Help with a build. 700-800$

[Inziladun]

Looking to build a new gaming rig that'll play any game on max settings (particularly The Witcher 3 as a benchmark) so if anyone can help me build a rig, i've been out of the Hardware game for quite some time.

Old rig finally kicked it after 7 years, but it did pretty well up til the end. Just need something not too expensive and over the top but decent enough for me to get some life out of it. Budget is between 700-800$ i figured this is a good price range to get something that'll be a pretty effective. I should also mention I'll be recycling my old Monitor, speakers, and Windows 7. So those need not be included.

 

[EarthDog]

Will you be playing on a 1080p monitor?

 

[Inziladun]

was planning on using acer al2216w. Is it worth an upgrade?

 

[EarthDog]

1680x1050 is a pretty low res (and somewhat CPU limited depending), but that is up to you.

I would look at something like this:

4670K ($275)
Z97 based board ($110)
GTX 970 ($320)
or
R9 290 ($265)
2x4GB DDR3 1866 ($65)
Corsair CX500 ($55)

Total $824 w/ GTX 970 or $770 with R9 290.
+ Case of your choice. I would go for the GTX 970 based machine personally.

When you have a bit more cash, get an aftermarket cooler for the CPU and overclock it.

Also, new GPUs are supposed to come out from AMD here in a couple of weeks... so you may want to wait and see what that does to pricing.

 

[Inziladun]

What about the Intel Xeon E3-1231. Pros n cons vs. the 4670k?

 

[EarthDog]

Its the locked version of it. You will not be able to overclock it. And it may not work in certain motherboards. You have to confirm support for it (most should, but it is something you need to check).

Do you plan on overclocking?

 

[Inziladun]

I mean I overclocked my old machine, but it was a very slight overclock as I didn't feel like getting to extreme with it.

 

[EarthDog]

Then the stock cooler and a $110 board such as the MSI Z97 PC Mate, will be fine.

 

[Inziladun]

What do you think of the ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard? Or should I not go too skimp with the board?

 

[nicspits]

don't skimp the board, it'll curb ur overclock and cut longevity significantly vs the $ difference. Earthdog did good and gave good advice (on the 970 and taking a week to save the bit extra if you need to).