Finally Building a new PC

It has finally come to the point where I need a new pc as the old will just not cut it anymore. It is a Frankenstein collaboration of various machines I have had over the last few years. I mainly play World of Warcraft and I ma tired of playing an low settings. I do not play any other games at this time and I usually have a few browser windows open surfing the web while playing Warcraft.

My PC current build is:
E8400 Core 2 Duo
HP Motehrboard
4GB Memory
EVGA Nvidia 7900GS KO 256MB Video Card
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

I already have a copy of Windows 7 pro 64-bit, a DVD drive and a 1TB drive I will be using in the new pc, so I did not include them in my replacement builds.

I am looking at a budget of around $900 or less. I will also need something that will be able to last a while as I do not upgrade very often as you can see by my current device.

Here are some of the builds I have so far:

AMD FX-6300 Build
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8QFnXL

AMD FX-8320 Build
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3sy2jX

Intel I5-4670K PC Build
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L8YKnQ

Intel I5-4690K Build
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mbWTFT


I am thinking the 4690K build would be probably be the best in terms of price and not having to worry about it being outdated in a few years.

Let me know your opinions. All help is appreciated.

Thanks for looking.

Do you live near a Microcenter?

I live about 15 minutes form Microcenter.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jMkrpg

Definitely go with an i5/z97 combo from microcenter then. I did a "custom price" for the mobo in that build link as when I go to checkout at MC, that's what the mobo price is (after a $15 rebate), but pcpartpicker's system kept it 15 or 20 higher.

You could save a few bucks if you found 8GB of ram used. That's a pretty low risk part to buy used and can be had for $60ish ($25 less than retail).

If you don't go with the $330 GTX 970, I would honestly go with a used card. If you buy new, the next card down performance-wise, will be an R9 290 and will cost more than the 970. An R9 280X is a significant drop in performance and costs just a bit less new. The GTX 970 is just an excellent price-to-performance card.

Used prices are dropping on video cards across the board right now because of the value from the new nvidia cards. You can get a used 280x for less than $170, used (non-reference) 290 for less than $250. I even saw a GTX 780 today for $260 in a classifieds ad, which is kinda crazy. Used last-gen (280x, 290, 780) or the new 970 are the best values right now, IMO.

I've just built the system in my signature (well, a few months ago anyway).

You can do this from scratch for under $700 I imagine.

Pros: it's stupidly low power, quiet and can run even BF4 at high settings on 1080p. I play Lord Of The Rings Online at maximum settings and get 40 fps in the graphics content heavy sections and sometimes go down to around 20 fps when in raids.

DanFraser said:

I've just built the system in my signature (well, a few months ago anyway).

You can do this from scratch for under $700 I imagine.

Pros: it's stupidly low power, quiet and can run even BF4 at high settings on 1080p. I play Lord Of The Rings Online at maximum settings and get 40 fps in the graphics content heavy sections and sometimes go down to around 20 fps when in raids.

Click to expand...

You're sig isn't showing (for me?).

Hmmm, so it is(n't).

Intel i5-4460 3.2GHz with stock cooler
Kingston DDR3-1333 2x4GB
Gigabyte GA-H81M-DS2
MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card
2x 120GB Kingston SSDNow!
1xSeagate 1TB
Corsair 200R
Corsair CX430M PSU

Something like your build would certainly be an upgrade for the OP, Dan, but I think he can do much better with a $900 budget.

Critical_level2 said:

I am looking at a budget of around $900 or less. I will also need something that will be able to last a while as I do not upgrade very often as you can see by my current device.

Click to expand...

He also wants it to last a while and I think the unlocked i5 and very solid, Z97 mobo will permit his CPU to feel new for years to come.

The 970 is just a great card for the money (I've amended the particular 970 in that build I linked earlier after I read this thread - EVGA is basically dropping the ball, then kicking it down a very long hill with that design). You could go with a slower GPU, OP, but definitely go used or you'll just be throwing money away. 970 seems like the card for you with your budget and desire for something "lasting".