I've got a 16 yr old kid who wants to build a gaming computer, Who has the current recomendation.

redchief

Thrax used to put out and annual-ish,,list if:>... here's a decent computer for $600,, and $899 a turbo and 1000 it had a JATO bottle and a class 3 fire extinguish. The Kid,... one Duncandonut, is pretty sharp and just want to "roll his own" reasonable system, He's grown up on a mac, I gave him a cheap windows box that dual boots to Ubuntu, we may add Mint on the frankenbox just for experience, Just got his mac mini to boot to Win 7 home Premium. I'll be back up on the project and if asked provide minimal admin help I may draft Drasnor in as a consulting "physician" since he IS a rocket scientist.
The me know if you still do some of these builds parts list, I've built more than one of those lists,.., And, yes we will most likely take pictures as we go.
Thanks in advance

Straight_Man

Well, have not seen a Thraxian list in a while, as a list. So, let's start with what budget?

Tech Report does regular lists, they did some Xmas recommendations for December 2012.

Cliff_Forster

If your budget is super tight, I just built a system for a friend to game on that utilizes an AMD 970 board, an FX-6300 and a Radeon 7770, and it actually games really nice. Total build was under $500. If you can afford it, Run a 7870 if you only need to drive a single monitor, that will up you to a total build cost of around $700 when you consider the extra cost of card and an improved power supply to feed it. If you got a grand, you can build a monster box that will drive multiple high resolution monitors if you want.

Cheedle34

My current gaming computer is 4 years old and I have enough disposable income to buy new parts and/or build a new computer. Price range I'm looking at is between $1000-$2000. Any suggestions?

Tushon

Cheedle34 said:

My current gaming computer is 4 years old and I have enough disposable income to buy new parts and/or build a new computer. Price range I'm looking at is between $1000-$2000. Any suggestions?

Any specifics (watercooling, brand preferences, case aesthetics)? (should probably start your own thread just to keep rec's specific ... http://pcpartpicker.com/p/w2SY )

Cliff_Forster said:

If your budget is super tight, I just built a system for a friend to game on that utilizes an AMD 970 board, an FX-6300 and a Radeon 7770, and it actually games really nice. Total build was under $500. If you can afford it, Run a 7870 if you only need to drive a single monitor, that will up you to a total build cost of around $700 when you consider the extra cost of card and an improved power supply to feed it. If you got a grand, you can build a monster box that will drive multiple high resolution monitors if you want.

Agree that your budget is key to making a rec and feel free to give a range as cheedle did.

Cliff_Forster

If I had $1,000 for parts?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146093

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286&Tpk=fx 6300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233202

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151256

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

Spindle drive takes it over a little bit, honestly that's my one debate, how much to invest in spindle vs. SSD? I have a big 256 GB SSD now to store games I'm currently interested in playing as well as my OS. Might make sense to buy more SSD and just pull the spindle drive from the old machine and format it for file storage.

I can tell you though, for about a grand, 100% my parts list otherwise. I know I'd use that mobo, cpu and graphics card in that range. No doubt. The case, you can debate looks, but there is nothing better at $100, I just built in one, it's easily worth every penny. As full featured a mid tower as you will find. Power supply you could save maybe $25 or so on a lesser model, but I'm pretty much buying Corsair or Silverstone single rail PSU's exclusively unless the user is on a super tight budget.

You could start with an Intel spec, but if your serious about holding the $1000 budget it's going to rob you of graphics cash, and if the primary purpose is high quality gaming then you are robbing the wrong bucket. I'd spec AMD go six core vs. eight to save a little and pump it into a 79xx series card. 7950 boost models are an attractive option around $300. The FX-6300 while not eight core, six is plenty of threads for modern games and it overclocks like a dream.

drasnor

For $1100 including OS,

OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130647
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226337
Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112316
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119
Hard Disk: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151256

I wouldn't touch an SSD for under a $1500 budget. My gaming/home theater PC has that hard drive and that drive alone and load times have never been a problem. I'm pretty sure that the 7850 will be a totally acceptable upgrade from the integrated graphics on a Mac Mini. I'd be willing to front the extra $200 to get an Intel box with 20% less TDP than the AMD option which will translate into real cash savings on electricity; especially coming from a Mac Mini's power consumption. Why no love for SeaSonic power supplies? They're the best.

ErrorNullTurnip

drasnor said:

I wouldn't touch an SSD for under a $1500 budget.

I don't think I'll ever make another computer without a SSD, they just make everything snappier.

drasnor said:

I'm pretty sure that the 7850 will be a totally acceptable upgrade...

This. My 7850 is running 3x1080p displays with max settings on most games. Plenty of power in it.

Thrax

Then the games you're playing aren't modern or demanding.

Not saying the 7850 is a slow card, it's actually my favorite economical GPU, but I don't live under the illusion that it's designed to power demanding titles at maximum settings.

Cliff_Forster

@drasnor - I'll be bold and plant my stake in the ground as a regular builder. If your budget can afford aprox $1000, the question is not if you should have an SSD in the system, the question is how much SSD you should have? Minimum, every build that can afford it should at least get modern SATA III a 60 GB SSD if just for your OS, browser and such. It just makes the day to day usage better. Look, it's taking the shackles off your other expensive hardware, that's exactly what that investment is doing, it's removing the bottleneck so your hardware can actually perform at it's maximum potential. Heck, if my budget is as little as $700 I'm figuring out how to at least get a 60GB SSD in there for the user. I think someone else on the board was complaining about Windows 7 updates and how slow they install. For this alone the SSD is worth it. Have you installed service pack one on an SSD? How about configuring your OS and re loading your ten favorite programs, trust me, once you do, you are not going back to a spindle drive, I don't care how good the drive is, it's not competing with a good modern SSD. In fact, the build I did on a spindle drive, I think I'm going to charge an extra service fee to do it again, it literally takes four to five times longer. Spindle drives tie up my workbench . Also, might be more of a luxury than a need, but once you load levels in under ten seconds that used to take you nearly a minute, it's a great luxury. Big SSD's are priced at obtainable levels now. To get one at least large enough so you can put your current favorite two or three games on it so you can benefit from the improved load times, for me, it makes complete sense. In my opinion spindle drives are legacy hardware that should only be utilized for file storage. Running programs from them? That's the old way of doing things. I install OS on a Caviar Black here and there when I have to, but that's when the user is like, hey, what will $500 get me? Like I said, going forward, I might just refuse to do it unless I'm getting paid some extra to tie up my workbench. Spending $300 on a CPU to bottle-neck it with a spindle drive is not a good design.

Also, if your budget is really a firm $1000 and the primary purpose is gaming, less money on CPU, more on Graphics. It's going to offer the best gaming experience. AMD offers you the best path to obtain that balance at a budget. Suggesting someone shift their budget to afford more CPU vs. GPU on a gaming system is rarely sound advice. I suppose of you only want to play Starcraft II at 1280X720 medium details, it's fine, but if the assumption is a gamer want's to play at 1920X1080 utilizing high or ultra settings, then you want to buy as much graphics card as you can reasonably fit into the budget. For $1000, I feel sound in saying it's about $300 in the balance for the GPU. A 7950 boost is on an FX-6300 is going to outperform that i7 / 7850 combo for gaming at high resolutions / details.

redchief

I'm watching his eyes spin good lists...

fatcat

derp, done. ($994.91 after rebates)