Time to build a new gaming PC

When you've got a budget of 12-1500, never ever get a "store bought" PC, always build a custom one. As far as custom heat sinks, they'll stay in place as long as they're secured correctly.

get a i7 6700, gtx970 or above, 240gb ssd, 1tb hdd, 8gb ram, gx900(or others), antec neoeco ii 550w or cooler master's, and enjoy

Last year I bought a Revolt 777 (prebuilt pc) from http://www.ibuypower.com/ and am pleased.

You can always DIY cheaper.

What do you think of this? http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/4zbtVn

Boy building PCs in the EU is more expensive than the US :O. I used your PSU in the build, and I was thinking you could probably bring your old optical drive from your current computer into this one (unless you're DYING to get a new one, haha). When I do a build I usually go over budget though, but I just can't resist high end hardware XD. I had to refrain from putting a PCI SSD in this build, haha. If you're thinking about upgrading your monitor I would look at a 144hz display. Some people might not think it's a big deal, but personally I think they're awesome. Especially if you play FPS or games that you pan the camera around in like Civilization, other RTS, and maybe even Terraria!

Hah,. like a few hours after i did the research for the pc,. my mousewheel broke down... >_>
Seems i'm looking for a mouse as well. Bother...

2 things:

• no rubber
• no wireless.
  so the g502 drops out,.
  the 402 may be an option, but i cant say for sure whether its got a rubber coat or not - anyone own this puppy?

Intel Core i5-6600k
Now, many people will tell you to get i7-6700k. Slight problem: unless you edit videos, use GB-sized databases, or stream for a living, the difference between an i5 and a hyper-threaded i7 will be exactly zero in performance and 30% in price. The only reason you see better fps rates in games is because the i7-6700 has a higher stock clock rate, but if you overclock an i5-6600K tot he same frequency, it will give you the exact same performance for a lot less money. And speaking of cooling…

For its cooler, get Raijintek Themis. Again, you may hear 212 EVO this, 212 EVO that, but that is due to people being used to just recommending that for years. The Themis is somewhat smaller (fits into the standard mid-towers that let 165 mm clearance) and has better cooling for lower price and noise range.

NVidia GTX 980 Ti.
If too expensive, then GTX 970.
If still too expensive, AMD takes over and the AMD R9 380X beats the GTX 960 both in price and in performance.
If still too expensive, then a GTX 750 Ti.

For power supply, Corsair RMx or RMi, or EVGA Supernova. There are a few other decent picks, but these are in the affordable price ranges. A 500 W should be enough for another 7-10 years.

For motherboard, ASUS or ASRock. Make sure the chipset is at least H170, but Z170 is infinitely better, especially if this rig should live another 7 years. The only real difference is how much would you invest in 4 years into a new system disk and how many HDDs+SSDs+internal optical drives you have now. If their total is above 4, then get an ASUS mobo. If less, then get an ASrock Extreme3, Extreme4, Extreme6, Gaming K4, or Gaming K6 (whichever is cheap enough).

For system drive, a Samsung 850 EVO. If you need a separate gaming SSD, it may be something else, but the EVO 850 currently is just unmatched. A PCI-E NVMe 950 Pro would be better, but the performance increase it brings over the 850 EVO is almost untanglible in real-world scenarios, yet it costs almost thrice as much.

For memory, Corsair, if you can afford it. Just make sure you don't fall into the rookie trap all wannabe PC builders do, and watch only the pretty frequency numbers to make your decision. The actual performance of the memory is measured by dividing the latency (the CLx number) with the frequency: the lower the number, the better the stick. So a CL12 2400 MHz stick will outperform a CL17 3200 MHz one, and will also cost like half.
The good thing about Corsair is that their memory is easy to overclock as they have nice cooling. The second best option, which is also usually a lot cheaper, is the HyperX series from Kingston.

http://pcpartpicker.com/builds/
Here you go :)

This is my field, but I'm on a tablet right now and a bit busy so I'll have to dig into it much later, just reply to this so I can get a notification as a reminder to do it.

Actually I made a quick list anyway. Here you go. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/whCJvK

I built myself this rig at the start of this week. http://imgur.com/7HeXEIS
Is running really well and sort of in your budget.

My computer was 4-5 years old, so i built a new one yesterday.
It is this one : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZztD6h
Not sure that it will help you as it is missing the psu, case, and hard drives.
I got them for around €1300 in France.

You may find a good store built PC but there is always a big reason for the price of it, they either sell it cheap because there is a bottleneck or they make look like a good deal with things like card readers and such. Anyhow it is worth looking around for a good store build PC because you may find a good deal but most of the time you will be better by building it alone.

Don't worry about the weight of the cooler because the thing should stay solid even if it is a 2kg beast which I doubt you will buy. I have an arctic freezer extreme rev2 which is 608g and is giant (torque..) and it stays solid on my poor microatx intel mobo. Just make sure that you check dimensions. I didn't check it and if the cooler was 0.5cm higher it wouldn't find under plate and if it was 0.5 wider it wouldn't fit over rams :D (I got lucky tho).

About the list you gave, looks quite good already. I'd change some things with that budget though.

• Get a better graphics card. 970 is good, but too weak for your budget. Get at least a 980, or maybe look into a Fury? A 390X is also a good option, if you don't mind the power draw. Don't go for dual cards, single cards are always better deals (just save the remaining money for an upgrade in 2-3 years, you'll get much better performance than by adding a second card).
• You can save a lot of money on the Windows license. I've seen them (legal) for around 40-50 euro's. Maybe not Pro version, but you don't need Pro version for a gaming system (OEM is limited to 1 PC anyway) (I now see you already gave that option, do it).
• The power supply is not that good (I know, because I have the same one :P). It's not bad (I got it as part of a deal), but you can get much better PSU's (I'd go with a Seasonic 520W, shouldn't be much more expensive). I know you can use it from your current system, but I'd still choose not to.
• I'd also get a bigger SSD if your budget allows it. Either a MX200 500GB or a 850 EVO 500GB. The NVME SSDs are super nice, but about twice the price per GB and not really needed for a gaming system.

Hope this is useful to you! Good luck with the PC build.

I got a new PC recently with a similar budget of max 1400-1500, including Windows 10, and also live in The Netherlands so prices are comparable. This is what I ended up with:

i5-6500 (i7 is overkill for gaming and I'm not planning to overclock.. if you're planning to overclock get i5-6600k)
8gb memory (yes you can get 16gb but not really necessary for gaming right now and it's easy to add 8gb later)
Nvidia GTX 980 (yes not the best deal price/quality but I didn't have enough budget to get the 980 Ti and I had more than enough room to get something better than a 970)
Cooler Master Hyper 412S (it's reaaaally quiet even when playing high end games)
MSI B150M Bazooka (once again, no interest in overclocking and this is a cheap, decent motherboard)
Corsair 550W PSU (not that great, but gives more than enough power)

Also for SSD/HDD it's personal preference I guess.. I got 250gb SSD and a big HDD and I just keep the games I'm currently playing on the SSD and switch them to the HDD once I'm done with them and might want to play them again in the future..

I recommend taking look at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ for individual parts (those are not just CPUs as URL might suggest) . What I like the most are their "best value" charts. It basically takes the score of the benchmark software they use and divides it by price. There you can for example see how terrible value GTX 980 Ti has, how much more you pay for those few extra percents of additional performance.

By the way, even though Intel Xeons are ranked pretty high, I suggest you just ignore those as they aren't really made for gaming. Lot of games put a huge strain on one CPU core and Xeons depend on distributing the tasks among cores.

That said, I guess it's a good idea to compare results with some game benchmark site.

Added you if you need any help. Been building PCs for like 10 years.

Tweaker(s) gespot!

I won't go into specification recommendations here. But here are some of the things most PC-builder might overlook.

If you can still find cheap Windows 8 license, get those instead of a Win 10 license. You could potentially save quite some bucks since Microsoft is still giving free upgrades now.

If you can, invest more on getting a good PSU and casing. Don't just put pour all your money on specs and use the leftovers for these. A good PSU and casing can last almost forever, unlike a CPU and GPU that you are gonna upgrade them sooner or later anyway. Things to consider when getting a casing - tower size, cooling, number of USB ports, harddisk rack space, and USB outlets.

Also, invest on getting a good enough DVD-drive. Most people do not need a DVD drive nowadays, but having one definitely is convenient. For instance, most hardware drivers now still come with a DVD installation disk. You can use it too when you buy a retail game that come with an installation disk, to save some bandwidth. Also, use it to burn backup disks.

Invest on getting a second HDD for backup purpose too. Get a free backup software and do regular backup.

I'm building one now. I'm going to be doing some graphics editing stuff (Blender/UE4 engine) so i7 is how I'm going to go, but as some have pointed out i5 may be fine at lower cost if you're not doing heavy graphics editing jobs. The PC's I've been looking at on PC Part Picker are coming in around 1300-1400, so it's about in your price range.

Here's what I'm looking at
i7 4790K and mobo
16G or 32G DDR3 RAM (Higher Ram amounts are only useful for loading large files like UE4 levels, so 8-16G will work for
Samsung EVO 850 250 or 500 SDD
WD 1 TB Blue HDD
Nvidia GTX 970 video - most seem to say MSI or Gigabyte are preferred
Corsair RM 650 power supply. (for this system a 550W or 600W power supply might be more optimal for best efficiency)
Win 10 and Case
any extras like DVD and/or Wifi card if needed.

Some thoughts on the choices.
Intel CPU - The i7 choice is due primarily to graphics editing programs I'll be using. I'd consider an i5 if not for that.
Nvidia GTX 970. Seems pretty good bang-for-buck card right now, and runs at good efficiency. I don't like loud/hot PC's so efficiency matters to me here. I'd consider a 960 if not for the graphics editing I'm going to be doing. (I did not want to go w/ the Radeon cards because I prefer the efficiency of Nvidia, and I understand for the programs I'll be running, there are less problem w/ Nvidia drivers).
The Corsair RM650 Power supply should provide stable and quality power. Putting this much cash into the system, I don't want to have a bad power supply causing problems. (I've had multiple PC's where cheap power supplies caused problems - often difficult to diagnose - and it's not worth the headache to me. I'm not sure if the 650W is too much for best efficiency, but it's my placeholder for now)
I'll probably go with a Samsung EVO 250 and regular WD 1TB Blue HDD, but if I didn't need that much storage I might simply opt for a 500G SSD.

Anyhow, most of the builds I put together around this template tend to come out around $1300-1400 USD, and this is a pretty strong machine.

I've just bought a MSI Gaming GTX970 4GB and it's on delivery, should be worth it's price for performance and loudness (Twin Frozr V should do wonders), but will let you know as soon as I mount it on my rig. ;)

This is mine what is more than enough for the actual games (@1440p/high, antialiasing off because you don't need it at this resolution)
I like overclocking, so I've bought AMD...

:: 27" BenQ GW2765HT LED IPS Monitor ::
:: FX-8320 @ 4600MHz AM3+ CPU ::
:: Alpenföhn Nordwand CPAF-009 CPU Cooler::
+Alpenföhn Wing Boost 2 Blood Red 120mm Fan x 2 (Front and Back)
:: MSI 990FXA-GAMING AM3+ Motherboard ::
:: MSI GTX 970 Twin Frozer 4GB OC ::
:: 16GB Kingston HyperX Black Fury 1900MHz 10CL (1T) ::
:: ADATA 120GB SSD SATA6 ::
:: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HDD SATA6 ::
:: EVGA Supernova NEX650G 650W Gold PSU ::
:: Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 PC Case ::
+Nanoxia Deep Silence 120mm Case Fans x 2 (Front)
+Nanoxia Deep Silence 140mm Case Fan (Bottom)
+Alpenföhn Wing Boost 2 140mm Case Black Fan x 2 (Above)
+Alpenföhn Blue Led Fan 120mm (Back)
:: A4Tech Bloody B120 Keyboard ::
:: Logitech MX518 Gaming Mouse ::
:: Razer eXactMat X Control ::
:: SteelSeries Siberia V2 Headset Green::
:: Windows 10 Home Premium Operation System ::

My CPU cooler is about 1kg with two fans and there is no problem for my motherboard.

GTX 970 is very good VGA card. You will not be disappointed with it, but you need a good enough CPU. If you like Intel you should buy 3.5-3.8ghz i5/i7 CPU.

i wanted to get a 970 but i am delaying my purchase bacause of pascal gpus which are coming this year. It annoys me to wait though:/

What motherboard you have in old rig ?
Because i7 920 can be OC to around 4+ Ghz on decent Air coolers, after OC this will enough for next 2-3years.
Ram 6Gb is enough for now - Upgrading to 12GB will be enough for many years :)
Add to this 970 ,new HDD + SSD and you no need anything more to buy for good gaming experience.
OS Win 10 :)

If I were you I'd keep the current setup, adding a watercooling kit for OCing that sweet i7 and a 980 graphics card.