20 replies to this topic

[BobbyRiddle]

Is anyone out there a PC gamer that can help a newb with a first time build in the 800-1000 range?

[Tom]

That depends, are you looking to build an e-peen machine or a money-efficient build?

[Pjsprojects]

Just built two, your budget will get you a nice one, I used second hand parts and for under £300 i can run Tomb raider maxed out apart from Tressfx(her hair on high setting). Crysis 3 also runs very high and looks awesome,just a shame the games a bit lacking.

[meitantei_conan]

I am currently working on plans for building a gaming PC,for now its gonna cost me around $1300. I need money T.T

[TheUltimateWaddleDee]

Would you recommended a desktop or a laptop? I need one for college later and I want to have in mind what I should get.

[Pjsprojects]

Would you recommended a desktop or a laptop? I need one for college later and I want to have in mind what I should get.

 

both have merits, both of ours are desktops as when building them i had a wider scope for parts and cooling, laptop is handy but not as flexible as a desktop with regards to future upgrades. Oh and a games laptop seems pretty expensive.

[Nick Ellingworth]

There's one very important thing I'd want to know before I make an recommendations; do you have a monitor, mouse and keyboard that you could use for this PC? I ask because if you don't have these it could quite drastically reduce what you can afford to spend on the PC itself.

 

I can also give you some good advice that applies no matter what. The first is don't skimp on the power supply, seriously make sure you get a good one if you don't you'll almost certainly regret it in the long run. Secondly made sure you get a Solid State Drive for your OS as a minimum but ideally get a bigger one you can install a few games on too. You will probably want a regular hard drive along side the SSD for document storage etc.

[TheUltimateWaddleDee]

both have merits, both of ours are desktops as when building them i had a wider scope for parts and cooling, laptop is handy but not as flexible as a desktop with regards to future upgrades. Oh and a games laptop seems pretty expensive.

Yeah, I might get a laptop for college use and a desktop for gaming and programming.

[BobbyRiddle]

There's one very important thing I'd want to know before I make an recommendations; do you have a monitor, mouse and keyboard that you could use for this PC? I ask because if you don't have these it could quite drastically reduce what you can afford to spend on the PC itself.
 
I can also give you some good advice that applies no matter what. The first is don't skimp on the power supply, seriously make sure you get a good one if you don't you'll almost certainly regret it in the long run. Secondly made sure you get a Solid State Drive for your OS as a minimum but ideally get a bigger one you can install a few games on too. You will probably want a regular hard drive along side the SSD for document storage etc.

Thanks Nick. Yes, I already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. However, I do need an O/S to be included in that $1000 budget.

[Nick Ellingworth]

Well the OS I'd recommend (Windows 7 Home Premium) costs about $100, so you've got $900 for a complete tower. That could get you a lot of PC.

[BobbyRiddle]

So do you have some compatible parts that you would recommend bearing in mind that in a few years I might want to upgrade CPU and/or graphics card?

[Nick Ellingworth]

At the moment both AMD and Intel seem to be changing socket standards every year or two so a future proof motherboard isn't really something you can get. So it's very likely that any CPU upgrades in 2/3 years will need a new motherboard. Shouldn't have any problems with graphics cards for a while though PCI-E will likely be the standard for some time as even that massively expensive Nvidia GeForce Titan isn't anywhere near maxing PCI-Es potential data transfer capabilities. Any decent DDR3 RAM should be good for a few years though as will a good case, PSU, SSD etc.

[BobbyRiddle]

At the moment both AMD and Intel seem to be changing socket standards every year or two so a future proof motherboard isn't really something you can get. So it's very likely that any CPU upgrades in 2/3 years will need a new motherboard. Shouldn't have any problems with graphics cards for a while though PCI-E will likely be the standard for some time as even that massively expensive Nvidia GeForce Titan isn't anywhere near maxing PCI-Es potential data transfer capabilities. Any decent DDR3 RAM should be good for a few years though as will a good case, PSU, SSD etc.

 

Gotcha.  If you don't mind would you check out my build?  The good folks at Tom's Hardware seemed to like it.

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/b/Bu7

Edited by BobbyRiddle, 16 April 2013 - 08:06 AM.

[Nick Ellingworth]

That looks like a very nice PC, all high quality parts and very good value for money. It's actually quite a bit more powerful than mine which makes me a little bit jealous but when I made it I had a much lower budget to play with.

[BobbyRiddle]

Thanks Nick.  People actually rave about that graphics card and CPU.  Honestly they are probably more than what I need, but what the heck right?  Thanks for all your help man!

[Nick Ellingworth]

Happy to help.

[routerbad]

I have two of the 6870's, which are similar in terms of performance, and they are awesome.  Great build, have fun!

[BobbyRiddle]

I have two of the 6870's, which are similar in terms of performance, and they are awesome.  Great build, have fun!

 

Yeah and after I made my purchases on Newegg last night that graphics card got me promo codes for Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Far Cry Blooddragon.  I probably would not have bought Tomb Raider, but I was planning on picking up the other two.  Thank you AMD!

[routerbad]

Yeah and after I made my purchases on Newegg last night that graphics card got me promo codes for Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Far Cry Blooddragon.  I probably would not have bought Tomb Raider, but I was planning on picking up the other two.  Thank you AMD!

I remember getting DIRT and Witcher2 with mine.

[BobbyRiddle]

I remember getting DIRT and Witcher2 with mine.

 

Nice.  There is no better way to show off your graphics card then with Witcher 2.