Custom PC Build (Techies..GIH!)

[TGokou]

If your looking for cases sub $100 I'd look at the Haf 912 ($50) or Corsair Carbide 400r ($80 currently on sale) depending on preferences. Amazing reviews and excellent cooling and cable management on both. I too am looking on upgrading but I'll probably wait till black friday sales cause I was looking up certain parts and realized that those same parts were like $50 cheaper only a few months ago. Now I can't justify spending the money knowing I could've got it for less .

[Jai604]

Yes, do yourself a favour and get an SSD. You won't regret it.

[TheFastOne21]

SSD are the way to go, i agree with the others.

Check the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I case. It is huge and I have it and have been pleased with it.

[NightHawkSniper]

I've been reading the AMD vs Intel debates online and just reading reviews and it seems AMD is definitely more budget friendly than intel and gets the job done, is it really THAT big of a difference between AMD and Intel?

I have been looking at this CPU, looks cheap and it's a faster processor than what I have now (I think)

http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16819103727

[sedated]

Might want to look at buying two older video cards and SLI'ing or crossfiring them. Might be cheaper and offer somewhat the same performance as a current modern one. Pretty hard to get a good upgrade with only 1k. The high end mid range cards like the 680GT and 7970 are like 300-500. The processors or more or less the same.

Google Tom's hardware video card and processor hiearchy charts and go from there I guess. Once you know the processor and GPU, you can figure out compatible motherboards and figure out how much ram you want. An SSD is.. sort of worth it. It's not like magical or anything. It makes windows boot up like way faster, but aside from loading programs, it doesn't really do anything else for gaming or anything for the most part. I got an SSD for my operating system and then a big old normal one for storage and whatever.

Best bang for bucks would probably be a really good case, as odd as that sounds. Get a big one that you can keep and upgrade in, that has a lot of space and good airflow. It'll potentially save you from having to worry about any kind of after market cooling stuff. I guess best bang for buck video cards would be to buy two cheaper/older ones that you can do their multi-GPU feature thing. Processors and motherboards are a pain in the ass. Future proof would be 2011 series motherboards, I think. I spent 2500 on my latest upgrade, but I future proofed it to death. I made sure I won't be needing a new one for years, for whatever I would need to use it for. All I'd need to do is buy individual upgrades as I needed them. You can probably do a lot cheaper as long as you aren't hoping for maximum quality. You can kind of cheat and get a lower resolution monitor or something I guess. (I honestly don't see much of a difference between 720 and 1080p. I mean, there is a change but.. it's nothing like standard to 720p.)

Check out the Tom's Hardware heiarchy charts for sure. If you want the amazing quality in games and movies and programs and all that, save up and future proof so you don't need a whole new system in a year or two. Huge waste of money. Only kicker is it's usually cheaper to wait until new things are coming out so the current mid/high end stuff goes cheaper.

[Jai604]

Oh, and if you can afford it, get a 120hz monitor (since you'll be playing CS:GO). Makes a WORLD of difference for games like counterstrike and other precision shooters.