Looking for a new computer

[SXScarecrow]

Hey guys, I want to borrow your brains for a minute. I'm looking for a new desktop computer that can handle gaming and recording reasonably well, and I want to try to keep the price below £950 (for you US folks, thats 1604.17 USD). This could hopefully include the computer, plus a monitor and a keyboard if possible. Any thoughts?

Edited May 1, 2014 by SXScarecrow

[TheBytemaster]

Hey guys, I want to borrow your brains for a minute. I'm looking for a new desktop computer that can handle gaming and recording reasonably well, and I want to try to keep the price below £950 (for you US folks, thats 1604.17 USD). This could hopefully include the computer, plus a monitor and a keyboard if possible. Any thoughts?

If you were looking at a big 'ol SSD, I can tell you right now that hybrid drives, (HDD with an SSD cache), are a really great and much cheaper alternative that gets you pretty great speeds. I have a 7200RPM 750GB hybrid drive and I don't really have any I/0 problems. Got a laptop-sized one for like 80 USD on amazon, I believe.

[Lethosos]

For GFX cards, I would recommend looking for a "power" listing (basically, best to worst in terms of how much vertices and textels it can push) and pick a middle ground. (PC Gamer might have one for 2014 around, I used one for 2012 or earlier and picked out a 650 Ti priced at $200 USD. (ZOTEC if you're wondering.)

 

An ASUS Rock is one I use in this box right now, so I recommend that line as well. Corsair also make great DDR3 sticks at decent prices. All in all, not counting the monitor, box, and DVD-R drive, I think I spent $900 USD on an overhaul when my board shorted out and took half the box with it. The only thing that's noisy on the box is the HDD drive that I had to get to replace my failing main drive--don't get Western Digital these days.

[TheBytemaster]

For GFX cards, I would recommend looking for a "power" listing (basically, best to worst in terms of how much vertices and textels it can push) and pick a middle ground. (PC Gamer might have one for 2014 around, I used one for 2012 or earlier and picked out a 650 Ti priced at $200 USD. (ZOTEC if you're wondering.)

 

An ASUS Rock is one I use in this box right now, so I recommend that line as well. Corsair also make great DDR3 sticks at decent prices. All in all, not counting the monitor, box, and DVD-R drive, I think I spent $900 USD on an overhaul when my board shorted out and took half the box with it. The only thing that's noisy on the box is the HDD drive that I had to get to replace my failing main drive--don't get Western Digital these days.

 

Man, it's amazing how cheap DDR3 has gotten over time. I bet you could find 2 name-brand 8gb sticks for ~150 USD.

[Lethosos]

*looks at his with 8Gb Corsiars brought at 100 or so dollars two years ago*

[disconsented]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Qy1F
That leaves you with $300 for OS and Peripherals

[Lethosos]

Mine was all sourced from newegg.com, but you need to be a bit part-savvy to zero on what you're looking for. I would start with the processor first, and build out from there.