Advice on a pc gaming rig build.

[Marc New]

So I'm trying to piece together a some what budgeted build for a gaming pc that will idealistically allow me to play on ultra or hight settings for a couple of years then slowly moving down in the graphical settings till I then build another generation of a pc build. The only problem is Iv been using pcpartpicker.com and being australian the pricing of stores are beyond insane compared to usa pricing (I get the Aussie dollar is low hence that ) so far I have thought of some components and have there pricing
Cpu: Intel i5 4690k for $234.00 from Amazon Australia
Graphics card : MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Cards for $330.00 Amazon Australia (unless there is a cheaper and reliable counterpart )
I was going to use fan cooling systems for my pc I believe I'm not experienced enought atm for water cooling and its pretty pricy
I was going to use kingstone or crucible (2x4) gb ram sticks but I don't know what all the difference is between models
I was looking for suggestions of cheap and reliable ssd drives and hard drives to use
But I'm stuck on mother boards I was going to use the msi z97 gaming 5 but I can't find a shop that ships to Australia and they jack the price up so much in stores here because they can, I want to run it on a single monitor using hdmi at 1080p,

So are these parts good enough for what I want? And are there other brands that offer the same for cheaper? I have been pulling my hair out because I just don't understand a lot of the babble and jargon they use when reading about them.

My budget is low in perspective, I would like to spend no more than $1200 australian dollar whice is roughly $900 US dollar, seeing as I want to buy a nice monitor as well. Obviously I would like if I could get a good cheap and very reliable build but I need it to last more than a couple of years with good graphics. It's safe to say I won't be able to get that with a $600 usa build but no harm in asking.

Thank you for any help and suggestions

 

[MarkW]

Cpu: Intel i5 4690k for $234.00 from Amazon Australia

$235.99 at Amazon USA.

Graphics card : MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Cards for $330.00 Amazon Australia (unless there is a cheaper and reliable counterpart )

$330.99 at Amazon USA.

I was going to use fan cooling systems for my pc I believe I'm not experienced enought atm for water cooling and its pretty pricy

Cooling fans are all 99% of users need.

I was going to use kingstone or crucible (2x4) gb ram sticks but I don't know what all the difference is between models

I have never heard of kingstone or crucible.

If the first brand is Kingston, and the second company is Crucial, both companies sell quality memory and SSD's. Crucial is the retail arm of Micron, who has its own fabs, and makes memory and NAND (the memory that goes into SSD). So they obviously keep the best of the chips for their Crucial business, and sell the rest off to other companies. This is not to say that Kingston makes lessor quality memory. Both companies offer lifetime warranties on their memory, at least here in the USA.

I was looking for suggestions of cheap and reliable ssd drives and hard drives to use

I, and many others here on Toms, like Samsung SSD's. They are very reliable, fast, and competitive on pricing over here..

But I'm stuck on mother boards I was going to use the msi z97 gaming 5 but I can't find a shop that ships to Australia and they jack the price up so much in stores here because they can,

Any motherboard from Asus, AsRock, MSI, or Gigabyte should be a good quality motherboard.

I want to run it on a single monitor using hdmi at 1080p,

So are these parts good enough for what I want? And are there other brands that offer the same for cheaper? I have been pulling my hair out because I just don't understand a lot of the babble and jargon they use when reading about them.

Stick with brands that you see talked about here on Toms. We tend to learn about the bad things pretty quickly, and have no problem telling people about them. On the front page here at Toms, right dead center of the home page, you can see the list of Best Picks for most of the hardware that goes into a system. Read through those. Get an idea for what is being selected at each price point and why. Many of those items also have reviews linked right in the section for each selected item. Those are the best items at a given price as selected by the staff here.


My budget is low in perspective, I would like to spend no more than $1200 australian dollar whice is roughly $900 US dollar, seeing as I want to buy a nice monitor as well. Obviously I would like if I could get a good cheap and very reliable build but I need it to last more than a couple of years with good graphics. It's safe to say I won't be able to get that with a $600 usa build but no harm in asking.

Again, take advantage of the Best Picks section on the home page here. Everything in those articles is sorted by price. And while prices here are going to be different you will still get a general idea of what some think should cost there.

 

[yeskay]

So I'm trying to piece together a some what budgeted build for a gaming pc that will idealistically allow me to play on ultra or hight settings for a couple of years then slowly moving down in the graphical settings till I then build another generation of a pc build. The only problem is Iv been using pcpartpicker.com and being australian the pricing of stores are beyond insane compared to usa pricing (I get the Aussie dollar is low hence that ) so far I have thought of some components and have there pricing
Cpu: Intel i5 4690k for $234.00 from Amazon Australia
Graphics card : MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Cards for $330.00 Amazon Australia (unless there is a cheaper and reliable counterpart )
I was going to use fan cooling systems for my pc I believe I'm not experienced enought atm for water cooling and its pretty pricy
I was going to use kingstone or crucible (2x4) gb ram sticks but I don't know what all the difference is between models
I was looking for suggestions of cheap and reliable ssd drives and hard drives to use
But I'm stuck on mother boards I was going to use the msi z97 gaming 5 but I can't find a shop that ships to Australia and they jack the price up so much in stores here because they can, I want to run it on a single monitor using hdmi at 1080p,

So are these parts good enough for what I want? And are there other brands that offer the same for cheaper? I have been pulling my hair out because I just don't understand a lot of the babble and jargon they use when reading about them.

My budget is low in perspective, I would like to spend no more than $1200 australian dollar whice is roughly $900 US dollar, seeing as I want to buy a nice monitor as well. Obviously I would like if I could get a good cheap and very reliable build but I need it to last more than a couple of years with good graphics. It's safe to say I won't be able to get that with a $600 usa build but no harm in asking.

Thank you for any help and suggestions

Hello Marc New,

You may be wondering why no one responded to your question for some time now.

Your question is lengthy. Though people usually don't mind that, you seems to be in dilemma, which in turn confuses people. You want AUS $1200, but at the same time thinking of High end components like MSI Z97 Gaming 5, Intel i5 4690K, MSI GTX 970 4GB Gaming etc., which is impossible.

I think you've mistook Amazon US price for Amazon Australia. All the price you've mention for parts Intel i5 4690K, MSI GTX 970 4GB Gaming are Amazon US price not Amazon Australia. So forget about GTX 970 and i5 4690K.

But the good news is you can still get a pretty good PC with i5 processor and an alternative GPU that will satisfy your needs.

I understand you need a good PC to be able to play games at 1080p that will last for couple of years, need a decent 1080p monitor. So keeping these things in mind, here is what I've come up with best possible config based on Australia pricing and local parts availability for around AUD $1200:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($245.00 @ Centre Com)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($125.00 @ IJK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ Centre Com)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($229.00 @ Centre Com)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.95 @ Mwave Australia)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($95.00 @ Umart)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($19.00 @ CPL Online)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($129.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($179.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1221.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 21:48 AEST+1000

Notes:

I came up with this solid build after considering all your needs and also based on best possible components that are locally available in your region, for around AUD $1200. So just buy and get on with gaming rather than confusing yourself too much.

The i5 4460 is a pretty good non-K gaming processor, which do not require a third part CPU cooler, as the default cooler that comes with it will do a fine job.

About the RAM, a decent 8GB (2 sticks of 4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz will be more than enough and 8GB is still the sweet spot for gaming. Getting a high clock speed RAM is going to give you only highly negligible performance or we can say the performance difference is almost zero. Watch this to get a clear idea: High Speed RAM - Is it Worth it? DDR3 1333MHz vs 2400MHz Test - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgzA2C61z4

Cheers!

 

[daniel_blacke]

Your gonna need to pare down your expectations a little but your not too far off.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.00 @ CPL Online)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($55.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($226.00 @ IJK)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($85.00 @ Centre Com)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ Centre Com)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($501.00 @ IJK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1483.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-12 22:02 AEST+1000


Do you need a copy of windows?