My boys saved their money and would like to build a gaming computer..there budget is $800

[Rick Miller]

Hi All,
Been reading a lot of threads and learning a lot on this site. My boys have saved some money and would like to build a gaming computer. They play mine craft and call of duty games. But we will need something that will grow with them for when they start playing some high end games. They will use it for school work. We record and download our boys playing in sporting events, so we would like to do some video editing with it also. One son likes to make movies also.

Approximate Purchase Date: We would like to start buying parts this week.

Budget Range: Around $800 plus or minus a bit...

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Web Surfing, Video Editing, School work

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg Amazon

Location: Peoria Il zip 61517

Parts Preferences: ADM or Intel

Overclocking: Maybe...I'm just a beginner but may want to try it down the road

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Your Monitor Resolution: They would like to use there Panasonic 1080 hd plasma tv or a sony 32" bravia 720 lcd tv for gaming monitor

Additional Comments: I'm sure they would like a little bling but it is not that important..I would like for it to be semi quiet...And I would like for them to get several years out of it before it becomes obsolete

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: All we have is a laptop and Frames per second are a bit slow.....

Thanks So Much,
Rick

 

[Kristijan Angelovski]

Hey man here is a good combo of parts if u like amd http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1292364 and for graphic card u should go for http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025&Tpk=sapphire%207870 its a little over budget but if u can get it its the best procesor from amd and a great card motherboard all of them are good check it out

 

[bad_eyes83]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1By5z here is one, its got some mail in rebates

 

[byanymeans]

Go with an i5 4670k. That can be overclocked down the line when needed. I would get an Nvidia 760 as well, which is very good value for the money. All the other parts just piece out by preference and reviews online. 8gb of ram minimum, 550w PSU minimum of reputable brand. Case large enough to fit it all and a motherboard that has a feature list you like. That should get you in around 800 if you go budget friendly on the other parts and not add stuff like a bluray burner. You can upgrade the GPU (spending about the same as a 760 is now) in 2-3 years and the CPU will still be fast enough to not be the bottleneck, and you'll be able to play the best games still most likely. All of this would be overkill gaming on a 720p screen however. The 1080p I wouldn't recommend for a PC either since it is a plasma which even the new ones still have burn in issues. If you overclock invest in whatever cooler gets toms recommendation at around 30 bucks if you are on a budget. I would not recommend SLI or Crossfire for beginners. It can be a little more trouble than the money you are saving, plus you don't need to. Single cards don't have as many issues with drivers or microstuttering. If you are ever in Chicago, Micro Center has the best prices on CPU, MOBO combos even with paying the tax, so if you are gonna be in the area for something that is where I would head. Check out their adds before you go. I know none of this is very specific... just general advice. Good luck! After your first build, later ones are way easier and less intimidating.

Here is an approx. cost per parts
Case:60$ keep your eyes open for sales on newegg with MIR
PSU: $40 see above
MOBO/CPU combo $320 plus tax $199 for cpu and $119 for the GA-Z87-HD3 LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard
see add here http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b1d991f9#/b1d991f9/33
GPU gtx 760: $250
RAM 8gb: $70
DVD burner: $16
HDD:$I would get a 500gb 7200rpm drive from seagate which I think can be found for as little as $55
Windows 7:$80

This comes out to about $891 slightly over, but if you take your time building it you might find some things cheaper. (always with mail in rebates) follow those directions VERY carefully.

Hi All,
Been reading a lot of threads and learning a lot on this site. My boys have saved some money and would like to build a gaming computer. They play mine craft and call of duty games. But we will need something that will grow with them for when they start playing some high end games. They will use it for school work. We record and download our boys playing in sporting events, so we would like to do some video editing with it also. One son likes to make movies also.

Approximate Purchase Date: We would like to start buying parts this week.

Budget Range: Around $800 plus or minus a bit...

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Web Surfing, Video Editing, School work

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg Amazon

Location: Peoria Il zip 61517

Parts Preferences: ADM or Intel

Overclocking: Maybe...I'm just a beginner but may want to try it down the road

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Your Monitor Resolution: They would like to use there Panasonic 1080 hd plasma tv or a sony 32" bravia 720 lcd tv for gaming monitor

Additional Comments: I'm sure they would like a little bling but it is not that important..I would like for it to be semi quiet...And I would like for them to get several years out of it before it becomes obsolete

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: All we have is a laptop and Frames per second are a bit slow.....

Thanks So Much,
Rick

 

[Stridox]

If SLI and xFire are a must in this build, t[strike]hen I think you are going to be hard-pressed with that budget to accomplish that due to the fact that most GPU's that are compatible with SLI and xFire are around the $150+ range from what I have seen with some being around $100 [/strike]but then it would do you better to get a $200 dollar GPU instead than xFire or SLI a lower end GPU so there goes 1/4 of your budget alone. And what you want to use as the monitor will require a higher-end GPU to produce a quality image on those TV's.

EDIT: The information about the xFire and SLI above is incorrect in the pricing of it but I still think it would do you good to get one good GPU instead of multiple ehh alright GPU's and then SLI or xFire those in the future thats just my own opinion though.

Then a CPU that is going to be able to keep up with a SLI set-up you either will have to OC it or if you don't want to mess with that then you will have to buy a more expensive one which depending on going with AMD or Intel will be $100-200 so there goes another 1/4 of your budget.

So all that alone will consume about half of your budget so now you need a case and probably an aftermarket heat sink if you are thinking of OCing in the future... there goes another $50-100 of your budget.

Then comes memory and you only really need 8GB unless your son is going to really get into Video making so then you may want to upgrade to 16GB so that is easily $150 dollars if you upgrade to 16GB. Or about $75 with 8GB.

So total cost so far is about $525 and this is probably low balling it...

And one of the most important components will be your Motherboard that you are going to put this all on I would recommend spending no less than $125 on it due to the fact that it is the Heart of your computer with the CPU being the Brain. It does one no good to go cheap on the Motherboard.

So you're at $650 so far doing good now you need a PSU or Power Supply Unit and I would recommend going with either SeaSonic or Corsair. They are both trusted brands amongst the building community.

That will set you back another $75 minimum so new total $725.

And then you will need a CD drive so thats about 10 dollars or so $735

Then a Hard drive and would you like to go SSD or a typical Spin Drive? that all depends SSD's typically run right about 1GB for every $0.90 so a 250 GB SSD will be around $225 or so, they are becoming cheaper and cheaper since they have found out how to build them more efficiently and at a cheaper cost. I currently run 1 SSD for my OS and some software like my browser and some games while I have a 1 TB spin drive for all my storage needs. So that can easily add up to $200 dollars if you do an SSD and Disk Drive... $935 now.

Then the OS which is about $90 so $1025 now and that would be hitting almost all of the points you made in your post. But that is just how I see it...I could very well be wrong on quite a bit of my knowledge I currently am running this...

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($78.49 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($122.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($76.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($498.97 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $1449.28

Although when I built my Computer they had a deal with the CPU and the Mobo so it dropped the price roughly $120 and same with the Western Digital Hard drive it was only $65 so in total it dropped the price roughly $130 but my total cost was about $1400 after taxes and shipping so just keep all that in mind when shopping for your parts and Good Luck and Happy Building!

 

[Rick Miller]

I did some more reading in the forum. I don't think we will include sli or crossfire in this build. And so far the recommendations have been outstanding. I really appreciate it...What specs should we be looking for if we purchase a monitor for this computer? The monitor does not have to be included in the budget. I can buy that for them....early xmas present...But I've been also leaning on including an ssd and a hdd...Thanks

 

[sacara21]

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ Outlet PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 23.6" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1089.87

This build is about $150 over your original budget of $800 (excluding the monitor). The monitor I included is a good 1080p monitor that is on sale for $130 right now! I have this monitor in my own personal build and I love it. Not as good as a 1440p monitor, but an immense step up from a 720p tv.

It was kind of hard to get an $800 intel build that included an OS. I am also not too familiar with AMD parts, but I know that AMD is generally better for budget builds. So if your boys can save about $150 more (or maybe you could front them? 😛) they can have a pretty good build that will run most games on high-ultra settings.

With the budget constraint I was not able to include an SSD, but there is a Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD on sale for 89.99 (I think). But again, thats just blowing the budget away at that point.

Also I did not include an optical drive just because they are so cheap and you can pick them up just about anywhere. And installing using a flash drive is pretty easy.

But anyway, this is just my two cents. Good luck with the build, and what an awesome way to spend time with your kids. I really wish my own father would have invested his time into something I was interested in when I was a kid.

 

[Stridox]

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.98 @ Outlet PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 23.6" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1089.87

This build is about $150 over your original budget of $800 (excluding the monitor). The monitor I included is a good 1080p monitor that is on sale for $130 right now! I have this monitor in my own personal build and I love it. Not as good as a 1440p monitor, but an immense step up from a 720p tv.

It was kind of hard to get an $800 intel build that included an OS. I am also not too familiar with AMD parts, but I know that AMD is generally better for budget builds. So if your boys can save about $150 more (or maybe you could front them? 😛) they can have a pretty good build that will run most games on high-ultra settings.

With the budget constraint I was not able to include an SSD, but there is a Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD on sale for 89.99 (I think). But again, thats just blowing the budget away at that point.

Also I did not include an optical drive just because they are so cheap and you can pick them up just about anywhere. And installing using a flash drive is pretty easy.

But anyway, this is just my two cents. Good luck with the build, and what an awesome way to spend time with your kids. I really wish my own father would have invested his time into something I was interested in when I was a kid.

sacara21 has a great build lined up right there, but one thing I would also add is, if you plan on OC'ing and lets say you and your boys get very much into it you will want to upgrade to either water cooling or an advanced air cooling unit so I would recommend possibly getting LP or Low profile DIMM or memory or RAM in case you do go that advanced air cooling unit because maybe you don't want to mess with water cooling or something. Going the LP way with the memory will give you some space so your larger heatsink will be able to fit in there with the Memory. Good Luck!