Budget PC Gaming Build

[King_Gamma]

1. Budget & Location

$800 dollars USD
2. Aim
To build a PC that will run the lastest AAA titles. It would be preferred to be a Intel/Nvidia build (not hating on AMD), it is just a preference.
3. Monitors
Already have 1920x1080p monitor.
4. Peripherals
Do need a mouse and keyboard. Already have a copy of windows 8.1

5. Why are you upgrading?
First PC for a friend.

[SImoHayha]

here you go a great budget build ^~^

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($185.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($87.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB DUAL-X Video Card  ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Enermax ECA3253-BW ATX Mid Tower Case  ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $695.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 23:08 EST-0500

 

Base Total: $749.79   Mail-in Rebates: -$55.00   Shipping: $0.99   Total: $695.78  

[SteveGrabowski]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($185.88 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($75.97 @ OutletPC) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($72.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.97 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  ($329.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($52.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan: Antec 75120 79.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($3.77 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan: Antec 75120 79.0 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($3.77 @ Newegg) 

Total: $810.32

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 23:21 EST-0500

 

$750-$850 is a great sweet spot to get a monster of a gaming system. Just buy the cheapest keyboard and mouse possible and let your friend upgrade that later if he wants. Much better than blowing money now at the expense of the video card.

[Lotus]

This is what I would do:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($176.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($71.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card  ($329.00 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($31.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Keyboard: Rosewill RK-201 Wired Standard Keyboard  ($6.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Perixx MX-1800 ($19.99)
Total: $794.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 23:59 EST-0500

 

I have personal experience with the mouse (it's the one I use) and it has a "perfect" sensor (no acceleration, perfect tracking, etc) and great switches. Scroll wheel isn't good, but whatever. It's great for FPS gaming, and it even has a few extra keys that you can assign macros to. Plus, with the cost savings, it lets you get insanely good hardware in the tower.

 

Oh, and if you spend less on the GPU, with the current pricing AMD stomps on NVidia offerings. It's not until you get to the GTX 970 that NVidia becomes competitive from a price to performance standpoint.