Minecraft Forums

Hey guys! So a friend of mine is looking to get into the PC gaming market and he has asked me to help him design a good Gaming PC for him. His budget is about $1200 USD.

I have some parts and a semi-complete build in mind but if anyone actually has good builds for this price or can recommend good parts etc. Please let me know!

I'll be updating this OP with different builds I'm thinking of.

Thanks!

He is not factoring monitor, keyboard and mouse into the purchase as he has them already, he will most likely need an OS and it will probably be Windows 7.

Thanks

Quote from Fireingpower

There probably could be some improvements since i haven't made a build in a while but this should be a pretty decent rig


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.94 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H87 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($107.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($62.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($319.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT H440 (Red/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1201.70
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-15 23:23 EDT-0400)

From my limited knowledge on PC Building that seems pretty good. I wonder how much it would impact the price to get a more name brand Motherboard, unless I just haven't heard of ASRock before which is a high possibility. Also, I was thinking more on the lines of this motherboard instead: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-p8z77vlx what do you think?

Quote from JohnOptegrove

...what the hell?

Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Newegg)
ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($72.00 @ Amazon)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.98 @ OutletPC)
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($289.99 @ Newegg)
NZXT H440 (Red/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Newegg)
SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1014.88

(pcpartpicker.com/p/3L0Gv)

So is there any significant difference between using an ASRock Motherboard versus say and Asus?

Quote from Graph

You can't generalise based on brand. Depends on the actual motherboard. Which one were you thinking of?

I currently use http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-p8z77vlx and I'm decently happy with it. Is there a major difference between this one and the ASRock one?

Quote from JohnOptegrove

Chipset, to start.

I see, then would you recommend ASRock over Asus etc.

Quote from Graph

For those two boards in particular, the ASRock one is a more suitable choice, mainly because it has a newer chipest. Doesn't mean ASRock is better in every instance, though.

Thanks, My friend doesn't know much about PC's so he's looking to me for advice on a build... Which isn't a great idea since I don't know much either but I'm learning... Anyways thanks for the advice If there are any revisions or additions to the build John posted that would be cool. The build looks pretty solid to me.