***Buying in 12 Hours ($1400 Tower-Only Build)***

[AudoBell]

Hello, buying this build later today on $1400 budget. Anything you recommend changing for performance or price?

-1920x1200 Dell

-Gaming Only (No video editing or over-clocking)

-Looking to play Far Cry 4, Star Wars Battlefront, Age of Empires lol, etc

-Need reliability

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H50 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.00)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($132.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($519.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($86.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.45 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($15.00)
Total: $1383.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-02 01:10 EDT-0400

 

[RazerZ]

Do you plan to upgrade to multiple monitors or use one and play at 1900x1200?

If the latter this build could become much cheaper. You are also wasting money on a Z97 motherboard, after market cooler, and unlocked CPU since you don't plan to overclock.

 

[AudoBell]

Do you plan to upgrade to multiple monitors or use one and play at 1900x1200?

If the latter this build could become much cheaper. You are also wasting money on a Z97 motherboard, after market cooler, and unlocked CPU since you don't plan to overclock.

Good point. For now just 1920x1200 but yeah I may upgrade to a second in a year, I feel this build would still be able to handle two monitors.

Regarding the second response: I chose the z97 because of it's great reviews. I guess I could forgo the after market cooler... Just wanted to play it safe with extra cooling. And the unlocked cpu comes faster even without manually overclocking. I don't think price difference is too much though. Do you agree with this stuff? Thank you

 

[RazerZ]

Easily.

If you don't plan to overclock an unlocked CPU, it's not worth buying. It will be barely faster than a locked CPU at stock speeds and to see any real performance gain you would need to overclock it. Even then the gains may not be noticeable for gaming. Lot's of boards get good reviews, though it comes down to which chipset would be best for you. Since you don't plan to overclock the CPU or use multiple graphics cards (making a guess) I would go with the H97 chipset. It is very capable and feature rich for the money. For the CPU you could get away with a locked i5 and stock cooling. If you feel you need an upgrade over stock you could look into a cheap $20 air cooler such as the Cooler Master Hyper 212.

Here's a build that game play those games at ultra settings and is significantly cheaper as well:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($175.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PERFORMANCE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($299.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Best Buy)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($15.00)
Total: $897.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-02 02:15 EDT-0400

 

[smorizio]

i would hold on to your fund right now your buying when there newer cpu and ram dropping and newer gpu will be dropping soon from team red and green. i would use a skylake cpu and mb so that the gaming rig has an upgrade path for the cpu. haswell and brodwell chips most vendors are trying to clear out there older stock. for the power supply look at xfx units there 850w unit is 49.00 on sale (35.00) rebate). it give you extra room if you want sli latter.
nvidia tapped out there pascal gpu and it soon be onsale.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-conducted-secret-meeting-press-york-city/
http://wccftech.com/amd-allegedly-facing-trouble-sourcing-hbm2-chips-arctic-islands-gpus-mainstream-lineup-stick-hbm1/

 

[PunishedSnakeGr]

if you are willing to give 1400$ why not go for Skylake?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ynLVvK
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ynLVvK
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ynLVvK/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H170 Performance ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card ($373.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($123.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1197.58
An all black-red theme

 

[AudoBell]

Thank you for all your help. I took some points from each build. Unless anyone has something to change or add, ill buy this in a few hours

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar NAS 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($132.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($504.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($96.50 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($15.00)
Total: $1398.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-02 12:51 EDT-0400