Help Bringing PC Down To Budget

mtrxye · August 3, 2015

I am planning on building myself a nice gaming rig very soon, and I need some serious help making my decision. I am having difficulty creating a build staying under or around 1300 USD, while being capable of gaming at the specs I want. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

- I would like to max out a variety of games such as Smite, SW:TOR, SW: Battlefront (which is supposed to be VERY similar to BF4), Nosgoth, GMod, HEAVILY modded Skyrim with lots and lots of lighting effects, and Simcity/Sims 4, while staying between 50-60 FPS (I will be getting a 60 Hz 2560x1440p monitor, not included in this budget).

- I live in the Houston area, so if that has any effect on how well the PC will perform (room will be sufficiently cool at all times) take that into account. I will have access to Microcenter.

- I would like the capability to SLI my GPU down the line, maybe in 1-2 years, as I will eventually buy a 60 Hz 4k monitor, with the current 1440p one being either passed down to someone I know or used as a side monitor to quickly reference information.

- I would like to stick as closely to a black, gray, and white theme as possible.

- The Define R5 is my preferred case, with a window. Colors don't matter, I like them all.

- Probably not a major factor, as I believe most motherboards have this, but I would love gigabit internet, as I will be getting that once I move into my new house.

- I want to be sure my CPU could handle SW:TOR (which is poorly optimized) operations and PvP with upwards of 20 players on screen at once, not even counting NPCs, as I have heard the game is very taxing on the CPU.

-If a 250 gb SSD is enough to store the OS, Smite, SW:TOR, and 1 or 2 more games, I would love to go with that. A hard drive can wait, as those are my most used programs.

I would greatly appreciate all the help I can get, to get this down to my budget as best I can. I may be willing to make sacrifices for the time being, upgrading later, but of course I would prefer not to.

Thanks in advance

Inception9269 · August 3, 2015

I took in account your preferences. I ended up going for a gigabyte build somewhat. a little over budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($103.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($121.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($102.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($519.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($113.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($83.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1384.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-03 00:12 EDT-0400

For gaming a 4690k is a great cpu, and with the cooler you could overclock it if you wished. Also seeing as you live in Texas a water cooler is probably essential.

I went with a gigabyte motherboard that matched the black, gray, white color scheme.

8gb of ram, standard.

went with a 250gb ssd since you asked for one. You should get a hdd now instead of later, the 1tb WD being good and not expensive.

Went with a gigabyte gtx 980. Since you mentioned probably doing a SLI down the line, I think you would be better getting this instead of spending a sh*t ton for 980ti's. This 980 has a backplate that looks really nice.

Went with the case you chose.

The psu will give you room for OCing and SLI

inb4 someone makes a build using a Xeon E3-1231