Looking to build/buy gaming PC

noxnoctum

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Aug 27, 2008
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I've got a family member who is very knowledgeable about a lot of hardware things and will help me put it together (I'm assuming building my own is the cheapest route?), but he doesn't keep up with hardware developments in relation to gaming at all so I'm on my own there. My budget is up to $1000 but if I can do it for less that would be good. On the other hand, if I can get a pre-built PC that's only slightly more expensive I might do that.

I'm not really sure where to even start because I haven't looked at any hardware in a very long time, I'm upgrading from an ancient Dell XPS410 I bought back in 2006.

The most demanding games (I think) that I'll be playing that are out now/soon are the ARMA series, the DCS flight simulator series, and the Witcher: Wild Hunt. Ideally I'd like to be able to max out all of those (but maybe my budget isn't high enough for that?).

So I guess the main decisions I need to make are what kind of video card and CPU I want and how much RAM correct? Pointers there much appreciated. A big concern is the PC needs to be as quiet as possible I've invested in a pretty expensive high end audio headphone set-up but the headphones are "open" which means sound leaks in/out. Can I get a relatively quiet PC without shelling out a ton?

ATM, I'm also leaning towards an Intel CPU as I play some old games that only use 1 core and I've heard that Intel uses fewer more powerful cores while AMD goes with many weaker cores.

I already have a monitor so no need to include that in the budget.

Thanks for any help.
 
Solution
The above build is nice, I'd pick up an aftermarket CPU cooler as if you decide to overclock you'll need something better than the stock cooler. Something like the Hyper 212 Evo is only about $25 and is a perfect budget cooler.

If you don't want to overclock and want to keep costs down then a build like this might suit you:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.47 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($137.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($329.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $995.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-22 16:22 EST-0500
 
The above build is nice, I'd pick up an aftermarket CPU cooler as if you decide to overclock you'll need something better than the stock cooler. Something like the Hyper 212 Evo is only about $25 and is a perfect budget cooler.

If you don't want to overclock and want to keep costs down then a build like this might suit you:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.47 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($323.98 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $849.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-22 16:25 EST-0500

You could either save the $150 or purchase a 120-250GB SSD for your OS/favorite programs and games.
 
Solution