Gaming Rig - $1,500

[needoptic]

Dear Hard Forum,

long time lurker, first time poster. I've been staying off the needle of PC gaming for three years now, but I fear the time has come to take the plunge. Here go my answers to the holy grail questions:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Gaming.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Let's shoot for $1,500 for rig itself (no monitor, no peripherals)

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

'murica

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.

I don't have anything right now - so clean build. CPU, mobo, RAM, video card, memory, etc.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes. It will breathe liquid fire from the heat this bitch will generate.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

Targeting a 1080p build.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Right miaw.

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.

USB3 and SATA, I guess. Not planning RAID, not planning SLI, etc.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Arrrrrrr. No, do not have one (as I do not have a computor). Need to buy Win 8.1 @ 64bit.


Thanks in advance. Please give me a reason to blow my money and warm up my apartment in cold winter nights.

 

[needoptic]

Oh, and by the dubs:
http://amzn.com/w/3D139A1XFVJH9

It's a little more than i planned on spending, but wanted to at least offer up a baseline of what I was thinking. Crits, comments, compliments? Nude pics?

 

[arentol]

That 780 is massive overkill for a 1920x1080 monitor. As is a 770, but I put one in the build below to add future-proofing since the 770 should get you maxed res, maxed setting gaming in every game for a couple more years, and you won't be dropping to medium in any game at that resolution until at least 4 years from now.

If you want to future-proof for SLI capability then upgrade the PSU to an 850 watt, but you don't come close to needing that for the current build, even with a significant CPU OC.

Here is my suggestion for you, with $$ to spare:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2N9Oz

 

[Araxie]

not true.. a 770 ins't overkill for 1080P.. its the correct card for 1080P to all who are looking for great framerates with good 60FPS smoother gameplay with almost all eyecandy settings, however ins't overkill.. and this its from someone that came from a 660TI at 1450mhz, to a 770 at 1300mhz and I found not enough to some games, finally I had to go with a 780 to play locked at 60FPS, im not the average user that are happy averaging some "playable" 45-50FPS and for those people like me ins't 770 and 780 aren't overkill with the ability of max out games, play crysis 3, Far cry 3, MetroLL are games that still make a card like this to struggle a bit..

 

[arentol]

Okay, maybe not overkill, but it is certainly sufficient for the vast majority of users.. And "playable" does NOT need to be in quotes in reference to 45-50FPS. You personally may not be entirely happy with that, but there is no arguing that that is not objectively playable.

Regardless, I think it is still probably better to go with a solid build now and go to SLI later if needed than to hamstring the core system, which is harder and more annoying to upgrade, in order to get a card that isn't going to offer a functional performance increase in 95% of AAA titles anyway.

 

[needoptic]

Nice, thank you for the suggestions!

 

[silverbullet99]

You didn't state exactly where you are located, but if you are nearby a Microcenter you can save around $75 by buying taking advantage of their CPU/MB combo deals..