Recommendations for a 1200 dollar rig

My friend wants a gaming rig and his budget is 1200 dollars. He already has a monitor (768p), speakers, mouse and keyboard.

Thanks :)

He's gonna want a new monitor, also what speakers mouse and keyboard does he have?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hx9KNN

Something like that

this is great build , but i would also go with monitor , at least 1080 ... your friend monitor is out dated really !

@Jawad2007: Meh. I'd get a complete build first then upgrade the monitor

Tell your friend tell sell his current monitor and get a decent 1080p monitor, (Should set him back around $200, then with the remaining $1000 he can build his PC, here is a good build I would recommend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-IpIFNwgQ

I tried to make a nice compact micro-ATX build for your friend but PC Part Picker claims 200 series motherboards aren't compatible with the kaby-lake i5 I picked, so...umm...wtf?

Asus says the CPU is compatible, so maybe they just have to work things out on the web site.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fBjJNN

@employee427: I think he has some generic ones.

@MonsieurX: This looks a really solid rig. I was thinking of having him skip the SSD and CPU cooler to use the extra money to buy a new 1080p monitor. Is that a good idea?

No no no, you do NOT want to skip those

you can skip aftermarket CPU coolers, the stock ones that come with the CPU are fine these days (they weren't always). Unless you plan on overclocking, and you shouldn't initially, you don't need an aftermarket fan and heatsink.

SSDs are not even necessary, but highly recommended, specifically for your OS. Just get a 128 GB SSD for your OS, and then if money is tight get HDDs for your second drives (for games and media). If your friend is not big into media, you can even get by with a smaller second SSD (like 512 GB or 1 TB) and still be within budget.

If he finds himself getting into media or needing more space, just add another hard drive down the road. You don't need to keep all your games installed all the time :D

The nice thing about building PCs is you don't need all the amazing parts all at once.

Awesome suggestions. My only critique, since he should get a monitor too, is to:

halve the space of the SSD and save a few bucks there

get some cheaper memory for about 50 bucks

That should net him about 100 dollars, plus he won't get the cooler which will save him 30 dollars so that's 130. Plus he was under budget but about 40 so that's 170. That's pretty close to within range of a good 1080p monitor.

If we are really pinching pennies (and this is assuming he has a PC already) you can reuse the old case and fans he might have. Maybe even the power supply if its 550W+ (yes, 550W is enough).

*Oh yeah, he might need a copy of Windows :(

I5's should be perfectly fine for what your friend wants to do, and right now they are at a great price point. I guess with 1200 you could definitely do an I7. But I5's are great and are able to push anything on the market right now.... if he's doing some heavy video and sound editing as well, i'd say go with the I7. But just gaming... no reason to really. newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117728

As recommended by someone else, 120gig SSD for your OS and system related programs. Toss in a couple 1tb HDs or a 2tb as a secondary drive and ur fine. For the SSD they are very cheap right now, 20-40 bucks for a 120, but i'd actually recommend spending the extra 30-40 bucks and getting an M.2. newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156153&cm_re=M.2-_-20-156-153-_-Product

PSU youll want 5-600. You might be able to find a 600 or 650 thats like ten bucks more than a 500, get it. If not, 500 should be good enough for what you're tossing in and any future add ons (unless its another gpu).

Id get an external dvd writer just to have. If he's like me, he will end up using it once in a blue moon, but that will be about it. I see no point in having them in my PCs anymore.

Cases are...... a bit tricky at times. I personally dislike small form cases, i love the big'uns as they tend to allow for more customization and you definitely have more options when it comes to cooling.

Ram.. I would personally stay away from DDR4 until it drops in price. I;d also shop around for RAM as youre always going to find someone who has it on sale for super cheap. I caught a sale at best buy of all places, and got 32 gigs of hyperX savage for a little over 100 bucks.

The GPU.... so, some people choose to go this route, some don't. I personally dont mind. But i suggest asking some computer builders about the best places in the area to buy used parts. Find out which one's are trustworthy and see if they have a high end GPU for mid range or less cost. I just got a used 980 for 160 bucks by doing this but it was through a dealer that ive gone to for years and trust. As long as the GPU was not used for bit-coin mining and is only a year or two old, you should be good..

Windows you can get OEM copies for 20 bucks.

Newegg actually has some solid barebone systems (case+mobo+cpu+ram+psu+1tbhd) to work with. Id go with something in the 6-700 dollar range, leaving myself 500 for the SSD and gpu.

newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2850872

Id toss that GPU to the side and get a different one (actually a 750 is not a bad card but not up to date as im assuming your friend would want. The 980 i got replaced a 750), but you get the idea. There's plenty of BB or DIY options out there and youll save like 1-200 bucks if it was a prebuilt system. So a 600 dollar BB system would be an 800 dollar prebuild.

@employee427:He doesn't overclock and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know what an SSD is lol

But like @mrbojangles25 said, getting a 120 GB SSD seems like the best choice.

I have him covered on the OS.

@kod: Yeah, the i5 will do for him; he does not do any of those things aside from gaming.

If he doesn't overclock why are you getting an overclocking rig? Dump the expensive shit and get a nice monitor

@employee427: meh, 60% of the motherboards out there are "overclocking" rigs now. I think you are more likely to buy an overclocking rig on accident these days than not :P

but you raise a good point!

@fend_oblivion: your friend, will this be their first gaming PC? New to PC gaming? If he or she has no basis or concept of what PC gaming is, you can probably go cheap on a lot of stuff. I'd even argue an Intel CPU and an Nvidia GPU would be overkill; you can definitely do a sweet budget build with not-as-good-but-still-good-enough AMD parts, play all current games (near max @ 1080p) and not go all in with the money.

AMD CPU is $150 vs Intel at $240

AMD mobo's are $60 vs Intel sockets at $100

AMD video card is around $250 vs Nvidia at $380

Again, this is all based on whether your friend wants to spend the whole amount, and is an avid PC gamer....or is new to PC gaming, and wants to ease into it. If the former, maybe go with an Intel/Nvidia build that was suggested earlier. If the latter, maybe check out some AMD parts.

Just a thought :D

....you say a stock cooler is good enough on a K processor, and now you're telling him Nvidia is a straght up grade to AMD? Stop giving him bad information dude. Those prices are complete nonsense. @fend_oblivion don't listen to this guy seriously

What a load of crap.

You can get a i5 for 170$. That will annihilate the AMD cpu.

50$ intel motherboard exists as well

And you act like all Nvidia cards are 380$. GTX 1060 are RX480 are about the same price point and performance

@mrbojangles25: He's new to PC gaming. He made it clear that he wants a powerful rig. I'm thinking he can get a good 1080p monitor after a couple of months.

@employee427: Yeah, you're right. Maybe have him get the i5 7600 or 7500 instead of the 7600K and save a bit of money?

i5 6500

@employee427: easy there, big guy. I was only suggesting this based off the build recommended by you (those prices were provided by you). I wasn't saying he had to do anything, or anything was better than whatever. I am only saying there are options.

I was just entertaining the thought that, if he is not an avid hardcore PC gamer, maybe he doesn't need a serious Intel/Nvidia build. That's all. And yes, I know there are inexpensive Intel/Nvidia options but if you're going to cut costs, you might as well cut it a lot if you want to.

Calm down.

@fend_oblivion said:

@mrbojangles25: "Nvidia" doesn't suddenly make a build better

@fend_oblivion: Moved to Hardware forum

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/n9sMyf a little build of mine.

@mrbojangles25: "you can skip aftermarket CPU coolers, the stock ones that come with the CPU are fine these days (they weren't always)." - that is not true, unless you want your CPU to be at 70-90C while gaming which is not healthy - I would get simple yet effective CPU cooler like the EVO212 for 20-30$ and having my CPU at 50-60C while gaming.

At current gen it does - I wouldn't buy any GPU or CPU from AMD - I'm not a fanboy but AMD got to drop prices really low for me to pick AMD over Intel or Nvidia for my builds.

It doesn't. You'd be dead wrong to choose Nvidia. The only Nvidia cards worth buying are the enthusiast cards, everything below $300 is AMD dominated. And Vega might rock the market even more.

And you do NOT need an aftermarket cooler. It's a nice bonus, and that's all, those temps are ridiculously overstating.

I wouldn't leave my 250-350$ CPU for a 10$ CPU cooler, CPU is the second most expensive thing in your rig - treat it well.

If you don't believe me you can check out the reviews here http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/cm_hyper212_evo/4.htm and here http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/cooler-master-hyper-212-evo-cpu-cooler-review/6/

Also not true about the GPU part - I'd rather have GTX1050 and 1050Ti than RX460, the only worthy GPU from AMD as I compare prices etc is the RX470 which in terms of performance and price is in the sweet spot between the GTX1050Ti and the GTX1060 3Gb edition - good for tight budget 500-600$, anyone having a 600$ budget and above is straight going with Nvidia

What $250 CPU? It's less than $200...

You'd be crazy to buy a 1060 at this point, especially for a 3gb edition. 480 dominates the market. And that's because Nvidia shoots their prices sky-high because of their domination of the market.

@employee427: GTX1060 3Gb cost as much as RX480 right now, it has the same performance in games but RX480 was well known for their manufacture problem back at launch - I wouldn't even risk my hard earned cash for driver fix instead of proper redesigning the card.

Regardless all of those I'd get Nvidia simply due to cooler cards and more efficient power draw.

Nvidia got the right to take more money simply because their better ATM - I haven't almost seen anyone recommends AMD GPU for some time unless there's some sweet deal or really tight budget.

i5 7600K cost 240$ minimum and i7 7700K cost 350$, I wasn't talking about AMD CPUs.

@PredatorRules: Why would you get an i5 7000 series? It makes no sense.

The 480 is currently superior over the 1060 100% in performance, and will dramatically improve as time goes on. There's no reason to buy a 1060. Go look at all the hardware forums, I guarantee they will say the same.

Really? RX480 runs better? strange...

Why won't you buy new tech (7000 series)? buying old tech will get sooner out of stocks and unsupported by drivers etc, even if there's only 2% boost in gaming and 6% in apps, there's also 7% faster encoding.

Here's my build with i5-7600K, Z270 mobo, 16GB DDR4 @ 3000mhz, GTX 1070 and a pretty good 1080p monitor 1ms. All under $1200 - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WpFMyf