€800 ($1100) Gaming PC

[AlanBee]

Hey guys, any kind souls want to give some basic advice?

I'm basically clueless when it comes to PC gaming, specs or components. But I'm finally going to take the plunge and try to make a decent rig mainly for gaming and maybe some light video editing. A friend of mine is using this site to have his PC built and shipped over. He recommends I do the same because I don't know the first thing about assembly.

My goals are basically to be able to run semi-recent games on high and 60 fps with AA. Is this a realistic expectation for my budget?

Anyway I was wondering if anbody could help me out with regards to specs.

This is the PC my friend is ordering for himself from the that website and believes it will more than meet my standards. He says if I have the cash I should get the same.

Is it overkill? underpowered? If so where could I improve cost or performance?

The price is pretty steep for me and honestly I'd like to reduce it a bit so I could also order a decent monitor and keyboard as opposed to searching around for old ones.

Any advice or tips would be hugely appreciated. Thanks guys and sorry for asking such simple questions on an enthusiast forum.

 

[canadianvice]

Hey guys, any kind souls want to give some basic advice?

I'm basically clueless when it comes to PC gaming, specs or components. But I'm finally going to take the plunge and try to make a decent rig mainly for gaming and maybe some light video editing. A friend of mine is using this site to have his PC built and shipped over. He recommends I do the same because I don't know the first thing about assembly.

My goals are basically to be able to run semi-recent games on high and 60 fps with AA. Is this a realistic expectation for my budget?

Anyway I was wondering if anbody could help me out with regards to specs.

This is the PC my friend is ordering for himself from the that website and believes it will more than meet my standards. He says if I have the cash I should get the same.

Is it overkill? underpowered? If so where could I improve cost or performance?

The price is pretty steep for me and honestly I'd like to reduce it a bit so I could also order a decent monitor and keyboard as opposed to searching around for old ones.

Any advice or tips would be hugely appreciated. Thanks guys and sorry for asking such simple questions on an enthusiast forum.

You're doing exactly what I did when I made my first build, don't worry about it. Unfortunately, I'm too busy to put together a full build for you, but I do have a few other points:
1. PcPartPicker - go here. It'll try and get you the best deals on hardware that it finds from a variety of sites and lets you save whole builds. It also makes copying them to forums for review very easy.

2. It's honest-to-god like lego. As long as you match up your sockets, it's really hard to do wrong.
3. If you opt to apply thermal paste, use a bit, and put a plastic baggee on your finger to spread it. I saw this trick from a computer salesman and it's brilliant.
4. If you find yourself running short on SATA cables, monitor cables, etc. Go to eBay. They're dirt cheap there, and it'll help cut down your costs a bit.

 

[B_Days]

Hey there! I'll give you a link to a build site where they have a really good pc build.
http://pcbuilds.weebly.com/builds.html

It's in portuguese, but you'll understand all the names, I guess...
That rig can handle every game in 720p at medium-high settings // 1080p in medium settings! Plus, since you have an extra 150€ budget, you can uograde the GPU to, lets say, a GTX770! And you'd be rocking all games at high-ultra settings

still, I looked into your build, and it also really looks good! but I'd upgrade, once againd, the GPU, even though the r9 270 is a very good one

 

[AlanBee]

Hey guys thanks for the feedback, it's really appreciated!

After some more research I've decided to adjust a few things, this is the final build I'm considering ordering today, any comments or opinions are welcome!

CPU: AMD FX 6350 6 Core CPU
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
RAM: 8GB KINGSTON HYPER X-GENESIS DUAL DDR3
GPU: 2GB RADEON R9 270X
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

I was jumping between Intel i5's and AMD CPU's for a while but finally decided on the 6350 so I could up the GPU a bit while keeping in my budget range. Also I'm not currently considering overclocking once it arrives, maybe after some research I'll give it a try but for the moment I'm afraid I'll just fry something.

My questions now before I click order on the rig are:

1. Is the power supply sufficient or can I can I opt for 450W to save a little.
2. Are the GPU and CPU sufficient for most games at 60fps? I'm not expecting wonders when it comes to Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3 but I'd like to run say Bioshock Infinite as smooth as possible.

I've gone slightly over budget at this point considering I haven't factored in a monitor but I think it should be worth it.

Thanks again for the responses to this newbie!

 

[B_Days]

Hey guys thanks for the feedback, it's really appreciated!

After some more research I've decided to adjust a few things, this is the final build I'm considering ordering today, any comments or opinions are welcome!

CPU: AMD FX 6350 6 Core CPU
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
RAM: 8GB KINGSTON HYPER X-GENESIS DUAL DDR3
GPU: 2GB RADEON R9 270X
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

I was jumping between Intel i5's and AMD CPU's for a while but finally decided on the 6350 so I could up the GPU a bit while keeping in my budget range. Also I'm not currently considering overclocking once it arrives, maybe after some research I'll give it a try but for the moment I'm afraid I'll just fry something.

My questions now before I click order on the rig are:

1. Is the power supply sufficient or can I can I opt for 450W to save a little.
2. Are the GPU and CPU sufficient for most games at 60fps? I'm not expecting wonders when it comes to Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3 but I'd like to run say Bioshock Infinite as smooth as possible.

I've gone slightly over budget at this point considering I haven't factored in a monitor but I think it should be worth it.

Thanks again for the responses to this newbie!

1. I think you should keep the 550W PSU
2. Yeah, I think you'll be able to play everything at 60FPS, but on High, you may (or not) have some dificulties... I dont know that much about that GPU =s

Hope I helperd ;]

 

[canadianvice]

Hey guys thanks for the feedback, it's really appreciated!

After some more research I've decided to adjust a few things, this is the final build I'm considering ordering today, any comments or opinions are welcome!

CPU: AMD FX 6350 6 Core CPU
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
RAM: 8GB KINGSTON HYPER X-GENESIS DUAL DDR3
GPU: 2GB RADEON R9 270X
Power Supply: CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

I was jumping between Intel i5's and AMD CPU's for a while but finally decided on the 6350 so I could up the GPU a bit while keeping in my budget range. Also I'm not currently considering overclocking once it arrives, maybe after some research I'll give it a try but for the moment I'm afraid I'll just fry something.

My questions now before I click order on the rig are:

1. Is the power supply sufficient or can I can I opt for 450W to save a little.
2. Are the GPU and CPU sufficient for most games at 60fps? I'm not expecting wonders when it comes to Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3 but I'd like to run say Bioshock Infinite as smooth as possible.

I've gone slightly over budget at this point considering I haven't factored in a monitor but I think it should be worth it.

Thanks again for the responses to this newbie!

GamerDebate.org has a section for putting in rough specs on specific games and rating how well they'll run. I'd check it out.

 

[AlanBee]

Thanks guys for the answers, really big help!

I've decided to stick with the 550W that will hopefully allow for some upgrades next year. As far as I can tell, this build is sound for gaming as far as my budget goes. I've stopped obsessing over the FX 6350 vs i5 4670k or GTX vs Radeon for now, if I have any issues I'll just switch out parts next year.

I guess my last question is how essential is an after market cooling unit?

I'm hoping the stock fans with the case I'm ordering are sufficient. I'm getting a Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower Case

If I'm running everything at stock speeds is there a risk of overheating? or should I consider a cooler strictly for when I decide to overclock?

Thanks again

 

[B_Days]

Thanks guys for the answers, really big help!

I've decided to stick with the 550W that will hopefully allow for some upgrades next year. As far as I can tell, this build is sound for gaming as far as my budget goes. I've stopped obsessing over the FX 6350 vs i5 4670k or GTX vs Radeon for now, if I have any issues I'll just switch out parts next year.

I guess my last question is how essential is an after market cooling unit?

I'm hoping the stock fans with the case I'm ordering are sufficient. I'm getting a Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower Case

If I'm running everything at stock speeds is there a risk of overheating? or should I consider a cooler strictly for when I decide to overclock?

Thanks again

If you're running everything at stock speed, the stock cooler is enough. But if you want to OC later, then you should buy a new cooler.