Building first gaming PC, could use a hand or 5

dampab

Hey there lads.I'm looking to build myself a decent gaming rig before the steam sales arrive again to destroy my wallet more. My friend advised me to start here as he got his first PC advice from you lovely folk. So here's what I need:

1. What is your budget? [€800-1000]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/Internet] (I'm mostly into RTS/Grand strategy on PC and wont be looking to get the latest games at highest graphical settings on this rig it'd be nice if I could play games at medium/high with a stable FPS)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Oh dear no.

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080] [No]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [No]

8. How can you pay? [Laser]

9. When are you purchasing? [Late June to mid July I believe.]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Cork City]

Looking forward to any help! Thanks.

Addled

I did up a build quickly before I remembered there is an imminent intel processor refresh coming which is nothing major but will probably be a little faster for non overclocked parts such as in this build.

Here's the build anyway, just might need to swap out motherboard + CPU when you are about to buy with some of the refresh parts:

Item|Price
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150 |€205.09
ASRock B85 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX |€58.55
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9 |€58.90
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 Windforce 3X OC, 2GB DDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort |€268.77
Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6GB/s 6,4CM (2,5") 7mm |€55.63
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's |€45.64
LG DH18NS schwarz bare SATA II |€11.07
LogiLink SATA 0.9m Kabel mit Sicherungslasche, |€1.18
Antec GX500 schwarz, ohne Netzteil |€38.48
Corsair CX Series Modular CX600M, 600W |€60.88
Windows 8.1 64Bit Eng Intl (SB-Version) DVD |€82.12
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€905.30

All of these prices were taken from hardwareversand after running the items through geizhals.de price check.

This build has a xeon which is very close to an i7 4770, paired with the gtx 770 it'll have no problem with any game at 1080p.

You can swap out windows 8 for windows 7 as well but 8 has slightly better performance in all areas and with something like classic shell you can sort out the start menu problem for free. Some people have managed to get windows much cheaper off reddit and some other places in the "Cheapest place to buy Win7 key??" thread.

And finally there's still some money left for a keyboard which you could get off hardwareversand or maybe check out amazon as a lot of hardwareversand keyboards are in German layout. I'd recommend a mechanical keyboard something like the coolermaster storm quickfire TK or something from the corsair vengeance series.

SterlingArcher

Good jobbie should be getting you ultra settings on Rome 2 got example.

dampab

Well holy crap. Thanks a bunch, lads!

yawhat!

If my budget was around a grand I'd be going with something like the below! I'd swap out the Gtx 780 for an R9 290 though but OP wants Nvidia. Might be just as well to go for a 770 or 760 if OP wants to SLI the cards in the near future for cost reasons

Item|Price
ASRock Z87 Pro3, Sockel 1150, ATX|€78.06
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 700W - bulk -|€82.20
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€62.23
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Bx, LGA1150|€216.31
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€48.74
Corsair Carbide Series 300R, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€68.24
Windows 8.1 64Bit Eng Intl (SB-Version) DVD|€85.85
KFA² GeForce GTX 780, 3GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort|€415.66
Samsung SSD 840 EVO Basic 120GB SATA 6Gb/s|€72.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1149.27