seagate 1TB HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

If you need an OS, then you'll spend a little more and get Windows too.

I don't know what OS you like, so I'll suggest Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Windows 7 Home SP1 x64 - fine if you want to stick with 8GB of RAM, but if you plan on upgrading to 16GB, then only 13GB will be recognized by Home since it is limited to 16GB including graphics card memory (and that's a 3GB card) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 - will be fine with 16GB+ RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992

Windows 8.1 Pro x64 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416778

Hey thank you so much for the links Sprint. I do have windows 7 home premium with the professional upgrade.
 
Hey thank you so much for the links Sprint. I do have windows 7 home premium with the professional upgrade.

No problem and excellent! In that case, you shouldn't need to buy a new OS so long as you haven't used your copy of 7 yet.
 
Well I wish I had $1200 to spend.

My budget is only $800 and I want something that can play the newest games on Ultra High graphics or I'll probably have to stick to the new Xbox One console for this generation... : (
 
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I know this build comes to $740 or thereabouts with an FX-6300 and a 970 motherboard. Since you have a little more to spend, I've changed the CPU to an FX-8320 and the motherboard to a 990FX board. This should still be under $800.


That build has a Radeon R9 270X which is a powerful card and is probably more powerful than the Xbox One, so if you still want a PC, this is the why to go.
 
I know this build comes to $740 or thereabouts with an FX-6300 and a 970 motherboard. Since you have a little more to spend, I've changed the CPU to an FX-8320 and the motherboard to a 990FX board. This should still be under $800.



That build has a Radeon R9 270X which is a powerful card and is probably more powerful than the Xbox One, so if you still want a PC, this is the why to go.

Not to start derailing this other person's thread, but thanks spirit, gonna check this out right now!
 
Your links aren't working, and when I type the hardware into newegg search, it says it can't find the item I'm looking for either.

Sorry about that. That would be because I copied the links directly from another thread and this forum shorten long links, therefore breaking them if you copy them.

You should be able to type the pieces of hardware into Newegg and find them though. If you look back through some threads in the desktops section, you'll find the original post with this build.

But I've seen some of your other posts in this section and I think you have got a build together already. :good:
 
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