So last week i posted a Blog stating the horrors of PC gaming, comparability issues, decade old machines and yada yada yada. However the PC itch is back and with a VENGEANCE! i cant deny it. im a gamer and game is what i do best. I love all gaming Platforms and i have been out of the PC loop for far too long. But i need you Giant Bomb community i NEED YOU! A lot has changed since the last time i built a PC. oh sure the physical act of assembling the parts into a case is still pretty much the same, but the parts them selfs have gone god damn fucking nuts. long story short i dont know what im looking for anymore, and thats where you come in. I want to over the next few months begin to assemble the parts (and funds) i need to build a new rig. The end game im shooting for? i want Crysis and battlefield 3 to run at MAX CRAZY EXTREME settings. I know we're not quite sure what the specs will be yet for BF3, but im pretty sure if we aim for Crysis 1 & 2 we'll come pretty close to what we need. I should note that this PC will only be used for gaming, nothing else and nothing more. im not quite sure what i good budget would be for this kind of thing so we'll just use around 1,500. if you think you can help me make a kick ass rig for less, GREAT! but im counting on you GB to help out a fellow user, to get him back on the path of 21.1 gigawatt jive.  
 
Also if you feel just buying a pre-built machine is the better way to go i am always open to suggestions.  
 
Thank you 
 
Jackel2072 
 

go watch that thing on tested where they build jeff a new PC :P

i already did. and its not that i dont trust Will and Norm. i just want other peoples opinions. and PC gamers love to argue about whats best inside there machine. 

I find the Tech Report's system guides a great place to start for looking at builds:  http://techreport.com/system/
 
They should have a new one coming out soon, to boot.

Geno has a sticky thread in the PC sub-forum which goes crazy in-depth and will provide the necessarily details. I'm far from an expert but you probably want an i5 or i7 quad-core of the 3 ghz variety, 8-12 gb of G.skill ram, and one of the GTX 500 series or Radeon HD 5000s-6000s. Have you looked at the GTX 590? That shit's crazy, 2 gpus in one card so SLI would be 4. Do it!

Geno has a sticky thread in the PC sub-forum which goes crazy in-depth and will provide the necessarily details. I'm far from an expert but you probably want an i5 or i7 quad-core of the 3 ghz variety, 8-12 gb of G.skill ram, and one of the GTX 500 series or Radeon HD 5000s-6000s. Have you looked at the GTX 590? That shit's crazy, 2 gpus in one card so SLI would be 4. Do it!

I find the Tech Report's system guides a great place to start for looking at builds:  http://techreport.com/system/
 
They should have a new one coming out soon, to boot.

8-12 gb of G.skill ram,

If your going to go hog wild with an ATI card. Go with something from the 6000 series. Better power consumption. 12 gigs of ram is a waste of cash. 8 is still pretty much but if you can find it and you really want to spend money for 8 get 8. Also keep in mind that none of that will be useful unless you have a 64bit OS. 32 bit doesn't utilize everything, unlike 64bit. 32 you cap out at 4G. 
 
 
As for a case make sure it something where the power supply is at the bottom. A lot of those ones are designed for better air flow.

4GB of ram 
GTX 560 Ti, MSI I've found to be the best for the money. 
i5, i7 is overkill, or Amd phenom II X4 965  
 650 watt PSU, Antec, Corsair do good PSUs. Except the Corsair builder series.  
Case is pretty subjective, I've got a HAF 912 that is excellent. 
Motherboard depends on what processor you want. ASUS boards are good though. If you're going for a sandy bridge processor make sure the Mobo is the B3 revision, it's near impossible for it not to be after the recall, just double check.  
1TB hard drive, maybe a smaller SSD to be a boot drive. Newer SSD's are popping up though so it might be worth saving off. 
Any SATA disc drive will do. 

i7 2600K, 6970, 8gb DDR3, 850W PSU, 1tb WD black. 
 
I wouldn't go for the build they did on tested, i think they cheaped out on the cpu, and spent way more on other things, such as a modular psu, and expensive mid tower.

" @Th3_James: An i7 is so under utilized in gaming. It's not worth the extra at all.  "

" @Th3_James: Are you..What..an i7 "sounds better" seriously...what? Games will most likely never use what the i7 gives you. Hyper threading is used for heavy video and photo work. In games it's not worth it. Games are barely utilizing quad cores, let alone hyper threading.  "

" i7 2600K, 6970, 8gb DDR3, 850W PSU, 1tb WD black.  I wouldn't go for the build they did on tested, i think they cheaped out on the cpu, and spent way more on other things, such as a modular psu, and expensive mid tower. "

hmm i like overkill. better to have too much then not enough. but il look into a i7 and i5 
 
not a bad price either i7

The Nvidia 560 TI with a 2500 I5 can run Crysis 2 on extreme.

" @Jackel2072: That's not a sandy bridge. That's an older CPU. An i5 sandy bridge will out perform that handily and is cheaper.  
 
i5 "

" The Nvidia 560 TI with a 2500 I5 can run Crysis 2 on extreme. "

" @Jackel2072:  That's a great card. "

" @ZoomyRamen said:

" @Jackel2072:  That's a great card. "

good to know. ok a picture is forming. so i do want an i7. i want over kill i want more power. so how is this guy?  Also lets talk Motherboards!  "

" @l4wd0g said:

" The Nvidia 560 TI with a 2500 I5 can run Crysis 2 on extreme. "

how is this? "

" @Jackel2072:@Jackel2072 said:

" @l4wd0g said:

" The Nvidia 560 TI with a 2500 I5 can run Crysis 2 on extreme. "

how is this? "

I have no idea. At the review event for Crysis 2 they had reviewers playing "budget PCs"  with the Nvida 560 TI.  I think MSi is a good company, but I haven't upgraded a video card in years. My next one will be a 570 when the new cards come out and the prices drop. "

also i just want to again thank everyone who has commented its a big help boys and girls. man i cant wait to play Crysis 1 & warhead. as a person who really loved farcry (until the fucking monsters showed up) im really looking forward to the zero hand holding we juts kinda dropped you in this island now have fun approach =) 

I'm lazy, so I usually end up starting here when I'm building someone a PC:   http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png 
 
Pick the setup that makes sense for your budget and figure out what components you want to upgrade, most likely the GPU.  Crossfire and SLI are still a little bit too finicky for me, but you can certainly go that route if you want.  I would go with a 6970 with that budget but it's up to you, you'll get good performance from either brand if you're willing to throw down the cash.  Or you can toss half of your budget into this monster =P:   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150529  
 
Remember that you can always overclock, even on a stock cooler.  There's no reason to go for the top of the line processor when you can spend about 30 seconds and bump a lower tier up to the same performance.

" I'm lazy, so I usually end up starting here when I'm building someone a PC:   http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png 
 
Pick the setup that makes sense for your budget and figure out what components you want to upgrade, most likely the GPU.  Crossfire and SLI are still a little bit too finicky for me, but you can certainly go that route if you want.  I would go with a 6970 with that budget but it's up to you, you'll get good performance from either brand if you're willing to throw down the cash.  Or you can toss half of your budget into this monster =P:   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150529   Remember that you can always overclock, even on a stock cooler.  There's no reason to go for the top of the line processor when you can spend about 30 seconds and bump a lower tier up to the same performance. "

What I posted in another person's thread, only the other day.
 
Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium Grey ATX Mid Tower Silent PC Computer Case 
Item #: N82E16811352004
$109.99

Rosewill Xtreme Series RX850-S-B 850W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire ... 
Item #: N82E16817182072
$99.99

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K 
Item #: N82E16819115072
$224.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 
Item #: N82E16822136533
$89.99 
 
SPARKLE SXX5801536D5NM GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Kingston HyperX 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX
-$15.00 Instant
-$45.00 Combo
$25.00 Mail-in Rebate14-187-125   
$694.98

Kingston DataTraveler 102 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Green) Model DT102/4GBZ 
Item #: N82E16820139250
-$8.99 Saving

Subtotal:   $1,344.93 
3 day shipping:   $0.00
Grand Total:    $1,344.93

This thread is full of overkill.
Case: Antec 100
PSU: XFX Pro 750w
M/B: Asus P8P67-M Pro 
CPU: i5-2500k (2600k is pointless for gaming)
GPU: GTX 480
RAM: Corsair XMS3 (4GB)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB
Optical: Whatever

Will run any game without breaking a sweat.

You want overkill, get overkill. That i7 2600k sounds great and that videocard. I mean that's a good price for what you get, my i7 actually cost a bit more when I bought it. Don't let anyone tell you to only get the i5, if you have the money, you go get something that will future proof you. I did, I disregarded someone's advice that I should only get the i5 before and I couldn't be happier. Get a gtx 570 instead. You want overkill, you got overkill, maybe sli it, if you have a high wattage psu.