I want to build a gaming PC for the first time.....

.....but I was mainly convinced to do so because of Cities: Skylines.

How much would it cost to build a gaming PC that meets the maximum requirements of Cities: Skylines?

Don't build a PC to be spec of one game. Build the best PC your budget allows.

It will probably be ported to consoles, best to hold off.

Buy from Digital Storm, you'll pay more but they'll build it, ship it and you'll get life time support.

I don't want to play some cheap and limited console knock-off of a city-builder. That never works out.

No, just no.

No, because Cities: Skylines is literally my dream game, which I've been waiting for years. Years. I've been stuck with cheap-ass free online city-builders like fucking EpicCity, which is about to drive me up the wall. I love making maps and cities of my own, and I want to do it somewhere else than on paper and stupid-ass EpicCity.

My PC sucks!

^ what he said.

http://www.logicalincrements.com

Use it as a guide

It sort of depends on what you already have that you can still use. If you already have a monitor, a windows license, a mouse, and a keyboard, I'd look to spend about $800. That should get you a very solid mid-range PC that maxes most games. If you don't have a Windows license, the total package is closer to $1000, unless you are a student, find a good deal, or are a pirate. Monitors also can get expensive.

Congrats on this, though. Building a PC is a lot of fun. The most important things to remember are to get a power supply from a reputable brand and to make sure your motherboard is compatible with your CPU.

@Cloud_imperium: @ButDuuude:

@Kevlar101: The PC and Mac discussion can help you. Just state you budget and you will get a link for the PC parts. And also I think a good laptop can run this too.

Here are requirements for the game. It won't require you a lot of money to play this game on max settings and that PC will serve you well for 2 years for other games as well (med settings, no AA). What is your budget?

That's a good idea too. Ask modders to move your thread to PC and Mac discussions. There you'll find better answers with links and all that.

I don't give a shit. You don't build a machine to one games spec period. You build one that gives you maximum performance for the price you are paying. Your aim is have a PC that exceeds the recommended specifications.

What's your max budget

@Cloud_imperium:

Considering that I'm broke as ****.... if I save every spare dime I get until the end of the year, my budget will only be about $600 - $900 which, apparently, is ass.

Somewhere in this thread, I specified MAXIMUN settings, not MINIMUM.

@Kevlar101: $600-$900 is actually a nice budget. Well if we exclude the monitor.

And?

I already have a monitor...unless there's something that I'm missing here? Look, I'm new to this, so please excuse my ignorance.

Also, I have read elsewhere that $600 - $900 PC's are ass and low-range....this whole thing is confusing .--.

Do you need a copy of windows as well?

Holy Shit. You can build a kick ass PC with that cash. It's more than enough. You can build a High End PC with that price that will last you for years.

That will be just fine.

Does that budget include a monitor, keyboard or mouse? Or just the box?

#

Wait, wat? I read that high-end PC's can cost up to two grand.....hell, I was overcompensating on the $900 thing, too...

You must've heard that from console fanboys. Custom built PCs don't cost much these days. 500$ PC can easily outperform PS4 but if you want your PC to last longer then spend 600-800$ on it.

Moved to PC section. Good luck!

This is damn good news for me. I was dreading the price since I was expecting it to only result on something low-end....but this changes that, luckily.

Yep, everything.

Here is an idea, if you dont want to spend the time putting one together here is relativity cheap gaming pc LINK

First off $600 dollar pc you build yourself is just fine for this. Though $800 is generally the sweat spot for cost/performance. Yes it may be low end in comparison to a $4000 dollar custom built water cooled pc with everything under the god damn sun in it. But that's a Ferrari, your is just going to be a civic. Which is perfectly fine, dose everything you'll need and play games just fine at 1080p high ultra settings for at least 3-4 years and after that medium settings for a few. Pc's are a lot like cars, some are crazy expensive and nice, others are practical and offer the base features for an inexpensive price.

Where you from by the way? Can't really list you parts lists if we don't know where you come from.

Uhhh...where do I live? I'm not sure how that's relevant to telling me what parts I need....

The country he's asking for, I would assume you're in the US? It's important to know if your budget is $600-$900 USD? CAD? AUD?

There are a lot of Canadians and Australians on this board.

@Kevlar101: Seriously? Prices aren't universal, and depending on where you live effects on price (drastically), the parts available and the places to buy them from. But hey If that's not something you think is important good luck on your own.

@ribstaylor1: @NVIDIATI:

Hey, now... I didn't mean to sound pissy or anything, I just didn't catch your drift. That's all.

I'm in the U.S.

Seriously the dude is right, build a PC around your budget. Cities may be the game you've been waiting for (it is brilliant and a better successor to SC4 than SC'13 was) but don't build around it or you'll regret it if Cities 2 gets announced down the road and you can't max that out now because you built around one game.

If you're in the US, check microcenter.com and see if you live near one. You can get a good CPU+MB combo that'll generally run you $40-80 less than what pay for them online - just so it's clear: the CPU+MB combo pricing is IN STORE only.

Anything else, usually online purchases will be slightly cheaper than buying at a local store. Although, it doesn't hurt to go into a microcenter with a list of parts you want and compare prices while you're there - sometimes you find good deals.

About 3-4 years ago, I had my younger brother purchase mid-ranged PC parts. He spent about $310 on a CPU, RAM, MB, HDD, PSU and DVD drive (plus he had $20 in rebates to claim). At the time. He had an OS, GPU, case, monitor, mouse and keyboard already so that saved him about $300-400 overall.

I'm not very good at picking parts but how is this build:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fWG7gs

I need some experts to tweak it up. (Sorry if it's not great I'm still learning and I'm tired)

Still need an OS - that's roughly $90 +/-. Also if a monitor/mouse/keyboard are needed, expect another $100-150.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L9WW7P

If you need OS then this - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vHNRhM

A little over your budget, but you could make a few changes if needed. Such as non-K version of i5-4670 if you don't plan on overclocking.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p6HcP6

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p6HcP6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($225.75 @ OutletPC)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.98 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Micro Center)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.88 @ OutletPC)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.89 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($329.99 @ Newegg)

Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Micro Center)

Total: $958.46

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-16 23:53 EDT-0400

I'm sure you could run Cities Skylines maxed out on 1080 resolution with a carefully selected 500 dollar PC, maybe even less if you buy things on sale. But I would recommend that you consider budget first, and then check out some of the recommended builds on Tom's, TekSyndicate, etc. If you do all the research before you start dropping money in, you'll have a good time and a good PC.

PS. Read customer reviews on Newegg, Tigerdirect, or wherever you're shopping from.

Here's a build (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bPqDXL) that'll put you around $900 once you add a $30-40 tower (I'd suggest a mid-tower) and basic keyboard/mouse (after all mail-in rebates).

If you live near a MicroCenter, you can get a better CPU (i5-4590 and the same or similar MB and you'll save around $50-80), which will put your closer to $850 after all mail-in rebates. The CPU+MB deals are IN STORE only purchases.

If you wish to save a little more and still have a decent gaming GPU, you could opt for AMD's R9 270X or 280 - it'll save you roughly $30.

You could also use a Seagate Barracuda HDD that'll be about $50 instead of the WD HDD that's roughly $70 in the list I made.

A build like this - if you're not a graphic whore (doesn't sound like you are), should last you 3-5 years before you may have to get a new GPU to keep up with any other current games that may come out which you want to play.

@neatfeatguy: I've always had bad luck with Seagate's and I hear other people complain about them. I can't recommend them.

You will always hear about the bad ones. It's in human nature to complain (or at least we've been trained to complain loudly).

I've heard a lot of bad stories about people having issues with ASRock motherboards - I even had one that was problematic, but the last two I've used worked flawlessly.

I've heard a lot of bad stories about Zotac GPUs - but I have yet to have a problem wtih one. I had a 7600 GT that's still running in an older build now (roughly 7-8 years of use). My GTX 570 from Zotac is still going strong for over 4 years now.

I've heard people swear up and down about ASUS motherboards, but I've ran into a few people that's tried them a few times and they get DOAs or bad DIMM/PCI-E slots from a few models, so they don't use ASUS anymore.

True. I'm using a Rosewill power supply, have always heard about how terrible of a brand it is. But no problems for me in over a year of use.

They do... but the the thing is most super high end components only have performance improvements that become apparent in highly specialised work loads (bitcoin mining, heavy computation crunching for research, graphics rendering). But in games the performance advantages of those parts is either non-existent or so small it doesn't justify the cost.

What you want to do is look for components that make a sizable difference in real world games and get the best ones you can within the budget you can. Those parts are normally the ones that are one or two tiers down from the very best you can get. With $900US you should be able to get a pretty good machine provided you aren't buying the gaming equivalent of snake-oil components.

You should come back when you actually have the cash. By the end of the year you'll build a completely different rig than you would now.

... Yeah.. No you won't.. AMD cpu's are not going to drastically change, they are too far behind and there is nothing in sight that is going to be on the horizon.. Intel chips, who are in the lead, are showing minimal game difference between each new bridge.. There is a trivial difference between the I5 2500k and the I5 4690k.. The 2500k can surpass the 4690k overclocked, and even when you overclock the 4690k the difference in actual game performance is marginal at best.. Based on this trend there is little reason to believe that intel's newest chips will some how change from this.. On top of that Directx 12 is looking to increase performance of video cards by a significant margin from DX11, and lower demands of cpus even further..