For people with only $1,000 to spend, you will want a machine that can play games relatively well. My $600 rig that I built 8 months ago can play WoW at maximum graphics at over 200 FPS. If you have a budget of around $9,000, go here for the worlds best computer http://www.hardwareforums.com/threads/building-your-own-gaming-masterpiece.28900/ Your Going to start with a video card, because it is the most important part of a gaming pc, and is going to take up close to half of your budget. Video Card-Galaxy GTX 580 Fermi $465 Next you need a CPU that is at least dual core and 3.0Ghz, you want the best one you can find for under $200. CPU-Intel i3-560 3.33Ghz $150 Then you need a cheap motherboard with the right socket for that processor which happens to be LGA 1156, which is good if you want to upgrade it in the future because of all the CPU's with that socket type. The motherboard makes no difference in performance, so cheap is good. Motherboard-ECS H57H-M Black Series $80 Next you need RAM with a same maximum speed as the maximum speed as the motherboard and enough to fit both channels for maximum bit rate. RAM-Corsair XMS3 4x2Gb=8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz $75 Then you need a simple hard drive. It should be at least 80Gb for at least two or three games. HDD-Western Digital Caviar Blue 3.0Gb/s $40 You can buy a case down town at a computer shop with a power supply already in it, should be atleast 750W and should only be around $110-$200 Buy your own monitor based on what you want in a monitor. A mouse and keyboard combo should only cost around $25. Some 'OK' speakers should only cost about $20. And don't be an idiot and forget your optical drive, you can buy one for around $15. If you don't have quite $1,000, you could dumb down the video card quite a bit. My first build had a GT 440 from Galaxy. Its benchmarks are only half of a GTX 560, and the GTX 560 can't stand a chance against the GTX 580 that I have on this list. Yet my GT 440 could play World of Warcraft on max graphics at 90fps, and Crisis 2 on medium graphics at 41fps, and the video card only costed me $75. If you are looking at purchasing your very own video card for less, go here http://www.hardwareforums.com/threads/picking-your-perfect-video-card.28899/ My second set up only costed me around $1020. And I am not advertising any of these products.
Well i see a few issues with this build. It’s not nearly as well thought out as your high end build. First off... 1156 is ALSO a discontinued socket, both socket 1366 and 1156 are set to be phased out by Q2 2012. They were replaced by the newer socket 1155. Second, a core i3 will cause a bottleneck for a gtx 580. and lastly not only will a cheapo 450w PS that comes with a case not supply sufficient power to a gtx 580, but how one could even consider ruining a $460 video card by powering it with a sub-par PS is beyond my comprehension. I decided to whip up a parts list that I consider to be a good bang for your buck $1000 box. Tell me what you think. SLI Video EVGA Super Clocked 01G-P3-1367-TR GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit - $149.99 ea x2 $299.98 (out performs a single gtx 580 in every benchmark) CPU Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core - $219.99 (unlocked K model highly overclockable) Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 - $169.99 (Smart Response, sata3, usb3, A good motherboard is a key to a rock solid system) RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) - $99.99 (8 gigs of the best performance ram on the market, room for 8 more gigs on board) HDD-1 Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $89.99 (SSD 20 gigs for Smart Response remainder for OS Boot Drive) HDD-2 Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s - $39.99 (sata3 since our mobo supports it) Power Supply SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified - $69.99 Case Xigmatek ASGARD II B/B CPC-T45UC-U01 Black / Black 0.8 mm SECC / Aluminum and Aluminum Mesh Bezel - $29.99 (any ATX case will do but preferably one with adequate ventilation) Optical Drive Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - $19.99 Key Board - Mouse - Speakers - Combo DCT Factory KBJ-315U Black USB - $13.99 Total $1053.69 (before $30 in mail in rebates) The only part of this system I wouldn't be happy with long term would be the keyboard mouse and speakers. I would also probably spend an extra $30 for a 2TB HDD-2 instead of the cheaper 500GB drive. But over-all this system would perform very well as is, be overclock friendly and upgradeable to 16 gigs of RAM and Ivy Bridge
Honestly I didn't want to write one for under $1,000, I spaced how much power the GTX 580 would need, but I chose the GTX 580 for a more up gradable system. And the LGA 1156 is still a widely used socket because of the cheap price of the CPU's that can fit in it, and I chose it because there are many other CPU's that will match that socket and I doubt that it would go out of date for at least 3 years because of how many people use low end CPU's in the average house computer. I will change the option for a power supply, and the core i3-560 will work with the GTX 580 just fine. I do think that your opinion on the mortherboard, CPU, and RAM is a lot better, yet still really upgradable when it comes to the RAM, although it would be nice to find a motherboard that has 2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 ports instead of 1 PCI Express 2.0 x16 and 2 x8's. Also for a second drive, I don't think I could live without a 2Tb HDD, actually I think I would have to have a third 2Tb HDD. These are both builds that I think very few are going to use anyway, because a normal person can make a completely functional, yet still fast build for about $400, and true hardcore gamers are going to put more than $1,000 into a build.
