Getting a big tax refund? Time to build a gaming PC!
Building a Gaming PC can sometimes be a very tedious task when thinking about budget concerns or future proofing. Recently a couple friends asked me about building them a gaming PC which lead me to decide about making this months Build a Gaming PC our Tax Refund Edition. The goal is each build way not to stay in certain budget but a class and try to save a few bucks along the way.
As you will see below we divided it up into four different classes. The first being our budget build, mid range, high end, and our dream gaming PC. We went with as if you are building from scratch so always keep in mind that parts can be interchanged and you can reuse parts also from other builds. Also this is only for the PC itself and doesn’t include any of the peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, or monitor but you can check out our buyers guides for some good information on what may suit your needs. As with any parts being recommended is I like to typically use Amazon to keep everything bought from one place. Depending on how much you want to hunt around or find a bargain then you may end up buying from multiple but with Prime it is hard to beat Amazon if you aren’t using Newegg’s new service.
We included Windows 8.1 with all builds. This is not necessarily be needed if you have a version of Windows 7 that you can use. We also went CPU heavy on all the builds since it’s the brains of the operation. Having gone CPU heavy even on the low end builds I think it will keep you up to date long.
All prices were check on 2/17 and are subject to change.
Click a case to view the specs:
Build a gaming PC: budget
With budget builds its hard to figure out where you want to allocate the bulk of your money too. As I stated earlier we decided to go CPU heavy to keep everything running smoothly and give four cores. Having a Cooler Master HAF 912 case will give you enough air flow that combined with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 nothing should be overheating anytime soon. The benefits of having a SSD, even a small one, make it worth it to spend the extra money to keep programs running fast and a 1 TB HDD is enough space to load up all your games. The R7 260X GPU is an entry level graphics card but will let you play your games at lower settings with the ability to upgrade later on.
With that being said, here are the parts to build a budget gaming PC
Parts for a mid range gaming PC
A mid range PC is usually built for performance while keeping budget in mind. A good mid range gaming PC should be able to play games like a champ, but not at full specs. A good mid ranged gaming PC is also a good multi-task capable rig. With the components ModCrash has chosen, this months mid range gaming rig will be ready for BF4 or Titanfall when it releases.
Here are the parts we chose for a mid range gaming PC
Parts for a high end gaming PC
When putting together to build a high end gaming PC, I did not choose to build a zero point rig . I chose to get the best components while keeping price still very reasonable. With our chosen components, you will have a top performing gaming PC able to play anything at Ultra settings. Also, a gaming PC easy to upgrade when needed.
Here are the ModCrash recommended parts for a high end gaming PC
Parts for a Dream Gaming PC
Fragging and bragging rights are your main objective. With our Dream PC, you will have a zero point rig with maximum performance and minimal lagg. While this is based loosely on “money is no object” I tried to stay reasonable to performance and price. While a i7-4960X processor would certainly out perform the i7-4770k the money for it seems way to much. This PC can be upgraded further but at around 4k it should play any game at any setting.
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