First time builder :) sub $1000 budget

[Jeddek]

Looking to build my first computer here after getting my tax refund back and such. I know a little, but definitely not enough to pick out parts and what not.

I am looking to build a good gaming computer, able to run most games on ultra (or close to it), for less than/equal to $1000.

No need to include anything outside of the tower and its components (no mouse/monitor/etc).

Any help would be great Also if you could include if I should go for something like a SSD and such. Not super knowledgable on when/why I should get one.

And lastly, this is an on-going thing, as I will be buying the parts slowly (typically when i can find sales and such), so if i go a little over and a sale could bring me back down, that could work as well.

Thanks in advance guys

[Gungrir]

Looking to build my first computer here after getting my tax refund back and such. I know a little, but definitely not enough to pick out parts and what not.

I am looking to build a good gaming computer, able to run most games on ultra (or close to it), for less than/equal to $1000.

No need to include anything outside of the tower and its components (no mouse/monitor/etc).

Any help would be great Also if you could include if I should go for something like a SSD and such. Not super knowledgable on when/why I should get one.

And lastly, this is an on-going thing, as I will be buying the parts slowly (typically when i can find sales and such), so if i go a little over and a sale could bring me back down, that could work as well.

Thanks in advance guys

Hi mate, will you do anything besides Gaming on that rig? Do you like fast loading times in your games? Will you OC your PC? Do you wanna see your components? Do you want it silent?

With those information we can conclude if you wanna go for a i5 or i7 and the Motherboard, a small 128 GB SSD for OS and handful of games for fast loading times (if you put the game on the SSD of course ;P) or it should be bigger and of course what case you should get.

Here is a start:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $987.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 01:26 EST-0500

[Deleted]

Here's a different approach:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 87.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.90 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($117.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($32.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.40 @ Directron)
Total: $997.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 04:59 EST-0500

[Eroginous]

Looking to build my first computer here after getting my tax refund back and such. I know a little, but definitely not enough to pick out parts and what not.

I am looking to build a good gaming computer, able to run most games on ultra (or close to it), for less than/equal to $1000.

No need to include anything outside of the tower and its components (no mouse/monitor/etc).

Any help would be great Also if you could include if I should go for something like a SSD and such. Not super knowledgable on when/why I should get one.

And lastly, this is an on-going thing, as I will be buying the parts slowly (typically when i can find sales and such), so if i go a little over and a sale could bring me back down, that could work as well.

Thanks in advance guys

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kFHGNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kFHGNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Directron)
Total: $990.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 05:13 EST-0500

Better use of money to buy higher quality parts. You don't need a DVD drive. You can make a USB install disk for windows. You also don't need a 1tb HDD. Just buy an external HDD later on if you really need the storage. You'll want to hop on the PSU, Case, and mobo as they are typically more expensive for what they are.

[moremana]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kFHGNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kFHGNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Directron)
Total: $990.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 05:13 EST-0500

Better use of money to buy higher quality parts. You don't need a DVD drive. You can make a USB install disk for windows. You also don't need a 1tb HDD. Just buy an external HDD later on if you really need the storage. You'll want to hop on the PSU, Case, and mobo as they are typically more expensive for what they are.

These being higher quality parts is subjective. Everyone has their preferred parts, that does not mean they are of higher quality.

The 2 builds before yours are much better systems for the money and those parts are proven to be of good quality as well. Asus, Gigabyte, and Asrock are all good manufacturers, so is Crucial, Gskill etc. The Samsung 840 EVO, while good, is last years tech. the 850 EVO is out at about the same price.

[Gungrir]

Don't get TLC NAND SSD's (840 and 850 EVO) right now that have huge performance issues when some files aren't accessed regularly, better get MLC NAND SSD's like the Crucial M100 and Samsung 850 Pro.

[Gungrir]

840 EVO still has issues (don't know anything about 850 evo), firmware didn't fix the problems, get Crucial.

the 850 EVO is TLC, i don't think any form of firmware will fix that one and even the supposed firmware fix is nothing short of "we defrag your hardrive, lul". They basically drive over the unused segments of the SSD and put some voltage into it.

[Jeddek]

Thanks for the comments/suggestions everyone. To respond to you Gungrir, I will mainly be playing games on my comp. Only other things I'll be doing is some easy streaming of videos and such, and then maybe hosting a minecraft server (local) for me and my wife to play on. I dont really know much about OC, so not really sure whether or not I should do it. Load times arent a big deal to me, as long as it runs at high fps when I'm in game. Seeing my components would be "cool", but not necessary as well. And would love to have it a bit quieter, but my current PC is old and sounds like it's about to take off, so it's not necessary as well.

Again, thanks a ton everyone I'll look into everything posted. Any other suggestions/help would be awesome as well

[Remilia]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kFHGNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kFHGNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Directron)
Total: $990.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 05:13 EST-0500

I wouldn't ever get Corsair Memory. I had two sets of them like this. One from Newegg and one from Fry's (which subsequently died, like everything from there).
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post31966897
Nice to find the source of the annoying buzz, thought it was my computer at first but it turned out to be my keyboard's (K70) dumb LED.
PSU is... okay but there are better.
Nothing really there means better quality except the downgrade from memory and PSU.

[ayako]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($73.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $987.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 01:26 EST-0500

My vote's for this one, looks good!

:Thumbsup:

[Eroginous]

These being higher quality parts is subjective. Everyone has their preferred parts, that does not mean they are of higher quality.

The 2 builds before yours are much better systems for the money and those parts are proven to be of good quality as well. Asus, Gigabyte, and Asrock are all good manufacturers, so is Crucial, Gskill etc. The Samsung 840 EVO, while good, is last years tech. the 850 EVO is out at about the same price.

'Much better?' That's pretty subjective. Samsung 840 evos are a steal for the price in terms of read/write. The only thing really better is moving to a PCIE SSD or an 850 series SSD (which are significantly more expensive for the same capacity). I've got two in my machine for several months now that have zero issues. It's probably a batch thing, which happens with any manufacturing process.

I wouldn't ever get Corsair Memory. I had two sets of them like this. One from Newegg and one from Fry's (which subsequently died, like everything from there).

And I recently purchased a Gigabyte mobo that had problems right out of the gate. It happens. I recommend the Corsair Vengeance for price, performance, and low profile. You can actually get a bigger cooler without worrying about not being able to use the ram slots right underneath it, while still being able to get ram with heat spreaders.

A lot of lower priced memory doesn't come with heat spreaders (which isn't a huge deal, it's more about looks than anything), but anyone who is about to spend $1000 on a PC should probably buy what looks great in addition to funtion.

PSU is... okay but there are better.
Nothing really there means better quality except the downgrade from memory and PSU.

Fractal Design PSUs are excellent quality for the price, especially when the one I linked is a 650w for $45. I've had a 500w version of that one for quite some time, it works like a champ. Also not sure how the memory I picked is a downgrade. Both the other builds have the same amount of memory at the same speed. I'd rather spend a few more dollars to get a matching color for my build and an a heat spreader that actually covers the entire PCB of the ram modules.

Just my 2c

Edit: swapped the 840 evo for the 850.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9k9C99
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9k9C99/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($117.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Phenom M Midnight Black MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Directron)
Total: $978.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-06 15:41 EST-0500

[Remilia]

Reason not to get the Corsair Vengeance is because of false advertising and NOT the proper speed. I had to overclock the dumb thing to match the G.SKILL Sniper I got. The G.SKILL Ares is also the same while having a low profile cooler and cheaper...
The Fractal Design OEM is ATNG, not exactly the best one.

[ayako]

Reason not to get the Corsair Vengeance is because of false advertising and NOT the proper speed. I had to overclock the dumb thing to match the G.SKILL Sniper I got. The G.SKILL Ares is also the same while having a low profile cooler and cheaper...
The Fractal Design OEM is ATNG, not exactly the best one.

Sometimes they don't code XMP profiles correctly, you're supposed to enter the advertised values into BIOS in those cases.

[Remilia]

Sometimes they don't code XMP profiles correctly, you're supposed to enter the advertised values into BIOS in those cases.

I know how to do that, but the only reason I found out was because I was messing around with the bios and wondered why it was 1333MHz. It was also confirmed on CPU-Z that it is indeed a PC3-10700 and not PC3-12800. You aren't supposed to need to do that. You just get your thing, plug it in and it works as advertised, especially something as simple as a RAM stick.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post31966897
Like I said, I had to overclock it. This isn't even a wrong XMP profile, it's wrong RAM, period.

[ayako]

I know how to do that, but the only reason I found out was because I was messing around with the bios and wondered why it was 1333MHz. It was also confirmed on CPU-Z that it is indeed a PC3-10700 and not PC3-12800. You aren't supposed to need to do that. You just get your thing, plug it in and it works as advertised, especially something as simple as a RAM stick.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post31966897
Like I said, I had to overclock it.

Yea but that's what I'm saying. If it's running at advertised speeds through manual configuration, it's still not false advertising.

[Deleted]

Nah remilia ref to a certain corsair series, i remember it, they were advertised as 1600MHz but they were really 1333. You had to run XMP profile and 1.6-5v (if i recall correctly) to get the 1600Mhz. So yeah, they got their old 1333Mhz chips gave them cooling covers and because the chips could take it they "made" them 1600 for sales.

[ayako]

I know how to do that, but the only reason I found out was because I was messing around with the bios and wondered why it was 1333MHz. It was also confirmed on CPU-Z that it is indeed a PC3-10700 and not PC3-12800. You aren't supposed to need to do that. You just get your thing, plug it in and it works as advertised, especially something as simple as a RAM stick.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post31966897
Like I said, I had to overclock it.

Yea but that's what I'm saying. If it's running at advertised speeds through manual configuration, it's still not false advertising.

[Remilia]

Yea but that's what I'm saying. If it's running at advertised speeds through manual configuration, it's still not false advertising.

That's not how it works. When you buy a PC3-12800 aka 1600MHz, you get a PC3-12800 one. You don't get a PC3-10700 and have to overclock it to 1600MHz. It still is a PC3-10700.
If I overclocked it to 2133MHz, it does not automatically make it a PC3-17000.
Everything is meant as stock clock. If you get a i5-4690k advertised stock at 3.5GHz but you get it and it's 2.5GHz but you can over clock it to 3.5GHz, that does not make it any less of false information. False advertisement isn't that you can change the speed to the advertised spec, false advertisement is false information given to the public but getting something else.

[Deleted]

I think i found them
Check they say its 1600Mhz advertised but on actual corsair website specs check spd:1333@1.5v.

[ayako]

Sorry for double post, site freaking out.

That's not how it works. When you buy a PC3-12800 aka 1600MHz, you get a PC3-12800 one. You don't get a PC3-10700 and have to overclock it to 1600MHz. It still is a PC3-10700.
If I overclocked it to 2133MHz, it does not automatically make it a PC3-17000.
Everything is meant as stock clock. If you get a i5-4690k advertised stock at 3.5GHz but you get it and it's 2.5GHz but you can over clock it to 3.5GHz, that does not make it any less of false information. False advertisement isn't that you can change the speed to the advertised spec, false advertisement is false information given to the public but getting something else.

I know what you mean now. I was under the impression they just didn't code the XMP profiles properly, and weren't literally selling older 1333 ram as 1600.