Wanting to get into PC Gaming.

Bryce Riley

Bryce Riley

New Member
Hi there, I've recently been thinking about getting a PC to game on & edit/render videos. Well I'm almost at a complete loss when it comes to knowing what to look for when it comes to specs for a PC. I don't wanna get suckered into paying for something I don't need. My budget is around $650-$750. I won't be playing in 4K most likely but something that can run 1080p smoothly with high FPS would sufice. So I guess my question is does anyone have any advice on where I should start? Should I build? If I was to buy a pre-built PC I'd want to be able to upgrade it whenever I wanted to. Where should I look if I were to buy a pre-built PC? What specs are a must?
 
You really need to increase your budget to get high fps. What games are you wanting to play? Sample prices are the following.

CPU - $225-$250
Motherboard - $150
Video card - $200-$350
Ram - $60-$75
PSU - $70
Case - $89
HDD - $70
SSD - $89
ODD - $20
OS - $100

Almost at $1100 even on the low side.
 
For a gaming PC, you need a good Processor and Video card. Then you should go for a Custom Build. This will provide a mental satisfaction that you have selected the components. For a good gaming PC you have to stretch your budget to $1000.

A good configuration for a Gaming PC is.
Processor Intel i5 4690 - (4 x 3.4 GHZ)
RAM - 8 GB DDR3 1600
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 - 2 GB
SDD - 240GB Mushkin SSD
HDD - 1 TB
Optical Drive - Samsung 24x Dual Later DVD Re-Writer
Case - Neptune Green Gaming Case
Motherboard - Asus Z97-P(Intel Z97)
Cooling - Intel Heatsink & Fan - Low Noise
PSU - Corsair 650W - Low Noise
Window - Windows 10 Home - 64 BIT

All this will Cost you $850
 
Luke Coates said:
For a gaming PC, you need a good Processor and Video card. Then you should go for a Custom Build. This will provide a mental satisfaction that you have selected the components. For a good gaming PC you have to stretch your budget to $1000.

A good configuration for a Gaming PC is.
Processor Intel i5 4690 - (4 x 3.4 GHZ)
RAM - 8 GB DDR3 1600
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 - 2 GB
SDD - 240GB Mushkin SSD
HDD - 1 TB
Optical Drive - Samsung 24x Dual Later DVD Re-Writer
Case - Neptune Green Gaming Case
Motherboard - Asus Z97-P(Intel Z97)
Cooling - Intel Heatsink & Fan - Low Noise
PSU - Corsair 650W - Low Noise
Window - Windows 10 Home - 64 BIT

All this will Cost you $850
Click to expand...

Seems expensive considering that's an old CPU, a very mid-range video card and a rubbish case. For $850 you should be able to get a GTX 960 at least and a decent case too.
 
Thanks Gents, I'll look into increasing my budget. May have to wait a little longer before making a purchase but that's ok.
 
You will need a $200 video card just for to play any battlefield games at decent frames.
 
Hey there, I happened to see a steam survey result that said very few people use AMD processors for gaming. However I have an AMD FX-6300 and it does well enough, very well on Battlefield 4 and Hardline and would rock the other games. The processor runs at $150 Canadian, making it ideal for budget gaming. Most new games recommend the FX 8350, however I have been able to max the settings maybe because my motherboard (see sig) has it overclocked to 3.8Ghz which it handles very well, using a quick button in the BIOS setting it to "performance." My motherboard and processor combination will likely not be able to push good fps for much longer likely, so perhaps getting an FX-9350 (running at $300 Canadian) or a 8350 ($250 canadian) might safeguard your gaming future if you're willing to spend the money. Aside from that, I'm sorry to say but the gtx 950 2gb is a budget card and tbh you'd probably be better off with a gtx 770 or 780, which would actually be more powerful, just older. If you really want new games to run at high FPS on max settings you're really best to look into at least a GTX 960, but the 970 4gb is really ideal without breaking the bank on a GTX 980.
here's an example system of what might suite your needs, but the motherboard won't support the FX-9350
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2252730
 
US pricing from newegg:
Asus M5A97 R2.0 - $90
AMD FX 8350 - ~$170 - OC using BIOS setting (very easy)
or FX-6350 - $130
GTX 970 4GB- $320-340
or GTX 960 4GB - ~$200
16GB DDR3 RAM - ~$70
or 8GB DDR3 - $40
good case- $80
DVD drive- $20
240GB SSD- $70
or 120GB SSD-$40
1TB HDD- $55
PSU- $80
Windows 10 $100 or Windows 7 $140
acceptable (all lower specs, good for new games right now at high settings) - $835
Ideal (all higher specs, future proof) - 1055 or 1095 with WIN 7 professional
A lot of people go for Intel and really it's probably better but you pay SOO much more when my 6300 still maxes out brand new games, except with witcher 3 I had lower a few settings a tad.
 
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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zg4G7P

I decided to go for AMD because you want to be doing some editing/rendering as well, so a multi-core CPU would do really well for you.
I was deciding between the R9 380, GTX 970, or the GTX 960 4GB I think the GTX 960 4GB would do you just fine for 1080P gaming!
If you wanted to go a little cheaper then go for the PowerColor R9 380 PCS+ video card. It beats out the reference 960 by a tiny bit, and it's $50 cheaper then the GTX 960 4GB by EVGA.
I chose the Corsair 200R because all in all it's probably the best budget build case on the market right now. Not a lot of cases that cheap offer the same features the 200R does.
 
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Luke Coates said:
Then Please suggest a Good Configuration that comes under $850
Click to expand...
Admittedly no OS and you'll need to add an additional $90 for a 250GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD but this lot comes to $820 and offers better gaming performance and a nicer chassis. Windows 10 Home is $100 but maybe you already own a copy of 7 or 8.1 that you can use to get 10 for free if you're lucky. ;)

In days gone by I would have recommended the AMD FX-8320 and an AM3+ board for a setup like this but I just can't recommend them anymore, especially with new CPUs from AMD just around the corner so I'm recommending Intel's Skylake setup for this which does eat into the budget especially given that prices for Skylake are higher than Intel's previous generation parts.

Intel Core i5 6600K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117561
Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128841
8GB Kingston Hyper-X Fury 2133MHz DDR4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104532
MSI GTX 960 4GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127929
Fractal Design Define R5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352049 (on offer at the time of writing)
Corsair CX500M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139050
WD Blue 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
 
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