$1000 Intel build

ZimFreak · November 8, 2015

This build is starting from scratch. I'm trying to keep this cheap while still being relatively future proof and Oculus ready. Now the weird thing is I'm not buying a GPU yet. I actually have a roommate who's letting me use his old AMD card (something like a HD7700 series), so that I can hold off on the GPU until Pascal is out and Oculus benchmarks start making the rounds. I originally was planning on a GTX970, but then I thought about the excess of vram that the R9 390 has, but I really want to go with Nvidia so I'll probably get a GTX980 or even 980TI once pascal comes out and the prices come down. Really it depends on how the benchmarks turn out between Nvidia and AMD on Oculus.

Purposes of this computer: Plenty of gaming, with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in mind.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($224.99 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.75 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.88 @ OutletPC)

Storage: A couple old HDD's

Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ Directron)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.98 @ OutletPC)

Total: $693.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 15:58 EST-0500

c_marriott · November 8, 2015

This build is starting from scratch. I'm trying to keep this cheap while still being relatively future proof and Oculus ready. Now the weird thing is I'm not buying a GPU yet. I actually have a roommate who's letting me use his old AMD card (something like a HD7700 series), so that I can hold off on the GPU until Pascal is out and Oculus benchmarks start making the rounds. I originally was planning on a GTX970, but then I thought about the excess of vram that the R9 390 has, but I really want to go with Nvidia so I'll probably get a GTX980 or even 980TI once pascal comes out and the prices come down. Really it depends on how the benchmarks turn out between Nvidia and AMD on Oculus.

Purposes of this computer: Plenty of gaming, with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in mind.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($224.99 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.75 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.88 @ OutletPC)

Storage: A couple old HDD's

Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ Directron)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.98 @ OutletPC)

Total: $693.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 15:58 EST-0500

Should probably get a larger PSU, at least 700w, might be slight overkill but it depends on what you end up adding later on

BigDay · November 8, 2015

if you plan on getting a 980 ti, 550w won't be enough. some of the higher end 980 ti cards pull 301w without an overclock so plan accordingly. why not go skylake and get the 6600k or even the 6500?

if you're just gaming, i'd get 8gb of ram at a higher frequency.

PlayStation 2 · November 8, 2015

Don't wait for Pascal, please.

Shimejii · November 8, 2015

Get rid of the term future proof, it does not exist and never should be in your vocab for computers. Second your GPU is going to be necessary in recent terms if your playing more recent games. Pascal Will be mostly about computing power, not graphical power for the first few months, it will be worth purchasing something now.

Sauron · November 8, 2015

The build is solid, but you don't really need more than 8gb of ram. Future proofing doesn't really exist in pc hardware, trying to achieve it will only lead to wasting your money. Lastly, do you already own a computer? If you do, wait until you are ready to buy the whole package before you buy anything at all. Buying the pc now but waiting for the gpu means when you actually buy the gpu you will be able to either pay less for the same build or get something better for the same money. If instead you don't have a pc and need one right now, I would advise to just go for an r9 390 (not because of the vram mind you, 8gb are just pointless on a card like that). Neither the 970 nor the 980 make sense at this point, since the r9 390 - 390x - fury are all better for the price.

ZimFreak · November 8, 2015

if you plan on getting a 980 ti, 550w won't be enough. some of the higher end 980 ti cards pull 301w without an overclock so plan accordingly. why not go skylake and get the 6600k or even the 6500?

True, I'll look into stronger PSU's. But I actually thought about skylake and built a part list but a skylake build will be $70-100 more for what I've read is only 5-10% performance increase and I'm already stretching my budget. Here was my skylake build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Micro Center)

CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.50 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.88 @ OutletPC)

Case: Corsair 500R White ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ Directron)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.98 @ OutletPC)

Total: $805.30

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-08 17:52 EST-0500

The build is solid, but you don't really need more than 8gb of ram. Future proofing doesn't really exist in pc hardware, trying to achieve it will only lead to wasting your money. Lastly, do you already own a computer? If you do, wait until you are ready to buy the whole package before you buy anything at all. Buying the pc now but waiting for the gpu means when you actually buy the gpu you will be able to either pay less for the same build or get something better for the same money. If instead you don't have a pc and need one right now, I would advise to just go for an r9 390 (not because of the vram mind you, 8gb are just pointless on a card like that). Neither the 970 nor the 980 make sense at this point, since the r9 390 - 390x - fury are all better for the price.

I like the idea of 16gb of ram because I often have a lot of programs open and I want to learn to 3d model and code as well. And the problem is I really don't have a computer right now. I'm using this 10+ year old laptop that barely functions. So I'd love to get something that can play games at med-high settings competently then in the future I'll upgrade the GPU.