Hello!

Long time reader of the site, subscriber, but first time poster! I can't think of a group of people I would trust more with this question.

Very excited to build my first rig. People talk about the feeling of accomplishment and I can't wait for that!

I'm looking to spend between $600-$700 US dollars to start, but I want to make sure the build I have is expandable and rather modular. So, If I want to upgrade my HDD, RAM or video card I can. I'm not interested in an optical drive right now because I will be downloading everything. (again would like a slot and option for it in case I want to do Blu Ray) I would also sacrifice and SSD (for now) for a better CPU or Video Card.

I don't need any accessories as I have a keyboard, mouse, headset and monitor.

I would like the form factor to be as close to an "in the entertainment center look" as possible, but I don't know anything about power supplies, cases and I have no idea what over-clocking means, so please be gentle!

The rig will be used exclusively for gaming. I'm not worried about being bleeding edge but I do want to be able to run modern games (like Divinity) well, play smaller indie games, and also be able to stream out to Twitch with ease. I also often capture video from my consoles through my El Gato and I want to make sure thats smooth as well.

Any advice you can give me would be amazing and any parts lists would be even better!

If you want to be able to stream games while playing them you need to have a much beefier build.

How much beefier? What I eliminate the Twitch aspect?

So when you say that you want an "entertainment center look," are you talking about aesthetics - as in you don't want a PC that has a dozen LEDs flashing every second? Or do you want a PC that is small and fits right beside your receiver and blu-ray player?

Here's a build I found looking around that's $850 and should suit your needs, though you will also need a copy of Windows if you don't have that. It won't be great for streaming if you absolutely need that. You might want to get the optical drive just to install Windows.

Asking for a PC that will run new games well for $700 is pretty unreasonable unless you buy the parts only when they are on sale.

EDIT: Made a few adjustments: removed overclocking capability and put in a better motherboard.

EDIT 2: Balanced the build out, the case didn't have a price attached so swapped the case and made the necessary adjustments to keep the same price.

@andorski: If it can be smaller, and sleeker I would like that, but its really more about all the LED's and distractions as it will be near my TV.

Hey everyone still looking for more ideas! Keep them coming!

Here's my $700-800 build, you could downgrade the motherboard a bit & upgrade the gpu to a 760 but with windows being linked to the motherboard these days it's better to get a decent one.

I'm a fan of Hardware Revolution. There's good help and guides available for your first build, along with that "modular" type of parts list you're looking for. Hope it helps! :)

Thank you guys so much. I'm going to take a look at all of these. Can I ask is it just personal preference about using Intel vs. AMD? How about AMD vs. Nividia for graphics?

These may sound stupid but I just don't know!

Thank you!

@fanboyremix: As far as Intel vs AMD cpu's any ivy bridge or haswell i5 or i7 is going to outperform amd's best chip for gaming. Most amd chips are only on par with an i3. At least this was the case last I checked.

Here is the deal: Small, good, cheap....pick two.

For $700 you could build a nice PC that does what you want, but it won't be shaped like a cable box. If you want a tiny little cable box thing that plays games well and can stream those games out that will cost you double your budget.

"Captain! I can't change the law of physics!"

@fanboyremix: Personal preference & experience for me, I've been with Intel & Nvidia since the 90s & haven't had any issues. Friends have switched between both & have seemed to end up back with them lately.

pcpartspicker

logicalincrements

I modified it further. Put in a cheaper, though comparable case. Same one that I have and the dust screens work fantastically.

Same thing with the motherboard. Found a CPU cooler that offers a $9 discount when paired with that RAM. Though, do you have any parts from an old PC that you can transplant over? Old RAM? A Harddrive? Case fans? If you already have 8 gigs of RAM then, you're good there and I wouldn't waste the $80

@monkeyking1969: Good to know thank you! More power for the price is the thing I want more. Can anyone recommend some Intel/NVIDIA builds as well?

Me and @budwyzer both already made you a Intel Nvidia build.

Mine: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/CorruptedEvil/saved/jvddnQ

budwyzer's: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9Nfxxr

I also did a build for you though its an AMD/Nvidia build and though not the most powerful cpu out there its more then enough for gaming and streaming with 6 cores its probably an i5 equivalent but some would argue that and most people wont like it haha but its more then capable of what you were asking in the original OP my friend runs the exact same setup and able to chew through games no problem even on BF3/BF4 and the like. You can add an after-market CPU cooler if you wish it would only cost you an extra 30$ but its not really essential for AMD builds as it is for Intel in my experience. Can always downgrade the motherboard too if its a little high just make sure its an AM3+ motherboard. All free shipping and all from the same place, which can save you a lot on the shipping if you buy all from one place.

Because its an AMD build able to go slightly better on the powersupply and harddrive as well, don't like those WD blue drives, those are built for storage only really, not with an operating system and used as a main drive, same with green drives as well but each to their own just my preference and was able to load in an Antec NineHundred case as well which is better then what some people have loaded as the case, you don't wanna be struggling to fix a card like a GTX 760 into a tiny case, it can be a real struggle so need to keep that in mind as well as smaller cases have terrible air flow.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vFfRwP

Below is $300 above you budget, but it would fit in a 10" x 9" x 15" ITX case.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MonkeyKing1969/saved/zXNgXL

The problem today is that a lot of engineering has gone into discreet GPU tech, that is to say video cards that go into slots that are 6 inch height. There are advances in integrated graphics that either sit on the cpu-die itself or as a few chips on the mobo, but that tech tends to be years behind discreet cards. I think the most powerful integrated CPU/GPU is the ADM Kaveri. An small entertainment center PC that looks like a slim dvd player would have something like that or a Core i3 with Intel HD Graphics 4600. (Intel also has Iris which is better, but is not integrated on teh CPU and is sort fo specialized)

The problem with Kavari or the best Intel integrated graphics, is it has the power to only do 1080p at 30fps at medium game setting. In simple terms, that is very low-end for gaming; because a $90 video card could do that.

I have never put together a small multimedia PC, but below is sort of what I would do as a first attempt.

This uses a AMD A10-7850K Kaveri 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) and the heat-sink that comes with it. No optical drive like you said, not even a slot on the case to put it so that the case would be small. The case itself is a HTPV design, otherwise known as a home theater case. I tossed in some decent memory, a few drives, and the gold 80+ psu that would fit. You can overclock this rig too, but I'm not familiar with how that goes with AMD chips, or how far the chip can go. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MonkeyKing1969/saved/3VgFf7

Someone with experience could probably do better, but that link is not to shabby...but for 1/2 teh price you could make a mATX build that would be twice or three times as powerful.