i7, GTX760.

Why an i7?

It's overpowered. Like buying a Ferrari so you can go fetch the mail at the end of your drive way and occasionally pick up twelve loaves bread from the grocery store.

Getting an i5 and throwing the extra $100 to the GPU would be better for any build other than serious video rendering rigs.

And if you're trying to build something for video rendering, a GTX 760 is a waste of money. So Esponeo's suggestion only really makes sense if you're doing a ton of rendering and a ton of heavy gaming on one machine.

750Ti is a bicycle. 760 is a cheap Honda.

760 double/triple performance of 750Ti. 750Ti fine for FTL. Need 760 for triple-A 3D titles e.g. Skyrim.

Do not exceed 23".

i7 4770K or 4790K.

8GB of RAM. Buy more later if needed.

i7/760 $200-300 more. Worth it.

The 750 Ti can average around 60FPS on Skyrim on ultra settings with 8x AA and 16x AF at 1080p with high texture packs. You don't need a 760 for it.

Your suggestions would be going over budget, unless you plan to skimp on other components that you have so far failed to mention at all. The GPU is extremely easy to replace further down the line as long as you have a PSU able to handle the upgrade.

What's wrong with 24" monitors?

Those are excellent examples of wasting money. You do not gain anything from hyperthreading outside of a few tasks that only a minority of computer users perform; I'd sooner suggest you put a $50 bill down a garbage disposal and buy an i5, because you'd still be saving another $50 or so for the same CPU performance as an i7. Here are the numbers: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-Intel-4690K

If you have money to burn, the 4790K is an option (just like the GTX Titan is an option for a GPU), but don't even consider the 4770K.

Hey, I can agree with that. The only problem is you either have to limit yourself to a max expansion of 16GB (or maybe 24GB if you like to mix and match) by getting 2x4GB sticks, or you're completely at the mercy of RAM prices when you have to buy the matching 8GB stick later down the line. The Ballistix Sport would be a good pick, as its prices have been fairly consistent.

The bulid suggestions here are on the edge of the specified budget, and you're suggesting a 25% increase with these changes. What do you plan to cut? No second monitor and a cheaper PSU?

You should present a completed build that fits the requirements set out in the original post.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jul 18 2014, 3:02 pm by Roy. Reason: RAM

Most heavy programs like 3D modeling, professional audio, and mining operations use vastly superior GPU acceleration.

The only thing I can think where you would need a processor that hefty is if you're running programs which lack the aforementioned "put it all the graphics card!" option, but are still computationally heavy. Console emulators, for instance.

Or if you want to run starcraft 2 on extreme settings.

You disqualified yourself from useful advice with your last post.
No.

That depends on personal preference and usage scenario. Dictating a display size makes no sense.

Only if you're one of the few people that actually put heavy load on 6 or more cores regularly.

The only reasonable suggestion.


Only if you actually use it.

this

4790 as per Roy.

We don't have money to burn.

Modem and router are purchased, up, and running. Just used Amazon reviews, mostly. I ended up getting the modem Roy has, but in black and cheaper. (without having read his post, so I guess that's good) I've had a NetGear router before that's still working, so I ended up getting another one of those, too.



How did I do?

- The black pearl version of the case has a $20 off promo code expiring 7/21. The optical drive has a 25% off promo code expiring today. Definitely snagging those.
- Mobo was $70 base on Newegg just a short while ago, wish I has decided to snag it.
- Monitor is also up $20 from this time last week.
- This RAM was a cheaper two months ago, too. I should stop torturing myself with price history, that one isn't even recent.
- As far as processors go, (and to a much lesser extend, the HDD) I sure do wish I lived closer to a MicroCenter.
- The power supply I just picked due to Ex's comment on XFX being SeaSonic by proxy. If not that one, I would just get the NZXT from Ex's original posted build.

Summary: The case and optical drive seem like something to definitely get now before the promo codes expire. Power supply, video card, cooler, SSD, and HDD look like a go. Is it worth waiting a week or so on other components to see how prices fluctuate? I don't mind waiting a week, but I don't want to wait more than a week to buy. Is there a chance any of those $10+ jumps might fall back down?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 19 2014, 6:58 pm by Mini Moose 2707.

Looks like a good build to me. Prices can always fluctuate, but they can go up as well as down. You can get a better deal if you have time to wait, but a week probably isn't going to make much of a difference (unless you get lucky with a flash sale).

This is the dumbest thread. If you were just going to build the cheapest computer possible, say that. You are prioritizing all the wrong things. You're paying way more than you need to for the case and fan. You're getting a power supply with far more wattage than you could ever need for a fucking 750Ti and an i5. 750Ti is the lowest GPU you could possibly buy. Why are you buying *anything* else that isn't the cheapest possible? The dumbest thing is the 16GB of RAM; if your budget was $2000 you still wouldn't buy 16GB of RAM. That's fucking braindead.

Drop down to 8GB of RAM. You could probably even do 4GB. Drop the HDD unless you're planning to put movies/music on the HDD. Drop the 4670, get a 3570. Don't pay over $20 for a fan. Don't pay over $50 for a case. Get a cheaper Acer monitor (the fuck is BenQ anyway?) Are you ever going to run SLI? If not, get a mobo with only one PCI Express.

Mobo, $67 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138353&cm_re=Z77-_-13-138-353-_-Product
CPU, $210 http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-3570-Quad-Core-Processor-Cache/dp/B0083U94D8
GPU, $145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487025
SSD, $130 http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=87761&vpn=MZ-7TE250BW&manufacture=Samsung%20Memory%20%26%20Storage&promoid=1286
RAM, $42 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006YG9EEW/?tag=pcpapi-20
PSU, $38 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371045
Case, $50 http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Elite-431-Plus/dp/B005ZCTJ9Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1405897322&sr=1-2&keywords=Cooler+Master+case
Fan, $17 http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-T2-Heatpipes/dp/B00K7809O2/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1405897076&sr=1-10&keywords=Cooler+Master+cpu+cooler
CD-D, $14 http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lg-optical-drive-gh24nsb0
LCD, $130 http://www.amazon.com/Acer-G236HL-Bbd-23-Inch-LCD-Lit/dp/B0098Y77U0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1405897163&sr=1-1&keywords=23+inch+lcd

(Heck better yet, get this refurbished ASUS mobo and save $17. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131962&cm_re=Z77-_-13-131-962-_-Product)
There you fucking go dude, $843. Save yourself some money in exchange for an equivalent machine.

I can't wait for you to piss away an extra $350 you could've spent to get a worthwhile GPU. Have fun playing 3-year old games at Medium settings at 40FPS while you stutter around the moment you do anything other than stand still.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 20 2014, 11:45 pm by Esponeo.

lol says to get 8 gbs of RAM and links 16 gbs instead. Also, I sure hope Moose isn't planning on installing anything other than Windows on his SSD or else he'll run out of space in about 2 hours.

It is Amazon. Click the little button for 4GB. Multiple products on one page, dawg.

This RAM shit is ridiculous. I have a GTX Titan, an i7, a 500GB SSD, two 3TB HDDs, a monsterous case/fan to OC. I've a software developer, a gamer, and an enthusiast. I routinely rock dozens of (Chrome) browser tabs, SQL Server, Visual Studio, multiple games in a window, etc. And at no point have I ever needed more than 8GB of RAM.

If you are going to store 100GB of music/movies and can't afford to put it on the SSD, I strongly recommend picking up one of these instead: http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Supersonic-Magnum-Series-Flash/dp/B004ZNA3UA. Its $90 for 128GB on a USB stick. (of effectively SSD storage with USB3.0) Put all your music and movies on there. This is a way better investment than the HDD, unless you REALLY need all that space, which I doubt. With the USB you can play your music/movies anywhere, any time. Beats the HDD.

I also have the new 14" Razer Blade with a ~250GB SSD. It only shows up as 230GB. The Windows 8 install is just under 40GB. You're not going to be storing every single triple-A game in the world on a 250GB drive at once, but why would you need to?

EDIT: You've gotten along with your existing HDD, presumably. The hardware hasn't changed. Just put that in your new device and use it for non-Gaming media storage.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 20 2014, 11:51 pm by Esponeo.

It looks like he also has a 1 TB hard drive otherwise. I have a 128 GB SSD and I'm able to store my main programs on it (the OS of course, Inkscape, CS2,Firefox/Chrome, TurboTax apparently, Skype, Audacity, WoW, MS Office, Vent, GIMP, and of course others...but I don't want to list everything). However, most of my games are saved to my other drive. I would love to upgrade my SSD to a 1 TB. That'd be awesome. I think he'll be fine.

I was wondering a bit how AMD is still alive when it hit me: They've totally captured the low-end of the market. You can save even more by switching to AMD.

MOBO + CPU for $190.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008V9959O?ie=UTF8&tag=cursegaming0f-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008V9959O
http://www.amazon.com/AMD-4-Core-Edition-FX-4300-FD4300WMHKBOX/dp/B009O7YU3S/ref=psdc7_t1_B009O7YORK_B009O7YU3S

260X GPU for $150 and it out-performs the 750Ti if you're really going to get the lowest-end GPU.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I5HIWT6?ie=UTF8&tag=cursegaming0f-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00I5HIWT6

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 21 2014, 12:29 am by Esponeo.

More seriously, here's a build that isn't stupid in your budget for under $1k.

$100 ASRock Z97 Pro3 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$240 Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I54690K
$77 G.SKILL NS Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-8GNS
$245 EVGA 02G-P4-2763-KR GeForce GTX 760 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support w EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card
$60 SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
$50 BitFenix Merc Alpha USB 3.0 BFC-MRC-100-KKX1-U3 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$35 Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
$145 SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

That's $952 and gets you all the "important" stuff while leaving the rest of your funds to decide on your monitor setup and whether you really need an HDD, or a USB3.0 128GB stick. You could even, no shit, get a GTX770 for $330 (+$80) and remain in budget.

I would personally recommend getting a pair of ASUS VS207T-P 20-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor. Which would put you up to $1152.

Triple posting, muhfuggas.

All cords will be included. You will need a screwdriver. That is all. The only "iffy" thing is knowing when to get rough with the components if they aren't playing nice with the motherboard. Sometimes you have to apply a lot of force to get that stuff in there. Any power strip from a hardware store is sufficient.

$18 The Logitech K120 is the simplest and greatest keyboard ever made.
$100 Microsoft Windows 8.1 - Full Version

I can only recommend mechanical keyboards, namely this one. Although brands like dasKeyboard are good too.

And I noticed the use of a CPU cooler. Do you plan on over-volting or something?

I suggested the K120 earlier in the thread; mechanical keyboards are only worth it if you're willing to pay for the best, but most people don't want to put down $120 for something when they can get something with the same functionality for $20.

Aftermarket coolers are nice if you're looking for something quieter than the stock cooler, or if you're planning on overclocking. Since he recommended the overclocking model of the CPU, it would make sense to have this option available.

But this part could use some improvement:
If you're gonna spend the outrageous price of $9.62/GB on RAM, get something better than Cas 11. Try Kingston Blu Red 1600 (Cas 9) or G.SKILL Ripjaws X 1600 (Cas 9), both cheaper (as of now) than the G.SKILL NS Series.