Gaming PC Build - Any Advice?

Hello, I am looking for any feedback you might have on this build. To give you some context I have a budget of $750 (my estimate at bottom is slightly above $750 because I am not sure which video card to get and rounded video card cost from $160ish to $200 to allow for some space there).

Goal of this build is gaming. I have 2 monitors, I run them at 1080. I know some people run at higher resolutions but I think 1080 is nice and I'll continue to use these LCDs. I want to be able to max out new games. Be able to hop onto Steam, buy a new release, and not be worried that my computer won't run it or wait 5 minutes for the game to simply start up.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASUS Z87-A (NFC EXPRESS EDITION) LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard LINK
RAM: 16GB =2x G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9S-8GSR LINK

Above components are part of a bundle, total cost of which is: $322
Bundle Link + an extra 8gb of RAM

Video Card: Options-
(1) SAPPHIRE DUAL-X 100373L Radeon R9 280 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card LINK
(2) EVGA 02G-P4-3757-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 FTW w/ ACX Cooling Video Card LINK
Around $200

Power Supply: 750W Thermaltake Toughpower TPD-0750M - SLI/ CrossFire Ready LINK="#FF0000"]$69.99[/COLOR]

HD: + I have 2TB Western Digital I will carry over

I have a CASE (HAF 932), keyboard/mouse, and operating system already.

Estimated Cost: $522 +$200 + $69.99 = $791.99

Do you have a microcenter near you? If so, you can save a little money by buying a CPU+motherboard combo there.

I'm confused by your numbers, where is the additional $200 coming from? If the bundle is the CPU+Board+Memory for $322 then $200 for a GPU = 522 + $70 for the PSU = ~$600?

The 280 is a far better video card than the 750ti (http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1332?vs=1130), although I wouldn't imagine either being able to keep up with new games maxed out going into the future.

If you wanted to save come cash you could cut down on the memory to 8GB, which is plenty for now and you can upgrade that later.

Id go with only 8gb of ram, use the money you saved for a R9 290. Should run just about anything.

Id definitely think about getting a ssd as well.

That too. Forgot to mention the 240gb ssd

Won't be able to overclock in the future if you decide too.

Yeah I happen to agree with what they said too. The rig looks pretty decent, but you don't necessarily need to have the extra 8Gb of memory, and having the ssd as your primary to boot from will certainly help in the speed of booting your computer and heavy OS operations, but if your game assets are all on your traditional WD HDD then performance to games won't be much using the ssd. That being said I would still definitely recommend using it for the OS.

Whatever the guys above said. 8gb would be plenty for gaming and they could get you an R9 290, which should be decent for 1-1,5 years. You can also save some bucks by going with the CX430 PSU. Since you're not OC'ing or SLI/Xfire, 750W seem overkill

Okay, thank you for all of your feedback. I will go with 8gb and put the rest towards an R9 290. One of my first upgrades will be an SSD as they are dramatically falling in price lately.

Janus67 said:

Do you have a microcenter near you? If so, you can save a little money by buying a CPU+motherboard combo there.

I'm confused by your numbers, where is the additional $200 coming from? If the bundle is the CPU+Board+Memory for $322 then $200 for a GPU = 522 + $70 for the PSU = ~$600?

The 280 is a far better video card than the 750ti (http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1332?vs=1130), although I wouldn't imagine either being able to keep up with new games maxed out going into the future.

If you wanted to save come cash you could cut down on the memory to 8GB, which is plenty for now and you can upgrade that later.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Is there a particular deal at microcenter that I should check out? There is one in Brooklyn and I'm in Manhattan so it isn't too far away.

Also, about how long would the video card be relevant for, two years? I am fine with upgrading the video card in a couple years, what I don't want to happen is new processors come out and to avoid bottleneck I have to upgrade motherboard to support new socket type, get new CPU, get new video card, and essentially start an entire new build again in a few years.

Your good on your motherboard and cpu, that will last a while. Although, i believe there is a new processor by intel coming out in May. Im not sure tho.

Depending on your favorite games, that R9 290 may last you a long time. Imo a year is quite a while for hardware anyways, but i could see it lasting longer unless your buying every new AAA title and wanting to play at maximum settings.

Also in my opinion id go with atleast a 500watt psu, that way you dont really have to worry about anything. 600watt would be ideal. I thought the same and almost bought a 450watt psu. Im glad i didnt, thats one thing i dont have to worry about for a while.