Surprise from my fianc

GrubbsGrady

So my fiancé surprised me yesterday by letting me know she has a bonus coming mid to late January. She wants to use part of it to build us both a new gaming rig. The maximum we would like to spend on both, before rebates, is $2500.

i know it's too soon to ask build suggestions, but in my excitement I wanted to just get some ideas. We play MMOs and Smite/Dota with the occasional shooter that looks pretty. We don't game at resolutions over 1080, and we aren't really into overclocking. 

With that being said what cpu/gpus would we likely be considering in our budget? Again, I know it's too early to get an accurate build price right now but am just trying to get some ideas for what you think would fit our needs and budget.

 

I appreciate suggestions and hearing about your experiences, thanks.

iftachby

I dont know what your current rig is, but I can recommend the new GTX970 as an excellent card for a decent price (it's about $350~ I think) , that should free your budget for sweet options regarding other parts 

Cramit845

    I am also in the midst of purchasing parts for a new rig.  Although I don't have the budget you do, from what I have gotten from the thread I created I would say go with an i7 minimum.  GPU wise I am still figuring out for myself, but I would suggest taking a look at the thread:

Intel VS AMD, CPU, GPU suggestions

 

   Some folks here put some great info in there for me, I'm sure it will help you with some part suggestions.

Quizzical

On that budget, you're probably looking at a Core i5-4690 (or -4690K if the price gap is small enough), a Radeon R9 290X, a 240 GB SSD, and various other nice parts around it.  Or possibly a GeForce GTX 970 if prices shift a bit; it's surely cheaper to build than the R9 290X, so it wouldn't be surprising at all if it's cheaper than the 290X in a month.  A GTX 980 is a nice card, but it doesn't really fit the budget, as you'd have to cut back too much elsewhere to make room for it.  And I'm not expecting any new cards in the ~$300 price range to launch in the next month.

syntax42

Overclocking isn't something to be afraid of.  You get extra performance in exchange for your CPU using slightly more power.  Achieving a 10%-25% overclock is usually possible without any tweaking, depending on the model of CPU.  It might decrease the life of the CPU, but that might be a year off its 15+ year life.  By that time, you would likely be replacing the system twice, if not more.

Even if you don't overclock, get an aftermarket CPU cooler.  AMD's FX-8350 shipped with an extremely loud fan and I don't know if they changed it for their next processor line.  Intel is notorious for having barely-adequate heatsinks for gaming and should not be trusted.

GrubbsGrady

Thanks for the tip Syntax, I appreciate it. Maybe this time around I'll think about overclocking, I've never really had a reason to in the past I guess. I think my last two builds I used an aftermarket cooler, I never realized how loud the stock fans were before that and I don't know how I could ever go back to it, it could just be how things were then but yes, thanks for the tips I love suggestions!

Ridelynn

A lot could happen in a month's time with regard to what's available. I'd check back in then.

That's good news though.