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$1k gaming build Oct 2015

A

avatar[djedi]

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
195
Hey gang, thanks to your support with computer builds I have now helped 3 coworkers build gaming machines. You are doing God's work in reducing corporate dreariness, improving employee moral, and raising our overall frag count. Thanks to all of you tireless PC component picking gurus who help stretch out dollars as far as they'll go. Extra thanks to Dannibui (*is it Dangman now?) and e4gle!

You all have done such a good job, now the next coworker wants to get in on the action with a gaming build:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, web browsing, general media/streaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1,000 including tax and shipping
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

United States, charlotte NC
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, motherboard, ram, SSD, GPU, case, power supply
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
have mouse, keyboard, monitor
6) Will you be overclocking?
no
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
this week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
USB 3.0, sata 6gb/s would be nice. decent onboard sound card is a bonus... A quiet and non flashy case would be preferable.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
yes, have windows 10 pro


I'm wondering if we can get a gtx 970 into this budget...also the computer will be in a living room, so quiet is good, and not gigantic is also good.

I'm gonna see if I can post some pictures of the previous builds you all have helped put together.
 
Greensboro, NC checking in! Add me on Steam if you game frequently. lblanchardiii

Here's a nice little Skylake build.

$200 - Intel Core i5 6500 Skylake Quad Core
$95 - Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$169 - Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
$97 - G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2133
$290 - EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GPU
$80 - Fractal Design Define R4
$52 - XFX TS 550w Full Wired 80+ Bronze Power Supply

Total: $985.31
 
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Awesome, thanks.

In reading the reviews on that particular card a few people seem to be mentioning coil whine. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...a&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=3891137&SID=rewrite

I'm going to start reading up on that a bit more, but any idea if it's specific to just that card, or is it inherent to all 970's? My coworker expressed a bit of concern over noise levels, so if it's no biggie, will just move on, but want to figure it out.
 
I doubt you'll hear anything with that case. It's a pretty quiet case. Some 970s whine some dont. Mine luckily don't. You can go with a different 970, but that one fits within your budget.
 
I'm really loving that case the more I read about it.

Quick question:how big is the benefit by getting an i7 based platform? could potentially drop down to the 256gb Samsung evo ssd and use an old 1tb hdd for extra storage. e.g. i7-4790k
 
The 4790k is last generation. You'll need a different motherboard and RAM. It's also an overclockable CPU something you won't need. Just a regular i7 would be better. For gaming you won't notice any difference.
 
e.g. pchound tosses out something like this with their automatic picker:

https://pchound.com/ffuheJ/

PC Hound Part List - Hound-O-Matic (Alpha) Results

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K ($324.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws X Series ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 04G-P4-3975-KR ($317.93 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 650W 120-G1-0650-XR ($60.99 @ NCIX)
Storage: SAMSUNG 250GB 850 EVO MZ-75E250B/AM ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF series RC-912-KKN1 ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $978.86
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

Obviously would want to try to sneak in 16gb of ram there and substitute in that silent case...
 
Ahh didn't realize that was previous gen i7, read fail on my part. And now I see where you note "Skylake" :D
 
Well as I mentioned before it's last generation Intel. IMHO, it's worth going current generation.

You should go with a 2x8GB kit or at least a single 8GB stick since if you're gonna go with DDR3. DDR4 is out now and DDR3 will start to become sparce. Just go look at DDR2 availability and prices.

NCIX is a Canadian retailer. I doubt that 650W PSU is $60 USD.

250GB isn't very large these days, but if you have a 1TB mechanical drive for storage then I suppose you can get by with that.

Not a big fan of that case. It's cheap for a reason. It also has zero noise reduction.

Honestly I think you should stick with a Skylake i5 build for a $1000 budget. If you really want an i7 then bump you budget up a little and go with an i7 6700 for $330.

At the time of this post the 500GB SSD is $10 cheaper. Sadly the cheap 970 is OOS now.
 
Aye, sorry for the confusion, I am still liking your build way better (especially the case). I had generated that PC hound post before I had seen your reply about the i7/previous gen.

(and it was all auto picked, I have no unique love for any of the items picked by it!).

Any other PSU considerations though? anything worth a few ten's of dollars here or there to get a gold rated psu with a respectable warranty? Or is the XFX TS 550w Full Wired 80+ Bronze Power Supply pretty sassy?
 
That PSU has a 5 year warranty. You don't really want to use ANY PSU for much longer than that anyway regardless of how great it is.

Bronze, Gold and Platinum are all just marketing bullshit hype. What is Gold "certified' by one company probably only Bronze by another. That particular PSU is based off a Seasonic S12 unit.

How far away will the PC be from the wireless AP? You'll be better off buying a cheap router and bridging the wireless connection in most cases. However, if that's not a solution then I'd suggest just getting a PCI-e wireless NIC, but you'll want to visit the Networking sub-forum for advice there. I haven't looked into them in quite a while. Last recommended card I knew about was a ASUS N15 card. They used to be around $20, but something better might be available for the same price these days. Best to just ask for that advice.
 
As it's got to go in the living room, is size an issue? Perhaps an ITX system based around a Cougar QBX or Coolermaster CM110 might be preferable?
 
It's too bad you don't have a MicroCenter anywhere near you (and a little bit of flex in your budget).

$319 would pull you a 6700K. As opposed to the 6500 in the first response.

Unfortunately that's only in-store.
 
Size isn't an issue in the living room, just noise.

And yeah, i'm missing living in Atlanta and near a MicroCenter.
 
I see AMD gets no love in here, I'd recommend an R9 390/X over the 970
 
Thanks all, we pulled the trigger on what skillz recommended. (that psu dropped to $30 from newegg with a mail in rebate, so w00t!).

Appreciate the advice as always!
 
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