Lookin to build myself a nice machine for $1500 ADVICE PLEASE

[MICHAELSUMMIT]

Hello. I am pretty new to this forum, but I greatly respect the members advice here. I am looking to put together a PC for myself for around $1500 including an OS. The PC will be used mostly for entertainment purposes. Some gaming, though I am not a heavy gamer. I would like to play Skyrim, and Fallout 4 (whenever it comes out) so I am looking for something that will be able to run new games for a while going forward without upgrading in a year. I already have a monitor, but I think I need pretty much everything else, even a HDD, as my current desktop is from like 2005 or so, so there is pretty much nothing from it that I would want to use on my new build. I am hoping you guys can give me some advice on what I should put together on that budget. Thanks in advance.

 

[AddRAM]

My advice ???

Save more money.... Lots more

Operating System - Windows 7
Motherboard - Asus
CPU - Intel
GPU - NVidia
Memory - 16 GB Corsair or GSkill

And most definitely a Solid State Drive - Samsung - Intel - OCZ

 

[MICHAELSUMMIT]

hmmmmmmm...ok like how much more? I was under the impression I could put together a pretty decent machine (though not top of the line) for around that price. This is not the case? It is hard for me to justify spending like $2,000 pretty much to just play games. IT's not like I need it for work or anything


Hot Damn! 16GB of RAM is required these days? Holy Toledo! Hehe, I still remember the first computer my parents got when I was a kid had, I believe, 256 kb of RAM! LOL

 

[AddRAM]

Ya, my first pc had a 60 GB drive, 256 MB Ram and NO VIDEO CARD

 

[MICHAELSUMMIT]

haha, mine had NO HDD, ran at 4.77 mhz and had no video card either. It displayed 3 colors... Red, Green, Blue. Had 2 5.25" floppy drives and that was it. no internet connection

 

[badger906]

cpu: intel core i5 (an unlocked k model)
gpu: nvidia gtx 760 or 770
psu: corsair 650w
ram: 8gb corsair (8gb is fine just for gaming.
mobo: im an asus slag..
hard drive: samsung evo or similar ssd (crucials are dirt cheap but with slower write speeds)

 

[MICHAELSUMMIT]

cpu: intel core i5 (an unlocked k model)
gpu: nvidia gtx 760 or 770
psu: corsair 650w
ram: 8gb corsair (8gb is fine just for gaming.
mobo: im an asus slag..
hard drive: samsung evo or similar ssd (crucials are dirt cheap but with slower write speeds)

Which i5 model do you reccommend? This machine I am on now is running an i5 2500k. Check the current specs down below. This machine I put together for work about 2 years ago

 

[badger906]

an i5 2500k is perfect for gaming, no need to change that! its what I personally run in my gaming rig and theres nothing I cant play maxed out.

any core i5+ of whatever generation is ample for gaming, yes you can get a faster core i7 with hyperthreading but whenit comes to gaming the performance increase is minimal.

 

[MICHAELSUMMIT]

How about this video card I am using? It is a Radeon HD 6870 1GB. Should I go with something a bit beefier? This computer I am using now is at my work. I would love to take it outta here and use it to play games, but my boss would not be a fan of that. I am just trying to build something pretty good for my house to game on (and because my PC there is so old) and I don't want to have to upgrade it in a year or so to play Fallout 4 when it comes out

 

[badger906]

that gpu is a tad old now, I just upgraded from a 6950 2gb to a gtx 770 and its a whole different kettle of fish!
a gtx 760 would also be sufficient but may have to lower the odd setting in demanding games like bf4 or crysis 3 if you want to stay above 40fps.

 

[MICHAELSUMMIT]

Is there a big difference between different brands of the same video cards (besides price)? I guess for an extra $50 or so it would be worth getting the 770 instead of the 760

 

[badger906]

well different companies offer different overclocked varients and different coolers.

the one I bought was an msi afterburner varient, it came with a reference cooler (thats probably not as efficient as say a twin fan asus version) but it was £60 cheaper than a card with the same spec but aftermarket cooler... I could spend that money on something else and have even better performance i.e more ram lol