Looking to build a gaming PC for christmas.

[psimaster]

What parts should I get? Also I'm getting Windows 7 Home premium.

[TodayIsForgotten]

What are you looking to do with it? What kind of games?

If you really want top tier. I would go with the 700 series gtx cards or the R series from amd. Last i checked amd was losing the race the but r series may put it back on the map.

I love intel so i would go with a nice 6 core setup (but thats me as im on quad). And honestly quad would be plenty but 6 if you're a tech whore. min 4 gigs of ram - i'd go with 6 or 8. Timing in my opinion is a vanity type deal. While it can be important it's not a huge deal.

Nice Asus motherboard.

Sound card? i dont know. Anything i guess. I use an external dac/amp combo myself.

[Seahawk]

It depends what you want out of it, and how much you are willing to pay for it. You need to decide that first before anyone can start recommending parts.

[psimaster]

I just want the highest performance. Right now I have this crappy PC from 2008 that's not even a gaming PC. And it runs Vista. Do you know what it's like? To have this crappy PC?

[CrispyChicken]

I just want the highest performance. Right now I have this crappy PC from 2008 that's not even a gaming PC. And it runs Vista. Do you know what it's like? To have this crappy PC?

Yes I had a Windows XP icebox that could barely run the simplest of games. Had about 30 GB of space and took at least 20 seconds to load every page. Keep in mind that I had this until I was 16.

[psimaster]

That's even worse. Anyways, back to the topic. What are the highest powered parts?

[Kong]

So you are saying money is not a factor and you just want the highest performance possible no matter what the cost? Ok.

CPU $3,000
Intel Xeon E5-2687W v2 @ 3.40GHz

GFX $700
GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Hard Drive $3,000
OCZ Z-DRIVE R4 C Series

RAM $800
Corsair CMP16GX3M2X1866C9 8GB X4

You're up to $7,500 before you even add case, cooling, sound card, speakers, monitor, power supply, mouse and keyboard.

Budget and requirements are important questions if you want anyone to really help you.

Set aside some money for speakers, monitor, mouse, keyboard, desk and chair (you don't want to spend a grand on a PC and sit in a crappy chair that kills your back). How much $$$ is left over for everything else?

List a couple games you want to play? That is important to know what the minimum requirements are.

No one can give you an accurate answer with out knowing what you want.

This is where I go to research hardware questions. PassMark Software - CPU Benchmark Charts (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/) Look at the value charts. Everyone should go there before buying any new computer or else you will probably get ripped off.

[psimaster]

Alright, money actually matters, then. Hm................................................ .....................

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

I mean damn, that's expensive. I guess I'll go up to 400 since I've heard of some high-powered customs that were about $393.

[TodayIsForgotten]

Alright, money actually matters, then. Hm................................................ .....................

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

I mean damn, that's expensive. I guess I'll go up to 400 since I've heard of some high-powered customs that were about $393.


You won't find anything high powered for that price. You can get a cutting-edge PC for around 600-800.

That would mean if there is a big price difference you'd get the i5 over the i7.

Ram is pretty cheap. Figure 6gb would run you about $60. You don't need to get the worlds best ram to have a world-class pc.

Case, that depends on you. Cheap for $50.

i5 processor ~$220

Decent to good motherboard $100-2xx. Again depends on what your standards are.

Vid card, if you want to be up to spec get a 780 gtx but do not buy overpriced superclocked or overclocked. If that's too high drop down to the 600 series. Those cards will still play all of the games on max settings. With the exception of maybe a couple.
$200-500

Sound should be good with onboard sound unless you got a nice external speaker setup.

Monitor? do you need one? Figure in another 125-250 for a decent hd screen.
Good luck.

[psimaster]

I'll get windows 7 home premium, and when this monitor dies I'll just get a new one. Probably a bigger one. Also, thanks for the help.

---------- Post added at 11:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 AM ----------

I'll be going to Newegg to order stuff.

---------- Post added at 11:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 AM ----------

Isn't there also things called coolers or fans that go in as well?

[TodayIsForgotten]

You could go liquid cooled but over kill. I like the cooler master haf cases. Plenty of fans. Just search for a case that has a lot of fans.

You might want to cross-reference with amazon as you will find better deals vs newegg on particular items. Even buy.com, as well. I do this all the time.

[Kong]

Disclaimer. I haven't built a PC in years. I've never built a gaming rig. I tried to cut as many corners as possible to get a cheap but still decent gaming pc.

Total $630.

CPU ~$130
PassMark - AMD FX-6300 Six-Core - Price performance comparison (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-6300+Six-Core&id=1781)

GFX ~$130
PassMark - GeForce GTX 560 Ti - Price performance comparison (http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+560+Ti&id=18)
or
PassMark - Radeon HD 7790 - Price performance comparison (http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7790&id=2502)

Blue-Ray Drive ~$70

Memory ~$70

Mother Board ~$100

Power Supply ~$50

Fan ~$30

Shipping and incidentals ~$50

Harvest these for free from old pc
Case
Secondary Drive
Keyboard
Mouse
Controller
Monitor

[CrispyChicken]

My computer has an i5 processor, 8GB Ram, AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series, Intel (R) HD Graphics 4000, one TB hard drive (1000 GB) and one 120 GB hardrive. The total cost of my computer was around 700-800 including a nice flatscreen monitor. Most of these are probably a bit outdated since this was last year, so if you want to upgrade above this, you would probably need to spend 200-300 more.

[psimaster]

Well, this vid has a tutorial to build and links to parts to boot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOYdNEHDQo&feature=player_detailpage

[Kong]

PC in that video is over kill.

The types of games you want to play is also an important question. If you want to play Battlefield 4 on highest settings then $600 isn't going to cut it.

If you just want to play games on RU then $600 is way over kill.

If you really want the pc for modern gaming then I suggest getting the steam machine minimum hardware.
Steam Machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine#Consoles)
That will start at about $800. Plus next year you can dual boot steam os on it.

I also suggest looking into Play on-demand video games over the internet - OnLive.com. (http://games.onlive.com/) instead of a dedicated gaming pc.

[bearhawk72]

I recently bought a new computer, now I don't need to play games on ultra high graphics or anything and I have a integrated video card for now

AMD quad core @ 3.2Ghz it is roughly the same as some i5 processors
8GB ram
1.5 TB HDD
integrated Radeon HD 7560D

Cost me about $650 with a new monitor. Probably could have been built cheaper but I needed it that day for work.

I haven't come across a game I want to play that it will not run(yet) but they limiting factor will be the video card which I can upgrade later.

i7 or the equivalent is where you probably want to go if you can afford it as it will be the most future proof processor for now(something better will always be coming)