Interested in building my first computer ($1200ish)

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shorr8

Reputable
Apr 9, 2014
23
0
4,510
Hey guys, currently I own a laptop I've been gaming on without dedicated graphics, and I'm interested in upping my experience as its a main hobby of mine. I'm new at this and it will be my first time but I wanted to buy parts and assemble a PC as I think it would be a fun project to achieve a better system.

My budget is about $1200, though I could extend past that a bit if it's not enough to handle the games I plan on playing (and would like to max anywhere possible). I would need to buy a monitor and keyboard, though I'm not sure I'm including those in my budget price. Also, I'm assuming I'd need to put my own Windows on there, and in that case I'd need to buy a license because I don't have one lying around.

I play various games like Smite (runs at 24-32 fps mid settings on my laptop), Fallout New Vegas, Payday 2, and Civilization V. Also, I play a bunch of Don't Starve which one would think would be a breeze to run at 60 fps all the time compared to some games, but my laptop struggles when more objects get on the screen (which is super noticeable in this game). I'd like to play more games that my laptop simply can't handle at an enjoyable experience such as Skyrim and GTA V now that that's on PC. I'd love to be able to handle max settings on as many games as possible and still maintain a killer frame rate.

Not sure how good of a build I'd get to run these games at this price, but my budget may be able to wiggle little bit, so any help and advice is greatly appreciated as this is my first time like I said and I'm unsure where to start.

Thanks all!
 
Solution
Getting it to the budget is easy, just skip the overclocking. Can even manage to do it with an i7 class chip and better SSD. 😀

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($241.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($17.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($56.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal...


Alright cool! Thanks man you've been a ton of help! Everyone who replied has! 😀