$1,000 Gaming Rig

smashedpumpkins

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It's been a few years and as always I'm out of the loop on the next best equipment. This time however, I'm looking for a rig for my brother-in-law. I don't believe he wants to build his computer from scratch but I can help him if need be. He's looking for a PC at a budget of roughly $1,000 and would like it to last for about 5 years. I'm sure it'll be difficult to play some of the games a few years from now but he would like to be able to game throughout that time at decently high settings.

I've been reading up, searching for deals and exploring options. Here's what I've come up with.

Buy this Dell XPS 8700 for $700 which seems to be a pretty decent deal with Costco backing.
Dell XPS 8700 Desktop | Intel Core i7 | 1GB Graphics

I found a post from just a few months ago where someone threw in a GTX 760 and a Corsair 600W PSU.
Turn your XPS 8700 into a solid mid-range gaming rig. - Desktop General Hardware Forum - Desktop - Dell Community

What would be a decent GPU and PSU for this type of setup? Based on pricing it looks like the 760 would be the way to go. Is it a waste of the 645 or more expensive to go this route? If you believe it's better to build it from scratch; I'm all ears though he does need an OS. I'm sure he can transfer his DVD drive but the setup is 5 years or so old. Thanks!

EDIT: No overclocking or anything more advanced than regular gaming and browsing.
 
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What all does he have NOW? If he isn't going to be doing anything more advanced than gaming and browsing then he doesn't need an i7. The case size also makes it a bit difficult to upgrade later on too. A good PSU and case can last well over 5 years if bought properly so with these things being said I suggest just ditch the prebuilt idea.

As a suggestive list:

CPU:
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54670K

Motherboard:
Newegg.com - ASRock Z87 Extreme3 LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

RAM:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL - Newegg.com

GPU:
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R928XOC-3GD REV2 Radeon R9 280X 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

PSU:
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive - Newegg.com

Case:
Corsair Carbide Series 200R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com

OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Newegg.com

$1004

If his drives (optical and HDD) are up to par he could ditch the 1TB to save some cash. If his case is also up to par the 1TB and case ditched could get him an SSD or an R9 290.
 
Cool, much appreciated! I'll get in touch with the b-i-l to learn his current specs and what he's willing to do..
 
So I couldn't get him to budge on building the entire system himself. Today I ran across another Dell XPS 8700 and pulled the trigger. It's a bit cheaper than the Costco deal I posted earlier with 4 GB less ram. The total was about $621 after taxes. Someone posted a 25% off Dell coupon today and I jumped on it quickly.

Next up, we'll either purchase a GTX 760 and use the stock PSU or purchase a GTX 770 and buy a new PSU as well. The 280x you mentioned went OOS. What do you think about this EVGA card? Is there a better one? I noticed some higher clocked cards for $50+ more but they seem pricey for the small gain. Thanks again for the help.

EDIT: I mentioned two different PSU and GPU's below. They're cheaper. Thanks.

GPU:
Newegg.com - EVGA GeForce GTX 770 DUAL SuperClocked 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support w/ EVGA ACX Cooler Video Card 02G-P4-2776-KR

PSU: (Same you picked out)
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com


Item Description:
-- Dell Outlet XPS 8700 Windows 8 64 Bit
-- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 645 1.0GB GDDR5
-- 12 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
-- Certified Refurbished
-- Processor: Intel Core 4th Generation i7-4770 Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.9 GHz)
-- 460 Watt Power supply Black
-- Dell Wireless 1703 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0
-- 16X DVD +/- RW Drive
-- 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive
-- Dell USB 6-Button Laser Mouse
-- English Keyboard
-- Save 25% on any Dell Outlet XPS 8700 Desktop with this coupon!
- $197.25
-- XPS 8700 : *1 Year Enhanced Support (Premium Phone Support + In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis)(included in Price)
Subtotal: $591.75
Sales Tax: $29.59
Total Amount: $621.34
 
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Yea, not building a much better machine for the actual budget is extremely retarded IMO plus I'm not sure how well that case will actually handle the heat that will be generated with the extra parts.

Don't buy the CX, get this instead for the same money.
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com
Thanks, pulled the trigger on the SeaSonic and PNY.

While you're right that building your own PC from parts is usually the way to go, and it's what I've always done, I'm not too disappointed with this deal. I'll have to see the machine in person next time I visit him, but the mobo is a rebranded Z87 and pricing out similar specs individually would have costed more. The one downside is It's not as upgradable later but my b-i-l probably won't anyways.

Total price, including taxes and shipping, ended up being about $949 after rebates. Oh and I used the promo code "MASTERPASS" on Newegg to get 10% off the PSU and GPU.
 
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