PC Advice for Newcomer and Old School Gamer

[EMSJunkie1995]

I'm wanting to build a pc with my dad. I've been a console gamer my entire life and know next to nothing about PCs.
My dad is an old school PC gamer. Some of my fondest memories as a little kid were watching him play Serious Sam, (his favorite game) OG Far Cry, and OG Call of Duty on his laptop. He hasn't played any games since probably 2004-05, so he doesn't know any of the modern specs and I never knew them in the first place! Lol

I'm wanting something that can run my old Xbox 360 favorites at max settings; like MW3, BO2, Serious Sam HD, BF3, etc. Maybe Crysis 3 too. (if I'm lucky!)

My dad wants to try games like Doom and Titanfall. I've shown him these on PS4 and he thinks they look awesome. He and I both agree that the resolution and FPS needs to be at least the same as the PS4.

So here are my questions..
1. What price range are we looking at? I've seen major console killer builds for $500 on YouTube. (Obviously PC only)
2. i5 or i7? From what I read, i7 seems like overkill. Maybe I'm missing something?
3. Prebuilt PC or Parts PC? I like the console-like appearance and simplicity of the Alienware Alpha, but my dad wants something that can be upgraded and swapped easily. He also believes you get more for your money when you build it yourself. What do you guys think?

 

[Calibuilt99]

I would say definatley buy parts separate and build yourself, its as simple as watching someone else do it on youtube and copy what they do and if you run into a problem you can always ask on here As for i7 vs i5, if you're mainly just going to be doing gaming / normal computer stuff I'd say definatley go for i5, I currently use an i5 4690k and love it. As for price it will vary, your most expensive piece will most likely be your GPU as you're going to want a higher-end one if you want to run max graphics etc. I'd say don't go any lower than a 980 but thats just me, Im using a 1070 at the moment and can easily run games at high settings with 60+ frames. Price range will also depend on your peripherals, if you're going to be playing alot of fps games id suggest investing in a 144hz monitor, though that may be overkill for you and 60hz will work just fine. Many pc gamers prefer mechanical keyboards and so on, but if I were to estimate a price for you without including peripherals id say about $800 ish depending on what specs you end up getting. I think that's about all I can think of in regards to the question you asked, if you want any advice or have anymore questions lmk, ive been PC building and gaming for about 4 years.